I’m Back… No, Really!

Seriously!  Yes, I know, there have been several gaps of silence followed up with I-apologize-for-not-writing-more-posts posts and the I-am-back-and-starting-to-write-again posts. A lot of crying wolf, I know.  However, now that the wedding, honeymoon, and move are over and done with, I can get back to my hobbies.  Seriously.  Hey, wait!  Just hear me out.

I did not realize how much of a life suck wedding planning was going to be.  Holy.  Crap.  I do not mean that wedding planning sucked; I mean there is a lot to it (especially when on a tight budget).  I swear I had more free time working and going to college than working and planning this wedding.  It is over now and things couldn't have gone better (pictures to come)!

Another thing that stole a lot of time was that we planned to go on a honeymoon right after the wedding.  When I mean right after I mean we left town the very next day.

Furthermore, we had planned (maybe stupidly) to move from an apartment to a house right after we got back from the honeymoon.  This meant that we had two weeks to pack and move once we got back into town.  We did it, though (surprisingly)! 

What does all of this have to do with tea, you ask?  Well, I had a tea themed bridal shower, tea themed wedding, and spotted several tea venues/items on our honeymoon… which makes for some interesting blogging content.  Additionally, I have thought of other interesting tea topics to write about since the last time I have posted (if only I would actually write for this blog as much as I thought about writing for it…).  Trust me, I have never stopped thinking about this blog and I am not about to give up on it; I just had to take a break to get over a few time draining life events.

All of my tea ware made the trip safely.  I have an even bigger tea nook/office so review pictures will be a bit better and easier to take.

I hope to start more regular posts in the very near future.  I’m serious!

Soon To Be Tea-Themed Wedding

I am sure you can figure out from the title of this post where all my free time has gone.  I still love tea (a lot) and think about tea (a lot), but, after getting engaged in August of 2011, wedding planning has consumed my tea blogging time.

However, I hope I can make up the lost time to my wonderful readers by managing to spare a few moments from my wedding research to share some of the details about my tea-themed wedding.

Tea has been such an important part of my life over the past five years (almost the entire time I have been with my significant other) that I thought I should incorporate it into the ceremony and reception.  The fiancee loves tea, as well, so he doesn’t mind.

Because I love green tea most of all, my wedding colors are green, black, and white.  At the ceremony, the unity sand will be in these three colors.  Additionally, the bridesmaids’ dresses and the groomsmen’s vests and ties will be green.  At the reception, there will be green tulle bows on the backs of white covered chairs.  

I am making three custom blended teas to serve at the luncheon reception and to be given as favors; one to represent the bride (green tea base with raspberry, apricot, and spearmint), one to represent the groom (black tea base with peach, vanilla, and ginger), and a wedding blend that combines the two (oolong base with raspberry and vanilla).  Even though most of my guests are coffee drinkers, it is my party and I will have tea if I want to.*

Teapots and teacups are going to be used as centerpieces.  A glass teapot will be in the center of each table holding a small bouquet of flowers while two glass teacups, one sitting on either side of the teapot, hold green glass pebbles and a tea-light candle.

One can only take the tea theme so far meaning I had to stretch the concept by using generic leaves and vines in some places.  For example, the cake knife and server, the toasting flutes, and the tiered cake will all be decked out with leaves and vines.

I am hoping all of this detailed planning is time well spent and everything comes together during our celebration in the fall.  Still so much to do…

*Not to worry, guests, coffee will still be served, as well.

Happy New Year... Hello?

Is anyone there?

Oh wait... is six months a little too late to be fashionably late?

When I got engaged on August 31st, 2011, I didn't realize my life would be consumed by a gigantic wedding planning monster.  I have managed to get a lot of the wedding planning stuff done early, however.  Therefore, this very weekend I was able to come up for some air, only to realize I haven't posted on my beloved tea blog since... wow... last year.

Not only have I not posted on this blog, but I have neglected tea forums that I regularly lurk and post.  I tweet only every now and then.  And, I almost forgot I had a Facebook fan page for this blog.  Being buried under invitation samples, cake designs, and color swatches kind of does that.  Not to mention my poor tea ware hasn't been touched in months.

