Teatime for One

So in an effort to cut down on my caffeine, acid and sugar intake, I have been drinking less Coca-Cola and coffee and instead having more hot tea.  Because let's face it -- I am still very caffeine dependent.  And I probably will always be so!

As far as health projects go - this has been a fairly easy one too.    I come from a family of avid tea drinkers so I already know what I like and I am willing to experiment a lot based on past experiences too. 

What I have found that I really like is to be able to get loose tea and empty tea bags for individual cups instead of buying so many boxes of prepackaged teas.   It is less expensive to buy the loose tea and it is often the better quality ones that are sold this way as well.   I make my own as I go because I can control how much tea I use each time.   Some people prefer to make a whole pot full at once and I do that too if I am serving more than just myself.

And why is that you ask? 
Because if it sits there too long, such as when I am drinking my first cup already, then it steeps too long and gets too strong and goes to bitter tasting.  Plus it gets cold.

Furthermore, you need yet more kitchen equipment (which I try to avoid whenever I can) or else you have to master the skill of letting all the tea leaves settle and then drinking the liquid without disturbing them....

So you will need these little things here.   You just perch the strainer over your mug and pour the tea  through it.  Pretty self explanatory really.   And it still does not catch all those pesky little leaves - so you still may have to master that "let them settle to the bottom of the cup" skill after all.