Much as an artist starts with a blank canvas, drawing on personal thoughts, intuitions and experiences to express him or herself through art, tea is also a tool of creative imagination - a place to experiment and appreciate. Your palate is an artist’s blank canvas, and tea is your medium for expression. Tea affords the opportunity to personalize your cup around your taste buds, your cravings, your health goals and your moods.
We all love choices! And with tea, there are so many! Start with a “simple” cup of black or green tea as a base, then add any number of elements in unlimited combinations to make it truly yours. The joy of discovery is the most beautiful part.
To start, do you feel like you want your tea hot or iced? From there, connect with how you’re feeling and let your intuition be your guide.
Have you tried it with milk? There are lots of options: whole milk, 2% milk, soy milk, almond milk, coconut milk or cashew milk to name a few. Each adds a unique flavor profile to your tea.
If milk isn’t your vibe, perhaps sparkling mineral water would make a fun twist. Sparkling water will transform botanical teas like hibiscus elixir into a cool and refreshing summertime drink or can take your favorite chai to a new level.
Do you prefer your tea sweetened? Try adding honey. With over 300 different types of honey available, you may enjoy the challenge of finding out how various flavors can enhance your cup and which flavor notes you prefer. Or maybe you’d rather go simple - a teaspoon of organic sugar, or maybe au naturale is more your thing with a few organically grown stevia leaves.
In the summer, when fresh fruit is at its peak, you can make an easy simple syrup with peaches, cherries or any other favorite fruit and add it to your tea blend. A teaspoon of juice from a lemon, lime or orange will add a cheerful tang to your tea. For a more subtle citrus flavor, use a peel from the rind and drop it in the water to steep along with the tea leaves.
In the spring, you may want to add fresh herbs like peppermint or spearmint. If you’ve never grown fresh herbs, tea might give you just the reason you need to start your own tea herb garden. Fresh lavender, mint and chamomile are some of the most popular selections for tea, and growing them yourself is easier than you may think.
Fall and winter are the perfect opportunities to introduce warmer spices like cinnamon to your tea blends. When it’s cold and gloomy, and your focus is on giving your immune system a needed boost, consider adding elderberry, ginger or echinacea.
When you’re feeling adventurous, there are essential oils that make great additions to tea for a variety of purposes.
You can also create your own tea blends by combining two together. For example, we suggest mixing Indian Rose Garden with Himalayan Mountain Green, or Firepot Breakfast with Hibiscus Elixir.
As you learn about what you like and don’t like, the opportunities open up even more! Tea can be used in cooking and baking, works well as a marinade and is a great base for cocktails. To get started thinking about nontraditional ways to use tea in your kitchen, we invite you to look through our free Recipe Guides.
And...an insiders secret...we have something in the works that will let you create your own personalized tea blends. Watch for information to be released soon!
Tea beckons you to explore and invites you to a place of mindfulness, where each sip is a moment of discovery: How does it taste? How does it make you feel? What would you change? The beauty is that there's no right or wrong way to express yourself with tea. We suggest investing in a small notebook so that you can record your thoughts and save your favorite combinations. Let your creativity guide you.
The opportunities are endless! And it all starts with a simple leaf.
Leave a comment
Comments will be approved before showing up.