Drink to feel healthy

Because I still have a whole ounce of the Genmalcha tea left, I didn't buy any more loose leaf tea today. Instead, I decided to purchase a single cup to try, and this week's is an Oolong, dubbed Dung ti. Oolong, as I discovered today, is the type of tea between green and black in oxidation level, although it is best steeped for the shorter time of a green tea. 

The first thing I noticed was the tea's rich, warm hue. I was reminded of all the times I have put a bottle of honey in the microwave to warm up and make dispensing honey easier, only to accidently burn myself of the runny honey because I left it in the microwave too long. I was surprised at the amber color, but then again, as this is the first Oolong tea I remember drinking, I'm not sure what I was expecting.

To my uneducated taste buds, Dung ti seemed a natural flavor, grassy with a hint of straw, or as my friend C. described it, "like a meadow." If I hadn't known it to be Oolong, I would probably have erroneously assumed it a green tea. The taste was light and rested on the middle of my tongue instead of spreading out and around the sides. However, my mouth seemed drier after I finished the tea than before, but perhaps that's a unique quirk of mine. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture. But here's the cup!

As she measured out leaves and pushed them into the small brewing bag, the barista told me the story of the customer who lived in China for years and drank Dung ti multiple times a day. When he moved back to the United States, he searched everywhere for a comparable blend, but he eventually had to resort to ordering Dung ti online. Upon drinking this tea from the shop, though, he confessed it was one of the closest things he'd found in the US. "And I take that as a compliment," said the barista.

While not a tea I might drink on a regular basis, I did enjoy it for the most part. Something about the flavor made me feel healthy, perhaps even healthier than when I drink green tea. Maybe Dung ti will become my After-Eating-Junk-Food-Tea, to make myself feel better. 

Tea leaves

The other day, I purchased my very first tea infuser and my very first packet of loose-leaf tea. My best friend K., who is a tea enthusiast, was quite proud to hear that I was finally venturing in her footsteps.

The tea I bought was a green blend dubbed Genmalcha. I have not found myself to be a fan of green tea in the past, not iced and not hot. Typically, I don't enjoy the usual taste of green tea, but I hear no end to the benefits of drinking it. I managed to conjure up enough courage to ask the woman in the shop that I stopped in if she could recommend a good green tea for me to try, and she pointed out several for me to smell. I was most intrigued by one that boasted a description of "sweet & unique blended with toasted rice!" To me, it smelled lightly of grass and popcorn.

As she weighed out 2oz for me, the woman explained that the Genmalcha tea dated all the way back to the time of the Chinese Emperors. Once, a servant accidently spilled rice into the emperor's tea, and the infuriated ruler had the servant beheaded immediately. On a whim, the emperor tasted the tea, and to his surprise, he found the rice added a delightful flavor. Filled with remorse at his hasty punishment, the emperor named the new blend after the dead servant, Genmalcha.

Using my infuser for the first time!

Brewed, the pale green tea still had the grass and popcorn aroma from before, and the taste was similar. It was light and delicate, a soothing flavor that did not distract or confuse. To me, Genmalcha seems to be a tea well suited to reading or writing, where the brain is occupied elsewhere. I think it will soon become a staple in my tea collection, for the brew is perfect unsweetened and does not leave an aftertaste at all. It is a kind of haiku, there on your tongue for a moment, and then gone. But I enjoy the moment.

I even break non-New Year's resolutions

Yesterday, I unintentionally ingested caffeine, breaking my nine-day caffeine-free streak. Cutting caffeine out of my life was not a New Year's resolution, despite the fact the two coincided nicely; instead, it all happened because I picked up a cough the Wednesday before New Year's.

My MO the moment I realize I'm sick is to immediately cut out as much milk and dairy products from my diet as possible, to reduce phlegm. This means no cereal for breakfast, not ice cream in the evenings...and no creamer in coffee. And, since I need flavored creamer to make my coffee drinkable, the logical conclusion is no coffee. But this leaves me with the question of how to get the caffeine that I need.

For a day or two, I tried drinking black tea, and it worked to a degree, but I was still left with headaches in the afternoon. While visiting friends over the weekend, I gave up and drank coffee in the mornings, partially because it was already made and partially because I was tired of my head hurting all afternoon and evening. To make the best of a bad situation, I limited myself to less than half a cup, reasoning that such a small amount of cream wouldn't be detrimental to my throat and cough. I was delighted to find that, somehow, a quarter cup of coffee was all the caffeine I required for those days. The headaches hadn't been pointless pain after all.

On January 2, I decided to take a risk. I had been drinking so little caffeine lately; what would happen if I just didn't have any that day? A little concerned about the four-hour drive home from my friends' house ahead of me, I reassured myself that I could always stop somewhere and grab a latte or coffee someplace if needed.

I cherished a sense of accomplishment that night as I lay in bed and claimed my first completely caffeine-free, headache-free day in years.

For the next week, I stayed strong, resisting the chuckling coffee pot in our kitchen as it brewed for my roommates and the swirl and grind of the espresso machines at work. I stayed away from black and green teas (that wasn't hard, as a matter of fact. I much prefer herbal teas anyway), and I did not even have a sip of my favorite drink of hot apple juice and chai. Yesterday, with my stomach grumbling in the middle of the afternoon, I thought I would have a tiny, decaf, pumpkin spice latte, the only latte I will willingly drink, to tide me over until dinner. It was only as I finished the last bit of the 8 ounce drink that I remembered I had automatically pushed the button for regular espresso instead of decaf. My streak was ended.

But a new one starts today.

And that cough I gave up dairy for?
It turned into pneumonia.
But at least I know I tried.