Coffee, Tea or Me???

I am not a coffee person, never have been a coffee person....and will never be a coffee person. There was always a coffee pot in my house growing up and both my parents drank it. During most of our married years, until just recently, there has been a pot on our counter too. Don't ask me to make it, I had no idea how the thing works. Roger, on the other hand, drinks coffee in a way that is not to be described...but I'm gonna anyway :) Just know that it involves a mug...some black liquid and a microwave oven that has a full cup either being warmed or one that has been re-warmed numerous times, and is now stone cold. It's kinda the family running joke that he "nukes" his coffee and then continually forgets it as he runs out the door. I've mentioned to him just a "few" times, that perhaps he really doesn't actually want to drink the cup of coffee....nope he's not buying that one.

My love affair with tea is a whole other story...not even sure when it began. Lets just say, I'm not a person who requires caffeine to function every day. I am however, one of those obnoxious morning people, who starts the day without an alarm clock or a jolt of the hard stuff. I prefer to have a warm, NOT hot, cup of tea mid-afternoon to soothe my tummy after lunch. You see my love of tea, is in part, medicinal in nature. It rarely serves to keep me awake, and the powers it has to relax my tummy, are some what magical. Which, I've come to learn, is quite handy when trying to digest those "sometimes" overly large meals on a cruise ship. I eat very simply during my normal life....however, when vacation time rolls around, there is no holding me back.


I suppose I may have inherited my love of tea from my paternal Grandmother. She was Irish and I've been told she'd been raised by a British aunt. Every year at christmas, she traveled from Brooklyn to Connecticut on the train to spend the holiday with our family. I remember she had a cup of tea everyday with her unusual sandwich combination of cheese and raw onions. Never in my life had I seen any other person eat this type of sandwich. To this day, I know of no one else who has the desire to eat such a thing. Perhaps the tea helped her to digest this noxious sandwich. I know I'd probably need an entire bottle of Tums to keep that puppy down. After she passed away, I was given the English Bone China tea cup and saucer she used everyday during her lunchtime ritual.




So back to my journey into the land of cruising and tea....which has finally led me to the tea blending nirvana I've recently discovered. Our local mall has a Teavana store....yes a place that is a haven for the tea lover in all of us. For years I was a bag, sugar and milk kinda tea drinker....until leaves came into my life. I had always carried along a full supply of my own tea bags when we cruised. Because the blend was digestive, I knew the ship would not carry what my tummy was looking for (although in a pinch, straight mint tea will do). My go-to-tea was a blend most appropriately called, Tummy Mint Tea. It has the perfect mixture of fennel, chamomile and peppermint. I regularly purchased it by the case, until Amazon discontinued carrying it :(


Every cloud has a silver lining...last year on my birthday, I was introduced to the world of Teavana. I have come to love a combination of peppermint and chocolate mint tea, which had been presented to me, along with a pot for brewing, as a gift. How cool is that, I get the flavor of chocolate with the tummy calming affect of mint. It is surely the best of both worlds. I love watching the tea as it steeps in the little pot on my desk at work. In preparation for our upcoming cruise, I knew I'd need to step it up a notch, so my tea blending skills were once again being challenged. I was hoping that I could add a bit of fennel to my mixture, however the store didn't carry any loose leaves. They suggested a monkey-picked oolang, (google it--I have no time to explain) which is also known to have very good digestive powers (because you know, it really is all about the magic of herbal remedies--I'm just following along in the old traditions of the ancient tribal medicine men--did I really just write that????). Back to reality folks, this combination is great and keeps the grumbling in my stomach to a dull roar...and it also tastes very good. So I purchased some empty tea bags, bought one of those little mini staplers, and I'll be custom making my own personal herbal tea for the cruise. No worries about over indulging now that I am fully stocked with my special stash of blended heaven in a bag.....watch out buffet, here I come!!!