I wholeheartedly admit that I fail this week. Sorry!
While I have my Monday NovelTea and Friday Photo ready and scheduled for the week, my more formidable post (about Rooibos and Honeybush… just you wait until you see the post title next Tuesday. It’s a good’un!) has been postponed to next week because I’ve been gnarly sick until just the past day or so! (This guy just below is demonstrating how I’ve felt for the past 10 days!)
The worst part about my super cold wasn’t the perpetual cough, the stuffy nose, and the headaches – it was the fact that I couldn’t indulge in my favorite relaxation technique… drinking tea.
I discovered this unfortunate fact the first day of my sickness by thinking, “Oh dear! I seem to be getting a cold. The best possible thing I can think of to make this feel better is a lovely pot of tea.” Upon making this pot of tea and beginning to sip it down, I realized that the general astringency from the black tea seemed to agitate my throat further, bringing upon me another coughing fit. I later discovered that even smoother teas led to a similar response, so I had to give it up.
Not to mention the fact that with how stuffed up my nose was, I could hardly taste my food, nonetheless the subtleties of tea!
A couple times, I was able to drink part of a cup of tea, like a ginseng oolong or a very mild green, but I wasn’t able to taste it as I usually can.
Until yesterday. Oh, the glory! I had some of the Tamayokucha that Two Leaves and a Bud was so kind as to send me after my first experience with it. This is a green tea that is described as an “extremely green tea”. I remember just after I brewed it (still with a lightly runny nose) I was shocked and excited because I could actually smell it! If you’ve suffered from a long-lasting head cold like this, you know just how wonderful a sensation that is.
Drinking tea again and actually tasting it was like a breath of fresh air, come to breathe new life into me after a grueling week!
Even though I couldn’t make use of its reviving powers during the main sickness, being able to drink tea at the end of it has helped bring me back to myself! To celebrate, I think I’ll finally do my side-by-side tasting of 3 different Da Hong Pao (Red Robe) teas (a kind of oolong tea) – one from my brother in China, one from Vital Tea Leaf, and one from Verdant Tea. You can look forward to reading more about that this weekend!
“come to breathe new life into me”
You should drink a Phoenix Tea
I am intrigued… tell me more! And maybe drop a link.
There is none. It was just a joke between what you said and the myths around the Phoenix.
*facepalm* I’m not always the brightest crayon in the box. Ha!
When they read this @lahikmajoe and @lazyliteratus will extol the virtues of Greek Mountain Tea with honey for your ailments.
It’s true. When I don’t feel well, I almost always turn to Greek Mountain Tea. It’s a bit like Chamomile. When my throat hurts, it’s one of the few things I can stand.
I will definitely look into this! Thanks for the suggestion! Do you have a link for where you would recommend picking some up?
I concur with @lahikmajoe and @thedevotea. I usually don’t fall for the hype on cure-all teas, but Greek Mountain does something special. That and it has this wonderfully wilderness-’n-citrus dual action thing going on. And with honey? Heaven.
As for tamaryokucha. That’s perhaps the ONLY sencha I actually love. Not like – love. Gyokuro comes close, but good ol’ tama still tops it. Two Leaves and a Bud puts out a good ‘un.
I picked up this tea a few weeks ago call functional flu fighter. I use it for cold and flu symptoms alike. I must say it does help. But I agree it stinks that all the other teas I usually enjoy don’t taste just right when I’m sick! Glad to see you are on the mend. Looking forward to the review of the three teas too.
Thanks for the suggestion! Where did you find this “functional flu fighter”? Is there a link you have available, perchance? I’d love to have stuff like this ready and waiting for me just in case something comes back!
Not sure if it went through, but here’s the link again http://www.thewhistlingkettle.com/teas/functional-flu-fighter-2.html I love going there in person for their amazing afternoon tea eats. Check out their menu while on their site.