It’s late. Dinner’s been over for hours. You’ve had a healthy snack, but your mouth still longs for something. Here’s a thought. Try a cup of tea. Not only do you get no calories with lots of flavor, brewing a nice cup of tea requires process and ritual.
Don’t rush this through the microwave. Fill a tea kettle and put it on to boil. Find a favorite mug or cup and saucer. Choose a tea. Pack loose teas in a tea ball, or in a handy T-Sac. A nice mug of tea can short-circuit the urge to engage in mindless eating.
To make things easy, keep a selection of tea packets in a pretty glass dish or clear canister on the kitchen counter. Boxes of tea out of sight in a cabinet won’t give a visual cue to think teas as often. Loose teas should be kept in airtight, solid canisters to preserve freshness, but you may want to fill a small glass container with loose teas. It’s that now-you-see-it clue again. Make sure the cover fits tight.
Flavors abound in today’s tea market. Caffeinated, de-caffeinated or herbal, the choice is yours. You don’t need to live in a city big enough for a tea shop to get good teas, either. Most supermarkets carry a respectable selection. The internet offers endless choices, but if you’re lucky enough to have a tea shop in your town, plan a visit. Be warned. The selection can be dizzying.
In St. Louis, visit the Traveling Tea shop in historic Benton Park. Pick up a box of 100 T-sacs, a unique tea bag you fill with loose tea. Of course, teas and T-Sacs can be purchased online, too. Try Stash teas from Classical Coffee, an online coffee and tea vendor, based in St. Louis. Search out the tea shops in your hometown for a little field trip to see, smell and taste the teas.
Another advantage of tea-sipping is that it slows me down enough to engage in creative distractions, another alternative to thoughtless food consumption. Here’s my list. Listen to a favorite cd, pull out the bead box and make a pair of earrings, put together a jigsaw puzzle, read an amusing book, like a mystery.
To drink in the world of teas through mystery books, pick up the Tea Shop Mysteries by Laura Childs. Sleuth Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop in historic Charleston, South Carolina, serves up teas, scones and cakes. Along the way she uncovers murderers, fiendish plots and mayhem a-plenty. If you’re the sort who likes to read books in order, start with Death by Darjeeling, the first in the tea shop series. The author includes tea history, trivia and lots of recipes in each book.
If you’re a committed coffee drinker, read Sandy Murphy’s post for King’s River Life pairing coffees with mystery books. Be warned, one of her selections focuses on a chocolatier turned sleuth, so chocolate’s mentioned. Be strong.
Note: the lead illustration for this post, by Ann Paidrick, was created using Adobe Illustrator, a vector drawing program. View more examples of her vector-generated photo realistic images and illustrations here.