Vegan MoFo: Tea

There's been a little re-organizing going on around here, and the teas finally got the upgrade they needed: a whole shelf of my cabinet! I hoard tea like I hoard herbs and spices, so I've got a lot.

I don't even really drink "tea" -- none of the stuff I like is actually Camellia Sinesis, so if you were thinking of schooling me in the ways of tea, no need. The caffeine in real tea doesn't work for me, and except for some white tea every now and then, I pretty much avoid it. But a warm cup of water with herbs floating in it makes my day.

My fave is rooibos, also known as African Red Bush Tea. Usually this is a red tea (as you'd expect) but my favorite rooibos is Green Rooibos, an unoxidized, milder form of the tea. But since the red one is the most common, a lot of my favorite tea blends use the red.

One tea I really like is this tea that I got up in Olympia when I visited my sister. It's called "Belgian Chocolate Rooibos" and I got it at a shop called The Tea Lady. Another cool one from that shop is Rishi Ginger Lime Green Rooibos. I'm practically out of that one cause I drank it all the time last year.


In this picture: green rooibos with honeybush by Numi Tea, an old Celestial Seasoning collector box filled with random tea bags, Metropolitan Tea's Chocolate Rooibos, Peppermint Tea from the farmers market, Townshend's (local tea shop) tin filled with red groats tea, Pumpkin Rooibos, Eve's Temptation (apple spice tea) from Tetsubin, a shop near where I grew up in Nyack, NY, Chai Masala from Dowel's on 1st Ave in NYC, "Hello Earth" tea, blended by a vendor at our local Last Thursday, Cramp Bark from an herbal shop, Echinacea Goldenseal from the spice shop near me, Rishi Ginger Lime Green Rooibos, Jing Mai White from Tao of Tea, White Peony from the shop near me, Cardamom Cinnamon from Republic of Tea, etc. etc.

I don't really drink a lot of tea during the spring and summer, preferring kombucha, iced minty sun tea, or water, but it just got cold, and I just made tea.


This time I combined the chocolate rooibos I described above with some chai masala from my favorite spice and lentil store back in NYC. And this here is my work tea pot that I brought home last summer and keep forgetting to bring back. I'm putting it by the door right now.