Tea Reflections - A Tea Blog » Tea Thoughts

Tea Thoughts – Tea at Work

Jenn — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:16:15 +0000

I spend a good amount of my tea drinking time at work. I avoid having caffeine late in the day so I have to make sure I get my fill of tea before evening comes around. This of course that means I must drink tea while I am working. However, I haven’t found a perfect tea routine at work yet. It always seems slightly less than optimal to make tea when I am away from my favorite teaware. I have tried various infusers but find that all of them come with some annoying cleanup considering I don’t have a sink close by. I tend to avoid tea bags at home but will occasionally have one at work for the sake of easy breezy clean up. My collection of teaware at work includes an infuser, some ‘make your own tea bags’, a cup and various tea. This isn’t the best setup but it works for me. It allows me to bring loose leaf and drink it during the day and still have a fairly easy cleanup.

Water is another issue as we don’t have filtered water where I work so I bring in several water bottles that I refill at home each morning. Part of my morning routine also includes picking out tea for the day. Sometimes this causes me to be slightly late as I contemplate tea choices, but we won’t get into that. All this enables me to make tea throughout the day at my own little tea station much to the amusement of my students. I can’t imagine having to go all day without several cups of tea and so my setup fits with my work routine. And despite the fact that I use tea filters and infusers, I enjoy my tea times during the day and I don’t think the taste suffers too much. I would rather have tea all day long in slightly less than perfect brewing conditions than none at all.

Here is a picture of my tea station. Not the most beautiful or serene place in the world, but it gets the job done. How do you enjoy tea at work?

Tea Thoughts – Seeking Tea

Jenn — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:59:17 +0000

I have always been on the lookout for local tea shops and know of a precious few, but I kept feeling there had to be more. Every so often I would turn to the internet to search for tea shops that I didn’t know about only to have my search turn up nothing new. However, this week I learned that one cannot always trust searching the internet for information. My mom talked to a tea drinker she works with and discovered not 1 but 2 new-to-me tea shops! And get this, one of them is literally right down the street from me! I could probably walk there if I really felt the urge to do so. I knew I was going to have to visit them so my Saturday morning started with meeting my parents for a lovely New Mexican breakfast and then I was off for tea shopping. I am thrilled to now add two more local shops to my list and came home with quite a few new teas to try as well as a few trusty favorites. Most of the teas in my collection are ordered online but there is nothing like going in person to smell and taste teas before purchasing. While I will continue my online shopping, it is nice to know and support local tea shops. So I challenge you to do some investigating by talking to other tea lovers in your area and find some tea shop gems of your own.

Tea Thoughts: Shocking Personal Tea Discovery

Jenn — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:45:13 +0000

I am loving my tea journey and get really excited that I am actually starting to pick up some of the more subtle tastes in tea. Of course I’m not yet where I want to be, but I am allowing myself to take my time to fully experience and learn what tea has to offer.

Over the last week I have been drinking a tea that I was rather reluctant to try due to a horrible experience with one very similar to it. You will perhaps recall my post about my incredibly strong dislike of Earl Grey. Any time I have encountered an Earl Grey since then I have turned my nose up and refused to try it. But recently an odd thing happened. I made myself a cup of Earl Grey that was recently sent to me. Some how this sample ended up in my work bag and I swear to you it just jumped in there by itself as I have no recollection of putting there. I figured I’d make a cup at work and if I didn’t like it I would just need to walk to the sink and toss it.

Here is the shocking part…I liked it.

Tea Thoughts: Traveling Tea

Jenn — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:07:43 +0000

I just got back from being out of town and I am sad to report that having tea while traveling was quite hard for me. I’m wondering how people manage to do it. Do they take a kettle, infuser, cups, and loose tea? Or do they perhaps just take tea bags? This is the first time I have actually decided to take tea along with me on a trip so I started small and just took tea bags though I was tempted to pack all sorts of tea brewing items and loose leaf tea. However, I came back home with most my tea bags because it was really hard for me to stick to any sort of tea rituals while out of town. I’m ashamed to say the only time I had tea was at a coffee shop who I got hot water from. Next time I’m going to have to come up with a better plan.

Tea Thoughts: Tea Blogging Mistakes

Jenn — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:51:46 +0000

Wow. I apologize. I had no idea that comments were not working and I feel like a big dork.

Comments ARE working now so feel free to leave me a note.

Gonna go hide in embarrassment now.

Tea Thoughts: Tea Cozy

Jenn — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:47:29 +0000

I seem to have an issue with my tea going cold. I am always amazed at people who can drink a cup of tea, coffee, or any other warm beverage long after it has cooled off. I have made it a mission to discover ways I can keep my tea warm while I enjoy it instead of gulping it down before it has a chance to drastically change temperature.

