Time for tea

An article in November’s Good Housekeeping discussed the benefits of a daily herbal cuppa. Drinking herbs that have been steeped in hot water can help boost our wellbeing, help revive, relax and boost our memory.

It works by drawing out the compounds from plants that are caffeine free, gaining their beneficial properties such as water-soluble vitamins and antioxidants. It’s super easy to make. One heaped teaspoon per mug of hot water, infuse for ten minutes, discard the herbs and enjoy. It can be a few moments of mindfulness as you draw in the smell and taste.

Different herbs have different benefits and combining some can help prevent feelings of stress, bloating, depression, can make us feel more awake, flushed, focussed, less headachy or overheated (for those of us women of a certain age).

To reduce stress – Chamomile, lavender and pink rosebuds. Use half the lavender to the other ingredients, 25g each of chamomile and pink rosebuds to 15g lavender.

To feel less bloated – fennel, peppermint and catmint. Drink after dinner, equal parts of each herb.

To reduce feeling low – Pink rosebuds, lemon verbena and lemon balm. Blend 25g of each for an uplifting feeling, clear the cobwebs and give yourself a hug.

To feel more awake – Chamomile, lime flowers and valerian. Mix in equal parts for a soothing, easy drink.

To feel less flushed – Red clover, rose and sage – 30g each of rose and sae to 40g red cover to help with those menopausal moments.

To be more focussed – Rosemary, ginkgo and peppermint – 25g each for a perkier brain.

To reduce headaches – Rosemary, peppermint, ginger and lime flower. Blend in equal parts to take the edge off the ache.

To reduce overheating – Peppermint, lemon balm and lemon peel. Mix 50g peppermint, 40g lemon balm and 10g lemon peel to cool down.

Other suggested herbs were Nettle filled with vitamins, minerals and protein for nourishing and cleansing and Elderflower to help fight colds and ease sinus problems.

The article’s experts suggested that loose tea is better than tea bags as some of the volatile oils in herbs can evaporate during the tea bagging process and they lose some of their flavour. If you’re making your own blend then try 1.2 teaspoons of herbs per person, according to taste preferences. Leaving is to infuse for five to ten minutes, but harder herbs and barks will need longer. No more than three cups per day is the recommended maximum. Fresh herbs are best as they are slightly milder flavoured but you’ll need twice the amount. Cold brew is just as good so if you prefer iced tea it won’t diminish the effects. You can of course by all the separate herbs and concoct your own blends but there is an increasing market in ready mades now.

I am not a massive tea drinker, certainly not standard black tea anyway. I do enjoy a mint tea in the afternoon and find it quite refreshing, but I’m not convinced about purchasing different blends until I’ve been able to try it without shelling out for expensive products. If someone has some I’ll try it.

What’s your favourite tea?

Are you a coffee or tea person?

When I was very much younger, living with my parents, I used to drink milky tea. Pretty much everyone in the household did so it seemed the natural thing to do. Then for some reason, at I can’t remember what age, I decided I didn’t like tea anymore.

I remember working for a firm of accountants who had pods of tea, coffee or hot chocolate, that you tipped into you mug then topped it up with hot water. The tea and the coffee came in with milk, or without milk options. I was still predominately drinking white tea then. We ran out of white tea, so I moved over to white coffee instead. It was tolerable. Then we ran out of white coffee as well, so I migrated to black coffee.

I’ve never really been a big fan of milk, or dairy type products, yoghurts and the like. It all tastes like gone off milk to me. It therefore didn’t seem too much of a problem to shift to black coffee.

Since then, I’ve never gone back to drinking milk in my hot beverage, or drinking tea. The traditional sort anyway.

When I changed jobs in August 1990 the new company had a Maxpax machine. Unlimited, short stumpy looking paper cups full of tepid watery stuff that didn’t resemble anything particularly. I do recall getting through somewhere in the region of eight cups of this black liquid throughout the average day, until one day I decided imbibing that quantity of caffeine probably wasn’t good for me. I decided to go cold turkey and just stop, substituting my intake with water instead. For the first two weeks I had the worst withdrawal headaches I can ever remember.

Over the years, I have refined my taste buds and consider myself a bit of a coffee snob now. We rarely drink instant coffee, and we now grind beans first thing in the morning ready for my travel cafetiere to take to work each morning. If we are at home, the coffee pot goes on for a good two mugs worth to start the day.

