Day 86: Candy Cane Tea (Holiday Decaf Green)

If yesterday's tea was a campfire in a cup, then today's is Christmas in a cup.  This has been a favourite tea for many years, but I generally only drink it during the holidays.  Interestingly enough, I've only discovered today that it's a decaf green tea (no wonder I like it!).  There's a very strong peppermint flavour - so strong that you feel you could get the same taste by heating hot water and dropping several sticks of peppermint candy into it.  The green tea is an excellent flavour enhancer, though - much better than black tea.  It's lighter, and I'm discovering that when green tea has another flavour with it, the secondary flavour becomes the primary one.  I think green is a very humble tea.  It insists that the other flavours go first, have more of an impact.  It's content to sit back and just be the base, the capability, the opportunity for these other flavours to shine.

Candy cane tea is also an excellent choice if it's cold, or wet, or grey, or rainy, or if you're getting a cold.  There's something about anything minty that not only soothes, but provides contentment, too.  I'm struggling a little to drink this tea on a summer July day, but summer in Scotland is all over the place, and within the last hour it has gone from a warm, clammy, summer's day to a very grey and wet one.  So I feel I'm justified in having this mint infusion while I "chillax".

And every time I take a sip, I'm transported a bit.  I see wrapping paper and ribbons and sparkling baubles.  I smell the tangy green scent of a Christmas fir, with the needles flinging themselves with joyful abandon all over my white carpet.  I hear "I Saw Three Ships" playing while I write out Christmas cards, and families laden with good things laughing and sometimes arguing as they return from the shops.  I feel the sharp softness of velvet ribbon and the sleek slidiness of silk dresses and tops.  And I can just taste those Christmas cookies we used to make every year back when I was younger - pink and white striped, twisted all along and curved at the top, and sprinkled with crushed peppermint.  (My friend Heather blogged the recipe here, if you're interested.) Candy cane cookies, they're called.  It's the only thing missing while I drink my Christmas tea in July.

Walk length: 15 minutes

Day 46: Organic Green Moroccan Mint Tea

Today (Saturday) was the first full day of our annual Sister Weekend.  Every time I come back from Scotland, my four sisters and I get together for a whole weekend of resting, relaxing, girl time, and just enjoying being together.

This time we stayed in Flagstaff, which is where almost all of us went to university.  Flag is a small town, filled with small shops, organic tea cafes, trains, bicyclists, beautiful mountains, and on a good day, some of the best weather you could hope for.  We got three good days in a row.  Sunshine, blue skies, a few friendly clouds, a slight cooling breeze, and the kind of weather that you hardly even notice because it's just right.

Pin and I took a dander down to the town centre so I could take a few photos, and what do you know but that we ran into an Armed Forces Day Parade, complete with marching soldiers, small boy scouts, a multitude of different military vehicles, Harleys, waving flags, and red white and blue everywhere.  I enjoyed taking some photos of the parade and the nearby train station, and then it was on to Macy's coffee shop for beautiful tea and coffee with my sisters.

Macy's is a classic, every-table-filled, straight-talking servers, a hundred different coffee varieties, little corners everywhere coffee shop.  It was very tempting to try one of the amazing coffees, but I stuck with tea and chose the Organic Green Moroccan Mint.  I expected it to taste a little 'greener' (being an aficionado of green teas), but the mint flavour swooped in and overpowered it, rendering it more of a mint tea than a green one.  I liked it, but it definitely doesn't make my top list of amazing green teas.  It's the kind of tea that would be good when you have a cold, or need your throat cleared out a bit.  Pretty powerful!

We had a beautiful day - coffee was followed by pedicures, shopping at a surprisingly amazing little clothes shop, lunch at our little cottage, a walk in the sunshine and through the woods, and an incredible dinner at the local Thai restaurant, Dara Thai, where I had my favourite Thai dish, which I ordered the first time round simply for the name alone: the Evil Jungle Princess.  And then chillax time with the sisters and bed! 

Walk length: 1.25 hours

Day 38: Organic Green Tea (Loose Leaf)

When I arrived in Arizona a few days ago, my sister had waiting for me in my room a beautiful basket by MR Designs and Gifts (amazing baskets!) - all about green tea! My favourite!  There were green tea sweets, and biscuits, and a box of organic green tea in little 'infusion packets', and biscotti (to go with the tea), all wrapped up in a beautiful basket and a cup-of-tea-plant-holder. At least that's what it looks like!  I had so much fun taking photos of the beautiful basket that I'm sure my sister was wondering if I was ever going to drink the tea.

I did though - opened up the organic green tea and took out one of the infusion packets and brewed myself a lovely cup. It was amazing. Usually I like my green tea with fruity flavours, to remove any bitterness and give a new taste to it, but this is amazing tea.  ("Only the best for MR baskets," Pin said, and I think that's true.) It had all the best of what green tea has to offer, and nothing that would hold you back from drinking the entire cup.  It's hard to say what I love so much about green tea. I like that it's light, and you don't need to add anything to it to enjoy the flavours. It truly is refreshing: first thing in the morning, when I don't feel like eating or drinking anything, I can drink a cup of green tea and enjoy the beginnings of the new day.  Many times I've gotten up thinking 'I really don't want to start this day' and by the time I've taken a few sips and started my morning pages, things are definitely looking up.  And maybe it's all the antioxidants and healthful aspects...which is surprising, since often the things that are healthiest for you taste pretty miserable (like the 'Green Vibrance' powder my mum was drinking, which smelled and tasted like moldy dirt and grass combined).

