Tea Trippin'

I am an American anomaly. I do not do coffee. In this land of latte-laced days and frappachino-fueled nights,I prefer the gentle ritual of tea. Not the Brisk or Lipton nonsense but aromatic, expertly blended leaves and spices in a decorative cup. The tea should be preferably accompanied by cinnamon scones with heaping dollops of Devonshire cream and melodic classic jazz but that's besides the point. I have a cabinet dedicated to my tea habit and it holds at least 50 varieties. I lean towards Indian teas and herbal tisanes that aren't technically tea at all. My favorite is Madagascar Vanilla Red tea. It's a deep burnished red color layered with vanilla and rooibos flavor. Rooibos is a South African plant that's also called red bush. It's noted for it's healing properties and antioxidants but I just love the rich flavor.




Red Chai Masala is another stand-out for me. It's chai without the caffeine, loaded with ginger,nutmeg, clove, chicory and black pepper for a spicy morning drink. It's also blended with my favorite rooibos leaves so it's a pretty ruby color.




India spice tea features a classic blend of cardamon and cinnamon and is probably my all-time favorite. You'd think that regularly sipping tea from several different continents would make me realize the cultural and travel aspects in my tea ritual but it never occurred to me. Then I had a conversation with my Facebook friend Eka. Eka is Indonesian and we're both in a Facebook group called "A Cup of Tea Solves Everything." We always shoot messages back and forth about the tea we're drinking at the moment. I never thought about the cultural aspects of tea outside the British, Chinese and Japanese traditions until Eka kindly schooled me.




The picture above shows traditional Indonesian tea or teh. According to Eka, Javanese people love sweet tea but the Sundanese people prefer hot tea with no sugar. Eka's fave is vanilla tea, which is the yellow box pictured on the right. The Minang people are known for their vanilla tea and serve it for free in their restaurants. Eka is Javanese so she loves to drink sweet tea in the morning and rose-flavored rosella tea for the rest of the day.