Its time to think outside the bag

Well hello hello,
it's me again..back for some more sarcasm and getting yelled at for killing your tea? good good. learn how to make good tea you must..

soo.. the other day I was at a grocery store.. and was rather disgusted at the giant aisle filled with bagged tea. It seriously made me want to gag. Granted, it's still better than coffee.. I guess? The typical teabag contains tiny scraps of tea leaves, or tea dust..with the flavour equivalent of SAWDUST.. yum. Actually, I've heard a crazy amount of people come into the tea house that I work at and refuse to try green tea because its bitter and tastes like ass. This is because of A. They are burning it (see previous posts) and B. they are drinking "green tea" from bags. Once you go loose you never go,..noose? as in the string that hangs from your bag? I don't think that really worked but I tried.


Another comment: What is the teabag itself made of? ok so its usually some sort of material or synthetic stuff but I don't really know for sure because I don't drink it. I am going to google that shit right now. Wikipedia says plastic, silk or paper. What wikipedia DOESN'T say is all of the chemicals that are used in the bag itself. The lovely box of tea sitting in your cupboard may claim to be ORGANIC but that's the dust inside that they're claiming is organic. Also, there is no regulation on "organic" or "all natural" right now so.. anything can really put that on its packaging (although they are working on regulations!). As usual, off-topic. So most tea bags have been bleached.. bleach contains: (a solution of approximately 3–6% sodium hypochlorite), lye, oxygen bleach(which contains either hydrogen peroxide or a peroxide-releasing compound), and bleaching powder(calcium hypochlorite). (Thanks Wikipedia). So when you pour that boiled water over your teabag, some of the chemicals are released into the cup and you ingest them.. YUM! Also. I've noticed this trend that a lot of tea bags are STAPLED now instead of being sewn shut. MMMM love me some hot metal or aluminum or whatever in my tea.. TASTEA!!...not

See this lovely picture? Doesn't it resemble toilet paper (the cheap stuff) and the paper towel that you find in public washrooms? WHO would want to drink out of that crap? Not I... I would rather wipe my hands or butt with it thanks.

Also, the biggest most craptacular disadvantage of bagged "tea" is that because you are only drinking low quality scraps or dust you aren't actually getting any of the health benefits that you get from drinking a tea infused with full or loose leaf. So besides hydrating yourself..you're just drinking your dollars away you cheapo.

Customer Argument: Loose leaf tea takes too much time, so I just use bags, its the same thing

My Answer: WHY are you an idiot? (not really my answer but its what I think) it takes 2 seconds to put a tsp of loose leaf tea into an infuser and throw it into a cup of tea. Also, making tea itself should be a ritual and not a chore. It's believed that whatever feeling your emoting at the time you make your tea, ends up in the tea.. so if you're that stressed that you're just throwing in a bag, it must taste 100000 times worse than normal. You need to have a calm heart and calm mind in order to to create an calming cup of tea :)

This chick is gonna have the BEST TEA EVER!

Here are some really cool steps to take in order to achieve a calmer state of mind/enjoy your tea more:



 1. Start the day slowly. Jumping out of the bed to start the day is very common, but we'd never expect our car to rev up cold, so why expect yourself to do this? Take it easy.


2.Observe how a cat wakes up from its sleep. It curls up and stretches awake. Even birds take a few seconds to take flight once woken up from sleep.




 3. Reflect on some good thoughts first. This is a very refreshing way to begin. Those with kids will find it satisfying to spend a few minutes with them. If not, spend a few minutes observing nature. In fact, now the urban areas have more birds than villages, listen to their songs, and if you have a garden look at it, or you might have a plant growing in your balcony; see how it is growing. You do not need half an hour to do this, surely a few minutes can be spared for yourself.
    
 4. Have your morning tea. 
          Try drinking the morning tea with total awareness about the whole process.


         Feel the weight, texture, temperature of the cup as you hold.Smell the fresh aroma of the tea,    
         and become aware of the thoughts that come to your mind as you hold it.


         Observe the intention to move the hand closer to the mouth, opening of the mouth, touching the     
         cup by lips.


         Feel the tilting of the cup and warm tea moving in to the mouth touching lips and the tongue. 


       See whether you can notice the place where the taste become apparent and listen to the sound of    
       swallowing and become aware of the whole movement of the drink inside the body.When you do 
       this you will notice much more about the tea than you had felt before. Maybe you can repeat the   
       process several times if the time permits.


5. Keep trying this and you will feel the difference. You might have to wake up a few minutes early     
to start the day a bit slowly. And allow the things of the day take you on or you take them on as it  comes. Rather than rushing early in the day and getting tired at the beginning of the day, this approach is much more stable and steady




wow this blog post is going to be crazy long.. :P 
There ARE some exceptions for tea bags.. like if you buy tea filters  (read the label carefully and make sure that there are no bleaching chemicals) and fill it with loose leaf tea.. just don't staple it for the love of Jebus!

100% Unbleached Tea Filters :) YAY!

Some super easy ways to brew tea:

In a Basket!! AMAZING!

Like I said before: Once you ditch the bag and start drinking loose leaf tea you will NEVER want to go back. My friends and I that drink loose leaf can TASTE the bag itself now if we are ever offered tea in this disgusting form :p Loose leaf has more flavour. SO much flavour that it will punch you RIGHT IN THE TASTEBUDS and you will want to cry and laugh and rejoice all at the same time.. I'm not even joking. 

To conclude:

BUT

Loose Leaf Tea= Nirvana (not the band)

well.. that's all she wrote for now.. well not really because I'm still writing. My next post will be the MUCH ANTICIPATED explanation of PROCESSING and a bit about the differences between the most popular teas :) I know.. its a cliff hanger! 


Cheers!