One of my favorite things to do is indulge in a whole pot of tea while I am watching T.V., reading a book, browsing the Internet, etc. However, I get annoyed that if I take my time drinking the tea, the pot will not stay warm and I end up with tepid tea. I had seen tea cozies used various places and in a moment of craftiness I decided to crochet my own.

I am very pleased with my results and though it isn’t perfect (made the flower on top too big) it is awfully darn cute and allows me to take my sweet time enjoying a pot of tea. I just slip it on after my tea leaves have steeped and been removed and presto, no more rushing to drink my tea before it cools off! If you have issues with keeping your tea warm I suggest you look into getting a tea cozy. Also, if you have any other suggestions on how to keep tea warm, let me know!

Tea Thoughts: Tea Soap

Jenn — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:20:20 +0000

A while back I wrote a tea thought about how I do not recommend partaking in a cup of soapy tea. Another tea thought talked about my strong dislike of Earl Grey. In a moment of brilliance (pats self on back) I put the two together and created Tea Soap! Made from scratch, by me, using Earl Grey tea. Of course others have done this before me, but I feel special none the less. As you can see in the picture my soap is a beautiful pale tan color thanks to the tea I steeped over night. I have used the soap many times and I love it! I have plans to make more. I will have to buy some fragrance oil that smells like tea because sadly the Earl Grey did not hold onto the scent in the soap.

Ingredients are as follows for those that are curious:

Water/Tea (Earl Grey tea steeped overnight and leaves removed)
Olive Oil
Palm Oil
Coconut Oil
Castor Oil
*edit to add* And lye to saponify oils

Tea Thoughts: Back to Work, Back to Tea

Jenn — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:19:54 +0000

After the summer off, I am back to work. And with that comes the ‘work routine’. Which means…tea! I start my mornings at my desk getting ready for the day with a nice big thermos of tea. Sadly, I haven’t had a lot of tea in a few weeks which is really quite shocking to me. Aside from the iced green tea that I have in my fridge, I haven’t made a pot of tea in a while. Today though I decided that since I was having to get back into the swing of things for work, I needed to do the same for my tea habit.

So here I am sitting at my desk preparing to see students for the first time in months and I am indulging in a beautiful cup of black tea. Want to really appreciate something? Remove it from you life for a little while and then bring it back. It is like heaven to experience it again! Boy is it nice. In fact, I have nothing else to say. I just want to enjoy this cup in joyful solitude before the crazy world of teaching crashes down on me.

Tea Thoughts: Tea With a Newbie

Jenn — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:47:09 +0000

I had the great joy of introducing the world of tea to someone. If you have ever tried to share something your passionate about with someone close to you, then you know how exciting it can be when they actually take an interest. I had company visiting me recently and I took advantage of sharing with them my love of tea.

My tea collection is quite daunting to a tea virgin though to me it isn’t big enough, but my test subject jumped right in and smelled lots of my teas until a flavored green tea was settled on. Caramel Dipped Apple from The NecessiTeas was the first tea we shared together for their introduction to tea. Their reaction was not one of disgust but instead was one of surprise. It wasn’t half bad. In fact, it was quite good! We had a nice conversation about different types of tea and it was decided that more tea tasting needed to be done!

I chose the tea for our next tea time. Something where we could experience different aspects of tea. We had a completely informal gong fu session featuring Wenshan Baochong Choice from aurateas. I don’t claim to be any good at gong fu, but I did my best to describe what was going on and not make a complete mess. We enjoyed four infusions and talked about each one. I let them describe the aromas and tastes while gently leading if words didn’t quite come out right. To my satisfaction, they weren’t turned off and wanted to taste more and more.

We had English Breakfast with breakfast one morning, Genmaicha with dinner one evening, iced tea at a friends house, and made our own highly sugared sweet tea that they adored and I detested. It was a great tea adventure and I am thrilled that there will be at least one person in my life who I can share tea experiences with. I am getting a package ready to send to them that will include some teas so they can continue to explore and learn about the amazing world of tea!

Tea Thoughts: Tea Cures?

Jenn — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:59:31 +0000

I am a headache sufferer and I have been plagued these last few weeks with terrible headaches. Most of the headaches I get are migraines which means I know how to deal with them and knock them out. But lately I have these nagging, painful aches that I can’t seem to get rid of.

I know a few herbal teas have medicinal effects and I’m trying to think if there is a tea that helps with headaches. Anybody have a thought or know of one? In my experience, drinking teas to find a cure to common ailments hasn’t been very successful. Then again, it takes a lot for my body to respond to any sort of medication but I’m willing to experiment with a possible tea cure. Just need to find one.

On a side note, the next few weeks I will be vacationing so posting may be limited. Stay cool in the hot summer sun and drink some iced tea for me!