A Cup of Tea

Being sick is no fun. Being even a little sick is no fun. I’m living with a scratchy and sore throat this week which means I want comfort, and you won’t be surprised to read that I find comfort in a mug of hot tea. Yesterday at work, I found comfort in my Young Clergy Women Project mug with Winter Spice tea. The delicious smell, the cozy taste, and the warmth soothing my throat made my day a little better. So, while I enjoy trying a new cup of tea, sometimes nothing hits the spot like an old favorite.

The tea I received for Christmas from Thistle Farms continues to bring me great joy. Today I enjoyed Moringa Black Health Blend. I added one of my honey sticks to it because I love the honey sticks. This tea was smooth and delicious. No one flavor stood out, and it did not get bitter even when I left the tea bag in while I drank the cup. The ingredient are listed as “Moringa from Moringa Madres, black tea from Ajiri Tea, lemon balm, lemongrass.”

The information in my tea kit tells us a little more about how this tea came to be in my cup. “Ajiri tea was grown and harvested in Western Kenya by Ajiri, providing safe work for women. The members aim to form a sustainable cycle of community, employment and education.” Also “Moringa tea leaves were grown and harvested by the women of San Juan Cosala, Mexico, striving to make a living for their families.”

Overall, a delicious cup of tea helping us to support each other and one more reason for me to visit The Thistle Stop Cafe!

My husband was given this tea as a gift. I have enjoyed a few cups of this tea. In order to share what it is, I had to enlist the help of a friend who can read this tea tin. A big thank you to her for this information about this tea.

“The tea is the flower of plains coreopsis. Although the flower is quite common, people only use the flowers growing above elevation 3000 meters to make this tea. So not much tea can be made each year actually. And we believe this tea is good for your health. It’s definitely a good tea and becoming more and more popular in recent years.”

This tea smells like a spring day with flowers blooming. It tastes delicious too. It has a subtle, cheerful, and calming taste that is unlike other teas I have enjoyed. I highly recommend this tea.

Another tasty tea from the good people at Thistle Farms. This tea was part of the gift pack I received for Christmas. And since that gift pack included honey sticks, I added honey to this tea while it was steeping. This is a subtle, delicious. calming tea. I would enjoy drinking this before bedtime or on a rainy afternoon before a nap. It contains only three ingredients: milk thistle, dandelion root, and cardamon. None of these ingredients overpower the others. In fact, they all work together to make a tasty cup of tea. My information sheet says that this tea also helps with liver health. If you would like to try a cup, it looks like this tea is only available in the tea gift set or by visiting Thistle Stop Cafe.

I’ve visited The Spice and Tea Exchange many times without ever buying anything. It is a great store with jars and jars of tea lining the walls. I got my first taste of their teas when a friend gave me this tea. She chose very well. This is a great cup of tea. The cinnamon flavor is very subtle. The main flavor you’ll enjoy is the plum. I haven’t had many plum teas before and this one is delicious. I highly recommend stopping in to browse The Spice and Tea Exchange if you happen upon one, and I highly recommend you picking up a little Cinnamon Plum tea too!

On a cold, rainy night I sampled this tea for the first time. It was a birthday gift from a dear friend. This tea smells delicious. I held my tea cup in my hands and inhaled the spicy aroma. Although this tea is called sweet cinnamon spice, cinnamon is only one of the flavors I tasted. Tazo tells us that this tea contains cinnamon, licorice root, orange peel, and star anise. I tasted all of these ingredients except the orange, and I didn’t miss not having the orange flavor. This is an enjoyable tea. It is a good tea to drink while curled up on a cold night. I highly recommend this tea.

Drinking tea forces me to slow down. I cannot gulp down a huge mug of hot tea. I must wait. Last week, I had the pleasure of enjoying a tea party with a dear friend. We slowed down. We savored. We laughed. We talked and listened. And, we drank tea. We stayed so long that we each managed to drink two pots of tea!

I enjoyed Earl Grey Supreme. Yum. I did add a sugar cube to my tea for some extra sweetness. Our server warned me that I’d never be able to drink regular Earl Grey again. I haven’t tested out her theory yet. My tea party friend enjoyed her Black Currant tea. It was a little too sweet for me (says the person who added a sugar cube to her tea).

Our afternoon of fun took place at Tea on the Tiber in Ellicott City, Maryland. If you find yourself in Ellicott City and want to share a cup of tea, give me a call and I will join you.

My pictures from the day include multiple pictures of the sunny room where we didn’t have tea and the library where we also didn’t have tea. We were on the second floor. We did take a walk up the steep stairs to the third floor which is a tea room and play room for children. It made me want to host a children’s tea party!

While I may not be able to enjoy a cup of tea at Tea on the Tiber with all my readers, I do hope this post inspires you to slow down, spend some time with a friend, laugh a little (or a lot), and enjoy a favorite beverage!

For Christmas, I received Thistle Farms’ Tea Kit. Inside a handmade pouch are four different types of tea, 10 honey sticks, 16 empty tea sachets, and a spoon. Purchasing this kit helped five social enterprises in four countries.
Hope Tea is the first tea I sampled, and it is delicious! This Ugandan black tea is smooth and tasty. I steeped it for about 3 minutes and added a honey stick because that sounded so good. It was a rich caramel color. This tea is awesome. I was delighted to see that Thistle Farms sells it as a stand alone product. Yum!

A bit more information found on the website. “Hope Tea is a social enterprise in Uganda patterning with local tea growers to provide holistic education to vulnerable youth who face such challenges as poverty, high incidences of HIV/AIDS, unemployment and socially sanctioned violence .”

I received this tea for my birthday and it didn’t even make it to my tea cabinet before I sampled it. When you open the individual package, you are (almost) overwhelmed by the smell of mint. While drinking, you’ll catch a whiff of mint and enjoy a smooth cup of tea with a hint of mint. This tea is delightful.

The box says, “The rich flavor of the peppermint and the intensity of the spearmint jump, skip, and roll down the grassy hills while the warm hint of sweet tarragon wonders what all the rush is about.”

I appreciate the clever name and the calm feeling this tea imparts. I highly recommend a cup of Refresh Mint. And a big thank you to my dear friend for sharing this tea with me.