I am beginning to shake off the dust and get back into the hobby I love the most.

I have done some clean up to the blog.  I took away the affiliate links section... something I have been wanting to do for a while.  I always felt like that section made my reviews look dishonest.  I also took away the vendor links section.  It looked cluttered.   If you would really like to know my favorite vendors, just ask me... or ask around the tea forums.

Which brings me to tell you that I have added a section about my favorite tea-related links.  Several of them are forums filled with amazing tea lovers, aficionados, and connoisseurs.  Finally, I have changed the location of a few sections mainly for aesthetics. 

I still have some more editing to do before I am pleased with the layout of this blog.  For one thing, I need a logo.  I have wanted a logo since I made this site - 5 years ago - but have been unable to create or think of one I like.  So, the yellow gaiwan will remain in the header for now.

I already have a few blog posts written as well as a few ideas for other posts aside from tea reviews.  My next goal is to be more active with the Facebook fan page and Twitter.

Thanks to all of those readers and fans who stuck by me through my wedding planning coma and didn't pull the plug on this blog, yet.

See you soon...

Intact and Complete

Most of the moving and settling in the new place is done. Moving is always a lot of work, but I found this particular experience to be a lot of fun amongst the blood (damn cardboard cuts!), sweat (90 degrees outside!), and tears (so happy!).

Another note that I am happy to report is that there was no broken teaware during the packing, transporting, and unpacking – thank you news paper and bubble wrap! I put the boxes of teaware in my car instead of the moving truck because I was so worried about my precious pieces.

Anyways, my office/tea room is now set up and complete so the blog posts can resume. Lately, I have been so busy with the new place to be on the computer that some people think I have fallen off the face of the online world. Well… I am back, and yes, I have missed you, too.

I Dream of Tea...

... and in that dream I win the Sip of Success contest by the Tea Council of the USA.

Then, poof, back to reality.

The reality being that I need your help to win the grand prize which is an awesome tea internship! Part of the judging is the popularity of the video. I wrote the script, I shot the video, I did the (7 freaking hours worth of) editing. Now, I need you, yes you, to view the video, comment, and like it on the You Tube page. If anything, at least you get to see and hear the girl behind this blog!

Please check it out here - Sip of Success: Chess Match

Finally A Grad

Finally!

It has been a long six years, but I finally know what it feels like to NOT have to enroll in another semester of classes come August. I finally know what it feels like to have zero homework assignments due. I finally know what it feels like to have more free time than I know what to do with.

Above all, I finally know what it feels like to have two degrees in one hand and a part time job that doesn't pertain to either of them in the other. Yes, the real career search starts now. Ok, well, it actually started a couple of weeks ago, but I can already tell that landing a great job in today's market is going to require some serious effort... and I'm ready for a fight!

These past six years have definitely let me know what I want to do for a career. The first two years after High School led me to an Associates of Science degree in Electrical Engineering Technology, but I soon realized that is not the path I want to take. I am grateful for that degree because of the "college life" experience and study skills that I gained from it as well as knowing what I don't want to do for a living.

It took the next four years for me to obtain a Bachelors of Science degree in Business with a major in Marketing... but it only took one marketing class for me to fall in love with the subject.

As for a career, I hope to stay away from "push" sales and go into more of a research position. It amazes me how many businesses DO NOT ask their customers what they want and then wonder why they lack good customer service.

Of course, my dream job would be marketing for a tea company, but I am not limiting myself. I am hoping to stay in Indiana, but if I have to relocate in order to seize an opportunity, I will do so.

For now, I am enjoying the copious amounts of time I have to spend with this blog. Expect more posts as soon as my wounds completely heal from having all four wisdom teeth removed recently.

It’s good to be back… finally!

Tea Goals for 2010

I'm back! After a much needed break in order to finish up my fall semester of college and spend time with family and friends over the holidays... I am back to updating this blog with reviews and other tid bits as often as I can. To keep me on track, I created a list of goals that I would like to achieve during the next year.

