I love tea. It’s one of my favourite warm drinks year-round but especially in the winter. Tea is so versatile in flavour, and you can really have it any way you want. There are green teas, black teas, herbal teas, and teas to help cure so many ailments. My high school dance teacher used to give us tea at the end of each semester we had with her, and we’d drink it on the last day of class while laughing and chatting together about the term. She really fueled my love of tea, as did my mom, who’s also an avid tea lover and constantly has tea ready. As a tea lover, I have to add this warning: if you don’t like bitter tea, read the instructions carefully! Certain teas are fickle and work best with the water at certain temperatures and should only be steeped for so long. That being said, I have definitely oversteeped tea, and if you’re worried about oversteeping, herbal teas are fine to oversteep.
- Chamomile
Chamomile is amazing for sleep. It doesn’t have a super-strong flavour if you’re trying to drink more tea. Chamomile is a classic tea for me, as it was one of the first I ever tried. I will drink a mug of it before bed some nights to help me relax.
- Honey lemon
This is a tea that I refuse to buy in a bag. I actually don’t think you can. Honey lemon tea is another tea I’ve had since childhood. The combination of honey and lemon helps with sore throats, and every time I have a sore throat, I make this tea before reaching for my cough drops. Will it make your sore throat go away? No, but it will help soothe it as your body naturally recovers.
- Mint
Mint is great for upset stomachs. It’s also a great plant if you’re looking for a plant to keep that’s more than just something pretty. I’ve grown mint on my porch for years, and it’s super easy to pick a few leaves and add them to boiling water.
- Orange pekoe
Now, I prefer decaf teas as you can see from this list, however, I will make an exception for orange pekoe. It is a standard-issue tea that you can find anywhere you go and order hot drinks. I prefer this one with a little sugar and cream, as I find it quite bitter when even steeping for only a few minutes.
- Honeybush, mandarin, and orange
This is a specific tea. The tea brand Twinings sells some of the best tea I’ve ever had. I’m pretty sure you can find them at any grocery store, but I like to buy them from Costco because they’re the cheapest and with their sale deal you can get 3 different kinds for a fairly reasonable price. The first tea I ever tried from them was honeybush and mandarin orange.
- Peach and orange
This is another Twinings love of mine. It’s actually one of their newest flavours, and it is so good. Twinings makes their tea with such rich flavouring where it doesn’t taste like I put flowers and leaves in my mug like I used to when I was ten and made potions in my backyard with whatever I could find on the ground.
- Decaf vanilla nut crème
This is a black tea, similar to orange pekoe, but without the caffeine. It’s from the brand Stash and has a rich nutty taste unlike any other tea I’ve ever had. Because it is a black tea, I like to add a little cream and sugar to it as well.
- Chai
Of course, this list wouldn’t be complete without a chai. Now you’ll note that I’m not saying “chai tea” because that is redundant. Chai literally means spiced tea in Chinese, which is where the English word tea originates from (to learn more visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea). The first time I had chai was at Starbucks where I tried their iced chai latte and was immediately hooked. I tried replicating it at home, but I think my mistake was buying tea bags instead of the premade chai carton they use at Starbucks.