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.

A MUST For Any Tea Drinker: Tea Mug With Infuser (17.99)

There is nothing that beats a really good cup of tea. And while pre packaged sachets of tea work in a bind, nothing can hold a candle to a hot cup of tea brewed from real tea leaves and using hot water heated in a kettle. And non of that microwaved stuff. For some reason the microwave leaves a weird bubbly film of what must be radiation in the water. Ick!

Anyway, the idea of a tea mug with an infuser is one of those things that generally seems better in theory than in practice. (Not unlike other things that I could name, but this a G-rated blog, so I won't say anymore!) Usually the infusers don't fit properly and have holes so big that you are left with a mug of tea mud that must be chewed because of the sludge formed by all of the escaped tea leaves. Hardly appetizing. And those little ball infusers are not much better since they often don't close properly and the holes are also too big, allowing too many leaves to sneak through. Not to mention that your mug of tea goes cold while it is steeping. And while tea pots are another option, many of us don't need to make tea for four.

Well, this is the best tea mug that I have ever seen and, having tested it this morning, operates just as you always imagined a tea mug with an infuser SHOULD operate, only possibly better. It is nice and big, holding 14 oz. I don't know about you, but I hate little cups of tea that hardly allow me to enjoy even a minute of my show or a paragraph of my book before it is gone. The infuser is very fine so nothing is leaking through, plus it sits snugly into a ceramic base which is then plopped into the cup, making a seal so that no steam escapes around the edges and the contraption can be easily cleaned. And then there is the lid, which fits over it all so tightly that the mug will stay nice and hot while steeping. And even better, the lid flips over so that you can lay it alongside your mug and there is a groove in the middle wherein you can place your used and dripping infuser safely to the side while you sip. It really can't get much better. I was lucky enough to receive mine as a gift, but after doing some research this morning, you can order yours from Amazon. It is distributed by a company called For Life Design, but it looks like they only sell wholesale through their site so you need to get it from Amazon Marketplace. For Life Design also has a nice photo of the mug, so you can see how the infuser sits in the lid. I'm a HUGE, HUGE fan!