These are a list of my TeaGoals for 2010... in no particular order:

Learn more about and try Pu Erh - I have heard a lot about Pu Erh from other TeaFriends, but I haven't been able to purchase and try my first Pu Erh. I need to learn more about the process of how it is made, first, and then see which cake would be a proper introduction.

Learn more about teaware - I would like to dig deeper, beyond the ceramics and such, to discover the history of the types of teaware, their uses, their origins, etc.

Finish my tea MS Access file - I wanted to learn more about the processing of each tea, but the more teas I learned, the more I kept getting them mixed up. Thus, I created an MS Access file that documents how certain teas are processed according to the vendor who sells them. Plus, I have added details about the vendors in there, as well. However, this file is barely started. I hope to complete it and pass along the information to my fellow members of the ATB.

Stay updated - With work, school, and social life keeping me incredibly busy these past couple of months, I feel like I have almost lost touch with this blog and some of my on-line tea buddies. I am trying to come up with an efficient way to stay updated with tea blogs (including my own), organizations, forums, and news once school starts again in the spring (thankfully this is my last semester).

So, with that said, I hope you all have a safe and happy New Year! Bring on 2010!

100th Post!

This blog reached its one year anniversary some time ago and now it has hit another milestone – the 100th post!

Wow! I have to admit that there were times I did not think this blog would make it that far. I am still in college and this fall will be the start of my senior year (Woot!). Because I am a full time student, free time tends to be a lack there of for me and hence writing blog entries gets pushed back on my to-do list sometimes. The reason for this is reviews can take a better part of an hour to complete because they include making the tea, tasting it, writing the review, taking pictures, editing, and publishing.

However, besides all of the wonderful tea I get to taste, there is one main motive that still keeps this blog on my to-do list at all… and that is YOU! Yes, you! If you are reading this, chances are that this is not the first time you have been to this blog… and I want to thank you for that! All of those who have commented on my blog via the comment section on here, Twitter, and/or Facebook… I want to personally thank you for your comments, encouragements, suggestions, etc.! I never thought I would say this, but I HAVE FANS! That right there is more than enough motivation to keep me going!

I originally started this blog for personal tasting notes and experiences only, which I still continue using it for such purposes today, but I never imagined that I would do formal reviews for vendors, as well. It has all been very exciting!

Since school is out for the summer, I have more time to concentrate on this blog. What I would like to do is work some more on the cosmetics and the layout of the blog, plus come up with ideas for better pictures and make sure I do more thorough reviews.

I have only studied tea for about two years now so I still have a lot to learn.

Stocking Stuffers, Angels, and Christmas Wishes

A couple of weeks ago, I finished my internship that I had the opportunity to do this semester. I had so much fun working with the four awesome women who ran the show that I wanted to do something for them when I left.

I found a holiday tea stocking stuffer set by Adagio and thought they would make great gifts for the girls. I bought small, individual, decorative wreaths (that are actually supposed to go around candles), put a tin of tea in a silk bag, tied a ribbon around it, and put the bag in the center of the wreath. I thought they were really cute!

Christmas is only a couple of days away so… I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I will leave you with pictures of our angel ornaments on our Christmas tree. Oh, and more tea reviews are coming soon!

Black Friday and Winter Sales!

Black Friday Sale!

Still don’t know what to get that person who has everything? I think I can help.

For today only, Yogic Chai is having a huge sale! Type in the coupon code “blackfriday” (without the quotes) and receive 40% off all of Yogic Chai’s blends. Hurry, because this is for today only!

Winter Sale!

Mighty Leaf is having a Winter Sale starting today and lasting through December 3rd. You can save up to 30% on tea pouches, loose teas, and select tea gifts.

Those are huge savings! So, there is no excuse not to surprise that special someone with unique blends and gift sets from Yogic Chai and Mighty Leaf.

One Year of MySI!

