Message in a Bottle

Who needs to wait for the bottle to land on the beach when you can have a message with every cup of tea? One of my pals on Shelter Island said she saves the sayings attached to her tea bag. Got me reading them. They are great...nice, thought-provoking. Yogi teas have the best! I love tea and find it comforting. Needed a big warm mugful after last night's memorial service in Tuscon.

These are the bagged teas I love (except I am out of kukicha, a Japanese twig tea) and below is an especially appropriate message from a cup yesterday.

Pretty timely and profound, right?

If you are also a tea drinker, please read the post from December 16th, Cracking through My Comfort Zone. I try to buy teas that support the small farmers. My favorite brand is Organic India. I love the tulsi base of every tea but what really thrills me is that on every box there is a story about the family raising the tea and how Organic India works to help sustain family farms and heritage teas. Lovely.

There are also lots of fabulous loose teas I love...no sayings attached, but with the deep, aromatic flavors they have, I create my own, most starting with "Ahhh..."!

And, drinking needn't be the end point for tea. Green tea is great to put in a spray bottle and spritz your face with and many teas are great to cook with instead of using just plain water. I use them often in my morning shake, too. Here is a new one I just made from the Vitamix cookbook...really good for your skin from the inside out!

Orient Express Smoothie

1 cup hot green tea
1/2-1 teaspoon fresh ginger
2 tablespoons honey
2 cups frozen mango chunks (or mix of frozen berries and mango)
2 cups ice

Place all in blender and blend away. Serves 1.