The Great Big Tea Adventure

I'm going through a declutter fever. Next, is the small cabinet in our kitchen that holds all of my tea collection. I'm throwing everything out which has been there for years and start new. I want suggestions.

1. I love Rooibos.
2. I don't like caffeine but every tea cabinet must have some sort of caffinated tea so the lighter variety is fine.
3. I'm staying away from Chamomile as it lowers my BP.

Oh and I'm interested in iced tea and hot tea alike. What works best? What do you hide in your kitchen? share share share!

Huh, I didn't know that about chamomile. Does it lower BP for everyone? Maybe I can get my husband to drink some.

(Oops, asking another question instead of answering yours is not very helpful, is it?)

>4 supercell:
Yikes! Actually, I've had it in the past, and I love the smell but just so-so about the taste. And I could never get DH to drink it anyway. His (nonalcoholic) drink of choice is Lipton brewed ice tea, lots of lemon, no sugar.

>3 TooBusyReading: Don't we all hehe.

>4 supercell: That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard about tea lol.

>5 TooBusyReading: Many herbal teas do in fact lower blood pressure (aniseed/fennel does too). I wasn't aware of this until I started noticing the obvious sleepiness but accompanied with lightheadedness- the sort that is normally linked to low BP. When I stopped drinking it, the lightheadedness gradually stopped. You can google it, you'll find plenty of literature to support this but here's an interesting abstract of a study done that actually proved "peppermint" had the greatest influence on lowering BP.

http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/Current/Projects/J1224.pdf

That's interesting. I experience tiredness with headaches after drinking a lot of tea as well, but I always thought it was the dehydrating effect of caffeine.

Lowering BP can't really be a bad thing for many people, can it? In this day an age when it is said that we all consume too much sodium?

7: For some people, it can be a benefit. For myself, it can cause life threatening issues as I already have low blood pressure. I actually have to work to keep my bp up.

Thanks, Snodgrass. I had never noticed a correlation, but then, I go through life mostly unaware.

7 > Well your tiredness could be related to other things. It's not a bad thing unless you have low BP similar to the risks of eating salty food if you have hypertension.

8 > Me too :( What kind of things are you doing that has worked for you in maintaining good BP? The only thing I'm doing is drinking plenty of water and sprinkling salt on everything.

9 > You're welcome. I'm glad you found it useful. I think I should change the post subject already hehe.

10 > What about Broccoli? In the light and scheme of all things, how are they guilty too? (jk)

I decluttered my tea cabinet recently, too. I've been holding off for a long time, because it was hard to just dump it, even though it was a couple years old and/or tea I just didn't like. It was liberating!

I haven't tried much rooibos tea, so I wouldn't know what to recommend. I ordered a sample sachet cube from Harney & Sons, and it has been an interesting adventure, trying all the different teas. The Hot Cinnamon (black) tea is wonderful. Also enjoyed the Paris (black) tea. The cube of sachets has a variety of black and herbal. I think there were one or two rooibos teas in there.

http://amzn.com/B00BAWVY0W
Sounds rather awful to me, even though I like both broccoli and cilantro.

> 12 Thanks for the suggestion. The cinnamon black sounds really nice. Rooibos was on my blacklist when I first got introduced to it. I thought it smelled really weird but after a couple of cups I can't get enough of it. I rarely drink it plain though. The one I currently use is Lavender/Rooibos- really good.

> 13 Politics & Broccolis that would be the suggested name of your next book. On the other hand, was never a fan of liquorice. Reminds me of cough syrups.

> 14 Seriously? I tried Cilantro tea before though. It's very light and highly detoxing especially after a meal but you can alway skip the box and just run hot water on a few cilantro stems in your kitchen.

There's a red lychee blend that I really like, if you'd want to try one yourself.

Mariage Freres has a rooibos with the same blend of flavors as their famous Marco Polo tea; it's very good!

> 16 Lychee? That's interesting.

> 17 Thanks, will look it up!