If you check the blog archive, you will notice the first blog entry I made was on October 15th, 2007. Thus, today marks the 1 year anniversary of My Steeped IdentiTEA!!

During the year:

There have been major changes throughout the year. This is my first (and only) blog, so when I started it, I had very little knowledge about blogging and very little knowledge about the subject I was blogging about - tea. When I set up the blog I simply used my two favorite colors, black and green.

I became busy with work and college classes so I didn’t do much to the cosmetics of the blog; I just concentrated on taking pictures and writing posts. I loved my teaware so much that I felt like they needed to have posts of their own, so I wrote about that at first. Then, I used the blog to keep notes on teas that I’ve tasted.

I found out later about doing “reviews” of the teas that I had obtained. It was great because these reviews let me keep notes about what teas that I’ve tried and it provided an honest customer opinion for people looking to buy tea.

I was shaky about how to do a review at first. I wasn’t sure what all information was needed to provide a descent review (which is why my reviews were freakishly long). However, hopefully I’m starting to get the hang of it.

During the summer of 2008, I was not working and taking only one college course so I had loads of time on my hands. Because of that, I started playing around with the color scheme and layout of the blog.

As you can see, I finally decided on the colors of black, orange, yellow, red, and brown. I felt like these colors enhanced the pictures of tea that I was taking. It took several weeks, but I taught myself HTML so I could edit the blog layout to have three columns with the color scheme and layout that I had picked out.

This last year with this blog has definitely been a huge learning experience with blogging and with tea. I have learned so much about both. My only problem has just been finding time to post.

What is to come:

I am still making changes to the layout of the blog to see what works best. Because of that, I welcome any and all feedback to anything about my blog (seriously! I love comments!).

More reviews are on the way! Several teas have been sent to me and I am eager to try them and post about them. While school is in session, the only time I have to do reviews is on the weekends… hence the long periods of time between posts.

I am hoping to fix that by not just posting reviews. I would like to start posting about other tea related events, whether it is news, useful information, my observations, comments, and/or findings concerning tea, etc.

Another new thing that will, hopefully, come up in a few months is me obtaining a better camera. The camera that I use now is my parent’s cheap digital camera. It’s a great camera for pictures of people or objects three feet away with a lot of natural light that only needs an auto focus. However, I need a camera that can take excellent close up shots of tea leaves, the liquor of the tea, and all of the other details. More than likely I will need something with a manual focus and zooming capabilities, among other things, but I know nothing about cameras and photography as of this moment.

So, in the next couple of months I will be looking up everything I can about getting the right camera for me with the right features at the right price. If you any photography advice to offer, I would greatly appreciate it!

Therefore, that is what is to come in the following months. I hope to have another great year of learning new things and sharing new ideas. Thanks for staying with me for this long! I hope to not disappoint in the years to come… because I’m just getting started!

Breakfast Tea Sale!

School has begun, which means no more sleeping in until noon and laying around all day in your P.J.'s! For those of you who are out of school, the same old daily routine can get boring, mundane, tiresome... well you know how it is.

Mighty Leaf wants to help you drag your butt out of bed and greet the day with something other your bunny slippers. From now until September 18th, select breakfast teas have been discounted!

That's right! Save 20% on select breakfast teas from Mighty Leaf by clicking on the picture to your left! Start jazzing up your mornings with Organic Breakfast, Organic Earl Grey, Orange Dulce and many more! Your bunny slippers will thank you for it!

Tea Pouch Sale!

Now through September 2nd, Mighty Leaf is wanting to help you celebrate the end of summer and the beginning of fall with a tea pouch sale!

See the nifty picture to your left? You can start saving 30% on all Mighty Leaf tea pouches by clicking on it.

If you want a sneak peak at what Mighty Leaf has to offer, check out my reviews on Chamomile Citrus, Green Tea Tropical, and Orange Dulce.

Why wouldn't you want to save up to $14 per box on yummy, delicious teas? Exactly! So, here's to enjoying the rest of the summer in style!

Gotcha, Matcha!

Finally! While in Chicago with my boyfriend and his parents, I was able to obtain my first matcha set! I have wanted one for a while!

