Herbal tea

We love herbal tea in our house. It is a mainstay during the winter, especially. I am a huge peppermint fan, and drank peppermint tea every morning for many years (before I started drinking coffee, after I had babies!). I still love a good, hot cup of herbal tea. Since we live in Colorado, we love to support Celestial Seasonings, which has its home in Boulder. 

One of our favorite field trips that we took was when we visited Celestial Seasonings while visiting family in Denver. They have tours of their facility during certain hours, for ages 5 and up (The first time we visited, we couldn't take the tour because Rebekah was too young.) I found the whole process to be quite fascinating, to how there was a man that tasted the teas, to how they were stamped, boxes made and folded, and even sealed in cellophane. My husband enjoyed the tour too, because he worked for a calendar production company for several years, and enjoyed seeing the production process. 

One of the highlights of the tour for me was the mint room. The mint room is separate from the other teas in the facility, because it is so strong and potent, that if they didn't separate it, everything would taste a little bit like mint. They allowed us to go into the enclosed mint room if we wanted to, and I loved it! It smelled so amazing in that room!  They also had a gift shop, which had lots of teas for tasting, and teas for sale, as well as t-shirts, coasters, tea cups, tea sets and much more. We did buy a magnet which says, "I survived the mint room." It is a fun memory for me. One of my very favorite essential oils has always been peppermint, and it is strong and potent too, but I love it!

So we like buying different types and kinds of teas. It seems every one of us has a different favorite or taste preference. Bethany loves peach tea, (I didn't see the C.S. tea at our local grocery store, so I bought Bigelow, which is unusual for me.) and she also loves Watermelon Lime, which is not my favorite. Rebekah likes a Throat Coat tea, which is a different brand. Joshua likes Bengal Spice, and my Dad does too. 

My favorite is called Candy Cane Lane, and it is a seasonal green tea. Last year, for Christmas my husband bought me 6 boxes as part of my Christmas gift, and I enjoyed them all year long. I didn't see many Candy Cane Lane boxes this past Christmas, but when I do, I always pick up a box or two.

I remember my grandparents drinking tea, especially my Dad's father. He liked to drink black tea, and he would pour the tea from the cup into his saucer, let it cool, and then he drank the tea out of his saucer. He did it that way every time that I could remember. I remember drinking tea sometimes as a child, and mostly drinking Constant Comment tea.

We do have other teas on the shelf in our kitchen,  including several Sleepytime teas, and Tension Tamer, as well as Morning Thunder, which is a nice substitute for coffee. Mallory likes to have Sleepytime tea before bed, since she has a hard time sleeping some nights.

Now when we have sore throats in the house, and we run low on tea, I may need to buy 6 boxes like in the picture above, to tide us over through the end of the winter, I hope!

Do you like to drink tea? What is your favorite flavor?

Verses about herbs and spices...

Genesis 37:25
As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

2 Kings 4:39
One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine and picked as many of its gourds as his garment could hold. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.

Luke 11:42
“Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.