Fresh Teas - Comforting, Delish and Low-Cal

There is a time and a place for bagged tea -- and those times should be limited to camping, traveling, and, maybe, sometimes, sheer and utter laziness. Your bagged tea collection was undoubtedly plucked off of the shelf at the grocery store in some bygone era, waiting on your kitchen counter to be submerged into hot water at anytime over the following five years (maybe longer). Even if the bags are individually foil wrapped (Stash brand, for example), the freshness suffers-- though you probably don't realize it unless you've had fresh tea leaves before. Because fresh tea is so incredibly delightful, I command you to scurry on down to your local Lupicia store or order some online. You will thank me later.

If you've never had fresh tea before, then you are in for a treat. The flavors are more pungent and pronounced than anything in pre-packaged tea bags at the grocery store. Immediately upon contact with the hot water you can see color steeping out of the leaves - no waiting ten minutes til your tea is cold to see a little color in the cup. Not to mention the amazing smells wafting up to your nose, which are released from the dry leaves themselves but become even more amazing once they've made contact with water. And the variety of flavors - oh heaven. I spent a good half hour at the Lupicia store in Century City over the weekend picking up tin after tin and giving a good sniff - eventually dulling my olfactory senses, but enjoying every second of it. There are teas with berries, teas with bits of kiwi and grapefruit, teas brimming with gorgeous flower petals, delicate green teas, smokey dark teas, minty teas with hints of lemongrass, and for the sweet tooth there are teas with essences of honey and chocolate (all varieties) and coconut and cookies. And every plain variety you can imagine from your basic chammomile (with beautiful flowers as opposed to chammoile "dust" present in the store bought version) to a nice black tea perfect with a bit of milk. There are even orzo teas which are a decent substitute for coffee - less strong and decaf, but with a dark roasted coffee flavor. Another good source for fresh teas online is Tea Laden.

Of the flavors available at Lupicia, my hands down fave is the Rooibos Mediteranne, a wonderful dark, decaf rooibos tea with bergamot - a high end version of your normal Earl Grey. You can, apparently, only pick this up online now as they have discontinued it in the stores. From Tea Laden I enjoy the Black Currant.

Once you've chosen a tea be sure to order a tea infuser - these infusers from Finum work well but whatever infuser you get make sure it has a very fine mesh so that the tea leaves don't float through. So many infusers out there are not fine enough and can really put a damper on your tea experience - who wants to be plucking tea leaves from between the teeth?

Once you've gathered the supplies, boil some water (I only like water boiled in electric tea pots or on the stove - water boiled in the microwave leaves a weird white film which is distasteful), add a teaspoon of tea leaves to the infuser, cover with hot water and steep for 3-5 minutes. Happiness in a mug.