I will pause so you can cheer, dance, break open the wine, or however you celebrate.

I say obtain instead of buy because my totally awesome boyfriend is the one who actually purchased it for me. In fact, he planned the trip to the mall in Schaumburg just so he could surprise me with the Teavana store that was in there. Ok, say it with me: awwwww.

I have to buy all of my teaware and loose leaf tea online because the only tea that my small town has is the overly sweetened stuff from McDonalds. In other words, seeing all the teaware and loose leaf bins on the shelves in Teavana was freaking sweet! I wanted to buy the whole store! What really sucked, though, is that there was a “now hiring” sign in the window… and if I wouldn’t have lived 3 hours away I would have put in my application immediately.

Aside from the matcha set, I bought myself a bamboo tea tool (haha, tea tool… haha) set and a set of four cups. No tea table is complete without the proper set of tools, so I couldn’t pass that up. The drinking cups I bought are beautiful! Don’t you think? I absolutely love the green one!

It was hard to pick from all the awesome teaware that Teavana had in their store. I’m happy with the new additions to my collection and I walked out of there with a few ideas for Christmas.

Here is a description of each of the tea tools that is on the box that the tools came in:

Mini Whisk – Ideal for stirring tea with sugar, milk, matcha, honey, and lemon in delicate tea sets.

Hot Lid Tongs – A handy tool for removing lids from hot tea pots or handling sugar cubes. The bamboo is gentle enough where it will not scratch or damage the paint on the outer surface of a delicate tea pot.

Tea Scoop – A traditional handmade 6 inch bamboo spoon. Its wide head and long handle make it a comfortable tool for measuring out scoops of loose leaf tea.

Demi Spoon – A universal handmade 6 inch bamboo spoon.

Chashaku – A traditional matcha measuring scoop made from a single piece of bamboo. It is typically used in matcha tea ceremonies.

Iced Tea Sale

Summer is inching its way toward fall. Celebrate the final days of summer in style with gourmet iced teas from Mighty Leaf!

Click Here to start saving 25% on Iced Tea in Tins and Refills!

Mighty Leaf has 8 awesome iced tea blends to choose from. I have reviewed 3 of those blends, which include: Classic Black, Island Breeze, and Ginger Peach.

Visit the links above to check out my reviews, and then head over to Mighty Leaf to start saving, brewing, and sipping savory iced teas for the summer. Hurry, because this offer ends August 15th!

TranquiliTEA

My apologies for not posting in a while… but I have an excuse! I am hoping that this post (and these pictures) will make up for it, though.

Last Monday through Wednesday I took a mini vacation with my dad and went to Warsaw, Indiana to my grandma’s lake cottage. Fishing and swimming are the main things to do up there… and we love to do both! However, long story short, I didn’t catch any fish but my dad and grandma caught around 15-20. Good times!

I packed light, so in order to cure my tea craving I grabbed a couple of Tazo’s Zen tea bags. Yes, I know shame on me for using bagged tea… but I didn’t really have an option because of the equipment I had to work with. The scenery made up for my lack of higher quality tea, however. I wish I could have my tea while sitting on the bank of a lake every morning!

While we were there, my grandma made Sunshine Muffins – a recipe she got from Sunny Anderson on Food Network (e-mail me for the recipe). The muffins had strawberries, blueberries, banana, and walnuts in each of them. They were really good, not too sweet and very moist. They complemented my tea quite well.

The next day, my aunt, grandma, and I went to Shipshewana to visit a huge flea market. We only spent about three hours there because by noon it had become overwhelmingly hot. Both my aunt and I bought a pair of shoes by the brand name of Rariva… they are kind of like Crocs, basically. I always poked fun at these kinds of shoes… but, to my surprise, they are actually comfortable!

That evening I took my grandma’s golf cart out and tried to take some pictures. I hated leaving the cottage because it is so scenic up there. I live in the city so the sights and sounds are a little different than what is at the lake. Unfortunately, my camera’s battery died soon after I started taking pictures… but you can take a look at what I managed to capture.