I went for a long walk with my sister this morning - even ran almost half of it, which was a nice change.  We made it out before it got too hot, but we were still pretty weary when we got back.  As Pin said, "Instead of 'I am woman hear me roar', it's 'I'm weak as a kitten but I can try'."   I like the confidence!

So in the afternoon I sat in my dad's crazy rocking chair (you sit in it and nearly get flung backwards - true story!), rocking carefully, drinking my organic green tea and feeling pretty happy about myself. And about gift baskets, and sisters, and being in sunny Arizona!

Walk/run length: 50 minutes

Day 15: Green Tea With Mango

Another of the green tea versions. This one, as you can see from the picture, is a 'seasonal' version of Twinings green tea. I love these, because it expands my tea enjoyment in new and different ways all year!

I think this version is one of my favourites, but I can see why it's seasonal. It conjures up summer afternoons, salads, tropical islands, and even those drinks with little umbrellas in them. The mango cuts the green tea bitterness just perfectly, and I've been known to drink four or five cups of this a day, particularly if it's cold and I'm tired. (I've mentioned previously that green tea, contrary to my initial thoughts, definitely has caffeine in it!)

Today was an interesting opportunity. I found £15 in cash lying on the ground.  The strange thing was, it was close enough to someone's house for me to feel that it probably belonged to someone in that house, and yet just far enough away to be a little unsure. It was right next to the driveway, in the kind of place where if you pulled the car out, then opened the door to do anything (shift the rubbish bin, shut the gate, etc), it would have fallen out. I asked the neighbour lady if she had dropped it, as she was just walking into her house, but she said no. I chapped the house door, but no one answered. I actually went for my whole walk with the money in my hand, but on my way back I decided to just drop it through the letter-box of the house it was closest to.  £15 is enough to miss, but not enough to be broken-hearted over losing (although I suppose it depends how old you are or what your salary or allowance is!).  And while standing there momentarily undecided, a verse from the Bible came to my mind. There's a story about a man called Jacob whose brother wanted to kill him, and Jacob ran away and worked for his uncle. When Jacob returns to his family twenty years later, his brother comes out to meet him, and although Jacob is fearful, his brother meets him with an embrace and kind words.  Jacob offers him a gift, and his brother Esau initially refuses it.  Jacob insists, with these words: "Please, take my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have all".  (Genesis 33.11)  I have always loved that verse.  It reminds me of those two beautiful truths, that God deals graciously, and in terms of what I need, 'I have all'.  So, I don't know if that £15 belonged to the nice people in the house I passed, or whether someone dropped it on the path as they walked by, or where it came from.  But God has dealt graciously with me, and I have all, and so I dropped it through the letterbox. Wouldn't it be funny if someone reading this suddenly realised it was them, it was their house that got the mysterious money?

Enjoy your walk, and God's graciousness, and the 'all' that He provides.

Walk length: 45 minutes

Day 3: Green Tea With Lemon

Initially I had plans of an earl grey today, but after a lovely walk I changed my mind. It felt like a 'green tea with lemon' day. Actually, I'm quite addicted to 'green tea with...' over the past six months or so. Green tea on its own is a little harsh, slightly bitter, with a fiercer aftertaste...but green tea with lemon, or mango, or orange, or anything fruity gives it that cleaner, fresher taste with no bitterness.

So today's weather matched a Green Tea With Lemon choice. The skies were grey, so I thought it would be cold and chilly, but I was almost warm, and I didn't even have a coat. Slightly deceiving, really. There were blue skies on their way, and sections of sunlight that flashed through, warming me up even more. The air was mild, and the breeze was fresh with a wind that didn't chill, but just cleaned out the cobwebs of my mind. I'm still tired from not getting enough sleep last night, but the walk did me a lot of good. I went round to the post office, which has moved, so I got a little extra walk in, and just enjoyed my green-tea-with-lemon weather, thinking all the while that I would definitely come home to a cup of that in the end! And I did!

I've also discovered that green tea has caffeine in it. When I first started drinking it, because there were so many 'organic green tea' options and everyone I knew who drank green tea either practiced yoga or recycled things, I figured it was caffeine free. Boy, was I wrong. For the first few weeks I started drinking it (and I loved it - four or five cups a day), I found that I just couldn't sleep at nights! I was up till three, four in the morning and couldn't figure out why. (Generally I don't drink caffeine at all if I can help it.) So one night at 3am I decided to google it, and lo and behold green tea has caffeine! No wonder! But thanks to my good friends at Google I also found that you can decaffeinate green tea yourself. Here's the process.

First, you make a normal cup of green tea. Put the teabag in, pour the water in. Then, you wait about 45 seconds to a minute - long enough to get it steeped, but not so long that all the flavour is gone. Then pour all the hot water out, leaving the teabag in the cup. Then, refill the cup with new hot water. Apparently most of the caffeine is released in the initial minute of steeping, and the rest is just flavour. So by pouring the water out, you remove the caffeine, but still get the lovely, clean, organic of course!, green tea flavour without being up to the wee hours of the morning.

It seems to work fairly well, although there have been a few times I've been a bit too eager to pour out the water and ended up with a little more caffeine than I expected, and a few other times I've waited too long and my 'green tea' tastes more like plain old hot water, but it's a fine art. As with all artistic efforts, the results are well worth it!

And now I'm drinking my decaffeinated green-tea-with-lemon and enjoying the fresh, clean, light, breezy flavour. Like the weather today.

Walk length: 20 minutes