Morning tea
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I post a picture or two and just a few words.
We drink almost nothing but water around these parts, but in the winter, a morning cup of tea with sugar and a splash of cream is a mainstay for us. Brewed from tea bags, it costs very little even if you buy the slightly more expensive boxes of fun flavors, such as vanilla chai.
And it's way less expensive than turning up the heat. 😉
Funny, I'm having tea right now!
That sounds really good. We are big coffee drinkers around these parts, but I do love me some Chai tea, too. I use evap instead of cream. Seems to be cheaper and I love the creamy taste. Stay warm!
I drink so much tea in the winter! I also drink coffee in the morning, but otherwise I drink water. The tea is very warming!
Oh I am so big on tea! Love it.
After much contemplation about cost/usage/frugality, I bought an electric tea kettle. It heats so fast and I can make iced tea/tea/hot chocolate. I'm considering making instant coffee for that quick cup in the afternoon. Not sure if it uses less energy, but it has turned out to be a nice investment!
I've been wondering about those...I know they use less electricity, but man, I don't know if I have the kitchen space to spare.
As an Anglophile I can say that no kitchen is complete without a kettle. We drink a lot of tea in our house, and I like to make coffee in a French Press, and I find it indispensable for that. I also occasionally use it to cook hardboiled eggs.
I do keep it under the counter when not in use...did have to re-configure a few things 😉 I was wondering about heating water on the stove for cooking-it seems to heat up much faster than the gas stove-and then maybe you could pour the water into the stove pot?
I've wanted one of those for a while, but like Kristen, don't know if I have the counter space. But they sound awfully nice!
Oh, I love tea! And my electric kettle, especially since I don't have a microwave. Calming tea has been a lifesaver for me. Bless you all.
I have one too. Mine has the variable temps which in my opinion make tea taste better as you really are not suppose to seep your tea at boiling water temp. Totally worth it for us even in the summer when I'm too lazy to make sun tea.
Love it.god bless you
I indulge in a cup of hot Earl Grey with honey in the winter. 🙂 I've turned my niece into a hot tea drinker as well. 😀 Speaking of.....I'm off to turn my kettle on!
Tea is my cure for anything that ails me.
I love tea......but the caffeine is not good for me. So I always buy decaffeinated. In the winter months when I really need the extra water, I boil the kettle, pour some hot water over a slice of lemon and add a wee bit of honey.....I call it "therapy in a cup" lol
You should try some of the 'herbal' teas! Two of my faves that are caffeine free are Orange Zinger and the Blueberry. Both are SO GOOD.
Sonia is a fruit tea nut...the fruity stuff is her very favorite.
I am all about tea. I even have a tea-motif in some of my decorating.
I saw the suggestion of an electric kettle. Another option that I use is to boil a pot of water in the morning and put the extra hot water in an insulated carafe (or you could use a large thermos). I find it keeps the water agreeably hot for a good 8 hours and I can have tea all day without re-heating my stove. Since you don't need to keep it near an outlet, it can "live" in multiple places in your home. I, too, have a small kitchen and countertop space is at a premium.
I am trying to minimize my caffeine intake but don't care for most herbal teas--to me, they have a sour taste. If anyone knows of herbal teas that taste like "real" tea, can you please mention it in your comments? 🙂
Could you drink decaf regular tea? Or green tea? I think that has less caffeine than black tea.
Kris, decaf regular tea tastes the most like real black tea to me. I find the herbal teas taste too strong, as well. From the Mayo Clinic, the approximate caffeine content for decaf black tea is 0-12 mg/8 oz, for regular tea is 14-61 mg/8 oz, and for green tea is 24-40 mg/8oz. The range of values is likely dependent on how the tea is processed and -what's more in your control - how long you brew it.
Thanks--but I have reflux and my doctor just told me that even the trace amounts of caffeine in decaf teas and green and white teas can be irritating, so, while I doubt I'll ever be completely caffeine-free, I would like to find an herbal that I could drink to minimize my intake even further. I do have a little bit of loose-leaf herbal tea from a friend of mine who lived in Canada, but I can't get it here and she no longer lives there. It has sweet basil as a primary ingredient so I'm wondering if I could find an herbal in which that was the main ingredient--it has more the taste of traditional black tea.
I don't really know about your particular tastes, but some of my favorites that are naturally caffeine free are peppermint tea and rooibos tea. Rooibos comes in lots of different flavor varieties and I haven't found one yet that I haven't liked.
Thanks for your comments. I may have to check out the rooibos tea--that's sounding like my best option so far.
Not a tea or coffee drinker, but I do love hot mulled apple cider and especially hot chocolate. Mmmmmm.
I was hoping from the title ya'll would be drinking from that nice tea set your mother got your daughters for Christmas a couple of years ago! I love hot tea but I like my cups! 🙂
Oh, my girls use their tea set on a very regular basis. It's not collecting dust!
great! I love tea sets!
Oh boy, I get to share a favorite tea and a frugal hack today!
My favorite tea is not really tea at all. It's Tazo Passion, described on the box as "An exuberant herbal infusion of hibiscus, orange peel, rose hips and passion fruit flavors." It has no caffeine and is naturally sweet, so sugar is not needed. That's the yummy part.
Here's the frugal part: I use a single regular-size teabag. (They make jumbo bags. Not those. Not frugal.) I add the teabag to my 4 1/2 cup (thrifted) teapot, fill with rolling-boil hot water (yes, I warm the pot first) and let it steep for about five minutes. I get a strong, fragrant pot of tea that wakes me up and reheats well in the micro, when there's any left.
This works so well that I never put a teabag of any kind into an individual teacup or mug. I always get more yield if I make it in my little teapot with boiling water and then pour it out into my favorite mug. And repeat.
It never gets bitter, probably because it's not actually tea and of course, there's no caffeine.
Fair warning: I suspect it will send your sweet Sonia over the moon.
Oh, I've seen that variety in the store but haven't managed to steer from my chai. I'll pick up a box next time.
I love Tazo Passion. I used their jumbo tea bags to make ice tea last summer (I often added some fresh peppermint when I brewed it). I drank gallons and gallons of this stuff - it is so good! I like it hot too.
It's summer here in NZ so we are loving cheap, homemade iced tea 🙂
I forget that tea drinking is novel to Americans, and so are electric kettles. While coffee drinking is also popular in Australia, everyone here drinks a lot of black tea (and to a lesser extent, green and herbal teas), but iced teas are still relatively new. I've been making it over the past couple of weeks because we are in the middle of a heat wave and I can't face hot drinks as much, but even yesterday when it was 43 degrees (Celsius, I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit - bloody hot!) I still stopped in for a hot cuppa with my mum (Twinings, served properly in a cup and saucer, of course!).
Glad to hear that you are enjoying it - there's nothing like it to relax and refresh.