Just before dusk on the lake.

One of the flowers in my grandma's garden.

I am not sure how this happened but this picture came out like this - the grass looks blue which makes the yellow flower really stand out. I did not do any retouching to this picure.

I don't think this picture really needs words.

Tea Interrupted

Well… I was going to do a tea review today, but that got put on hold when two unrelated things had my attention a little more than what was in my cup.

First, my family and I are dog-sitting a friend’s Chihuahua, named Thumbelina (the tan one). I have a Chihuahua of my own, named Zoe (the black one) so it was nice to have a dog her size that she could play with. However, they are a handful. Thumbelina is still a puppy so she loves to rough house and get into everything. She has found a way to bring the puppy out of four year old Zoe, thus, I have been constantly keeping an eye on them as they wrestle and run through the house. It was a nice change of routine. Good times, nonetheless.

I do want to stress that there is no such thing as a “tea-cup” Chihuahua. That is an Americanized made up term used to market Chihuahuas. It frustrates me when people use that term because it shows so much ignorance and how those particular people were fooled into thinking they bought a “special” pocket sized pet. Chihuahuas are Chihuahuas. Some may be smaller than others once they reach adulthood, but “tea-cup” Chihuahuas do not exist.

Note: In the first picture, it may look like the dogs were fighting, but they were only playing with each other when I took that picture. It kind of looks like the freeze frame ending from Rocky, doesn’t it?

Then, if that wasn’t enough, we got hit by a powerful thunderstorm. I normally don’t pay much attention to a little rain, but soon after the storm hit I started to hear “tink… tink… tink” on the window behind me. When the “tink’s” grew louder and increased in frequency, I looked out of the window to discover that it was hailing.

The wind was blowing so hard and the hail was coming down in such big pieces that I couldn’t even see the neighbor’s house across the street. It had become so loud in the house, because of the hail hitting the windows, that the dogs were freaking out. They would not leave my side. The good news was that the storm passed just as quickly as it arrived and no real damage was done.

So, I did not get my intended tea review done, but it was a pretty exciting day. I am overwhelmed by the cuteness as the Chi’s play on the floor and sleep on my lap (which together they only weigh about seven pounds). Also, we experience storms quite often in Indiana, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen quarter size hail like I did today. I’m sure there will be time for tea tomorrow.

Update!

Ni Hao!

Yes, it's true, I'm still alive and kicking. I know I haven't posted in a while... 17 credit hours of classes kept me pretty busy. However, school is out for the summer! Woot! I am taking one summer course but I have loads of free time now. I can't wait to get started on all of the tea reviews I have set up for the summer.

Before I get to the reviews, though, you may have noticed some changes to MySI (pronouced "my-sigh": short for My Steeped IdentiTEA). I have completely changed the layout and the color scheme. My blog used to be black and green (my two favorite colors), however, I decided to go with an Oriental theme in order to complement most of the teas that I drink.

The background is custom made by yours truely using the Chinese and Japanese colors of orange, yellow, red, brown, and black. A lot of the changes that were made involved editing blogger with HTML. I knew a little HTML to begin with, but not enough to do what I wanted to do with my blog. This complete transformation took me about 12-14 hours to teach myself HTML and do the necessary photo editing. The end result was worth it, though. I think it really looks amazing!

After looking over my tea collection, I have tons of fruit flavored teas from Adagio and few from Custom Leaf. I am thinking about doing a "Fruit Week" on MySI and reviewing a different fruit flavored tea each day. There will be a list on the right side bar about upcoming teas that will receive reviews once I get "Fruit Week" started. I have more than seven fruit flavored teas, so I am sure that "Fruit Week" will get extended into "Weeks."

Thanks for sticking with me! I hope to bring more tea reviews for you to check out in the next few weeks. Drink up!