When I first started my current substantive post, one of my team kindly offered to make me a coffee and said they had decent stuff, promptly producing a tub of Azera. I turned my nose up and retrieved my travel mug and asked her to take a deep sniff of what I called real coffee. She never offered again.

I have never returned to tea drinking with the exception of going through a phase of raspberry tea in the afternoons but honestly found that a bit too sweet. After a bit of research I swapped that for mint tea, and now tend to have a mint tea when I’m at home or out and about in the afternoon.

Two mugs of real coffee in the morning, occasionally a mint tea in the afternoon, but the rest of the day its good old water. Unless its wine Wednesday of course (in the evening)!

Winter Walks

We needed to drop some documentation off to a friend for their signatures so decided to use it as an opportunity for our daily exercise walk. They live about 2 miles away, so it wasn’t going to be too hard to walk there and back. In fact we’ve done it several times, especially last year.

Having looked at the weather forecast for the week ahead it was declared that today would be the better day to do that.

We start by walking into town, then taking the footpath round the back of the University campus. This takes you northwards along the river and up through a park before joining the housing estate where our friends live.

As we’ve walked this route many times over the last 10 months we’ve seen the landscape change. We’ve seen it through spring and summer and autumn and now winter.

The river rises with the rain fall and floods the surrounding fields, then it recedes to reveal dried out earth in the heat of summer. The trees bud, leaf and become home to wildlife, then shed to reveal the abandoned birds nests.

The number of people we pass fluctuates with the seasons. Everyone and his mother was out in the summer. You ran the risk of being run over by errant cyclists who seem to think they own the footpath. Children who have no idea how to walk in straight lines don’t seem to get out of the way whichever side of the path you walk on. And dogs. Dogs on leads, dogs on the loose, dogs walking calmly, dogs getting hysterical at the thought the ball might get thrown any second now. Dogs that want to come and say hello, and dogs who look at you for help as this is the eleventybillionth walk they’ve been on today.

Only the die hards venture out in the winter time. Everyone wrapped up in hat, gloves and scarf. Breath visible in the cold nip of air. Hardly any birdsong. Everyone walking with more sense of urgency to get back home in the warm.

We get to our friends but of course we can’t go in. We weren’t even going to stop, just push an envelope with the documents to sign through the letterbox. They heard the rattle so popped their heads up at the window like meerkats on the lookout. Then came to the front door to say hello. We stood well back at the end of the garden path. We didn’t chat for long as didn’t want them standing on their doorstep, letting all their home’s warmth out. Then we trudged back home.

A slightly different route back for a change. Took us along the side of the railway line back into town. Didn’t see any trains go by. The footpaths were a bit mucky. By now it was getting a bit dark. I was getting a bit warm under all the wrappings. I was ready to get back home and have a nice cup of mint tea.

4.5 miles walked in an hour and a half (including chatting time). That’s my exercise for the day.

Boxing Day Brunch and embracing the Hygge

So having spoken about overindulgence of Christmas day, Boxing Day seemed much more civilised.

We had luxuriated in an epic sleep in. Having gone to bed around midnight. C had turned the alarms off, so it was lovely to wake up naturally instead of being ripped awake by a shrieking radio. Nearly 9 hours of sleep clocked up.

We had nowhere to go and nothing in particular to do, so took our time getting up, showered and dressed. C started cooking and at about 10:30 delivered a small cooked breakfast of bacon, beans, egg and toast. Just what the doctor ordered.

After a lazy morning we decided we’d go for a walk through the city centre parks. We wouldn’t be needing lunch as we were still going on brunch and yesterday’s dinner.

A 5.5m walk through the parks seemed to be precisely what half of the inhabitants of town were also doing. It was actually quite pleasant. Just the right amount of autumnal weather. Coolish but not too cold, a gentle breeze but not windy. Wrapped up against it all, and with a steady pace, we were kept warm.

I must admit at about two thirds of the way round I was starting to think my hips were aching a bit and the prospect of the road home, including the incline over the railway bridge really wasn’t helping. The thing that kept me going was getting back home for a cup of mint tea and the last mince pie.

Our walk had taken about 2 hours. I was actually worn out. I had started to think about Hygge, pronounced hooga, the Danish sense of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that gives a sense of contentment and well being. I was looking forward to snuggling under my sofa blanket, tea and mince pie in hand. Very cozy, very comfortable and very content.