My mother was English. The stereotypical stiff-upper-lip, reserved, rather formal Brit. Of course, she drank tea. Lots of tea. For many years, Mom couldn’t get what she called “proper tea” in America and, unwilling to accept a Lipton’s tea bag, she had my grandmother ship her loose leaf tea her several times a year. I still remember my mother getting those tea gift packages from England which often included various English biscuits. Much to her chagrin, I called the biscuits cookies, drank my tea in a more American style with lemon and honey and, frankly, preferred coffee.
I am reminded of this because January is National Hot Tea Month. Never heard of it? Neither had I until I started to plan what gourmet gifts I was going to write about in 2010. That led me to a list of fairly abstruse food celebrations including National Hot Tea Month.
I began to think about tea being such a great thing to drink when it’s cold. Over the last few years, there have been numerous reports about the health benefits of drinking tea, especially for a boost to your immune system. Sounds like a good thing to do during the flu season and all those news reports about H1N1, doesn’t it?
So consider putting those Starbucks gift cards away for awhile and trying out some gourmet tea. I know what you’re thinking. What if you don’t have a tea kettle or an heirloom bone china tea pot? What if you don’t want to bother with measuring loose tea leaves and using an infuser? What if you’re just kind of lazy? My mother and most of of the population of England would say that tea bags and gourmet tea are an oxymoron. They’re wrong. A great little company called Mighty Leaf has found a new approach to tea bags. Mighty Leaf developed a new material for their tea bags, creating an award winning silken and biodegradable Tea Pouch. They fill the pouch with the world’s finest whole tea leaves, herbs, fruits and flavors. These gourmet tea leaves are even fun to watch as they steep, expanding and seemingly blooming in your cup, favors that Mighty Leaf calls “too big for ordinary tea bags.
Mighty Leaf has green tea, oolong tea, flavored tea, chai tea and, of course, black tea like the English drink. For those not as familiar with gourmet tea, or for sending a goumet tea gift, consider one of the sampler packs like a ML Master Tea Pouch Sampler or Abaca Holiday Tea Box.
My proper British mother may not approved of the idea of tea pouches, but I’m sure she would have agreed that Mighty Leaf has some mighty good gourmet tea for you to try today – before National Hot Tea Month is over and the weather starts to turn warm.
Related posts:
Hubby loves tea especially Earl Grey! I had no clue Jan. was Nat’l hot tea month. Cool!
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