Introduction

After 5 minutes of sitting and staring at the blinking cursor with my hands frozen in a hovering position over the keyboard, I still don't know what to say. It is now that I officially realize that I have never been good with introductions. Yes yes, I have taken English and writing classes in high school and college. I know I'm supposed to start broad and pull the reader in. However, where do I begin when talking about my life? How do I write something where I can't pull already proven facts from web sites or books? What do I do without a thesis? How do I site my memories and experiences in MLA or APA format? Where do I begin to tell the world how a simple substance literally changed my outlook on life?

That substance I'm talking about is tea. As of this moment in time, I have never seen a recipe start off with boiling water and produce such a colorful, aromatic, warm, comforting, bittersweet product as I have with tea.

The history of tea is amazing all by itself. The origins of being drunk by Buddhist monks before long hours of meditation should tell anyone that this is a sacred liquid. The fall of Buddhism almost destroyed the consumption of tea completely until the British got their hands on it. Tea was so well liked by the British that they ingenuously found ways to keep the supply of tea coming across their borders. The opium wars in China started because of the British’s' love for tea! Tea started a war! Not alcohol, not drugs, not boundary disputes, in this case, tea was the cause. I don't know about you, but to me that right there is a good enough reason for me to investigate this substance.

However, that is not the reason I became interested in tea. I let my own curiosity and, eventually, taste buds lead the way. At the time of my personal discovery of tea, I was simply looking for a hobby. I, at first, knew that I wanted to collect something. However, I wanted something with variety so I didn't get bored easily with it. I wanted it to be interactive, also. I didn't want something that just sat on a shelf. I wanted to use it. Another thing is I wanted this hobby to be different. I wanted to be one of the few to participate but also be able to talk to other people with this similar hobby. Also, this hobby had to be affordable for this poor college student. Above all, though, the hobby had to be good for me. It had to be a healthy habit. I was looking for something to improve my well being and not just drain my wallet.

And then there was tea. It was all the above. It was the two main things: affordable and healthy. I could collect the many teapots and teacups that I had found on the internet. I could interact with tea daily. After doing more research I found the variety of teas. There is not only the traditional black, but green, white, and oolong teas as well. I noticed that more people drink coffee so tea drinkers were "one of the few." However, there were still enough people who had experienced tea in order for me to share my thoughts and opinions about it. It was perfect!

I ordered my first kettle, teapot, teacup, and tea (of course) online and waited ever so patiently for it to arrive. When it did I was so excited about it that I tried the first tea that stuck out from the rest. The name of that tea was "Scarlet Glow," a floral blend.

I opened the package and was hit with the aroma of a garden. I was skeptical if I would even like the taste because I'm a very picky person. However, I carefully measured a teaspoon of leaves and placed them into the teapot. I waited for the water to boil and when it was done, I poured it over the leaves. I remember taping my fingernails on the counter as I wanted for 3 minutes to pass by. Once my tea was steeped I poured it carefully through a strainer and into my teacup. The christening of my tea ware with my first cup of tea was complete.

I sat there, nervously waiting for the tea to cool. It was here I noticed that tea actually forces you to slow down. When I received my package of tea ware, I torn it open like a ravage animal. I hurriedly set up everything: plugged in my electric kettle, picked out my tea, measured it, placed it in the teapot, poured boiling water over it. However, there was nothing I could do, but sit and wait for it to cool. So I sat there. And waited. And waited. And waited. All the while, I became aware that I not so anxious anymore. I stopped taping my fingers. My leg stopped bouncing. I relaxed. My mind started drifting to events that happened earlier that day. I reflected on life, family, friends, etc. I looked down and noticed the beautiful red color coming from my cup. I lowered my head to get a better smell of the aroma. However, before I knew it, my tea had cooled and I was able to take a sip. I did so and was hit with more flavor than any soda or soft drink could give me. No sugar, no artificial flavors, no preservatives, nothing but the essential vitamins, anti-oxidants, and nutrients coming from the liquid were being consumed. And yet, all that flavor! I was sold.

So, as you can see, there was no thesis, no parenthetical citations, and no bibliography. However, I'm hoping this introduction will, at least, give you an idea of what is to come as I take you on a journey through my life in a teacup.