For 3 yrs I owned and operated a late-late night coffee house. My Significant other and I, who are avid tea enthusiasts got a really big kick out of expanding people’s liquid intake habits. The biggest trip for us was educating gutter punks (some homeless, some that just thought it was cool not to bathe and to wear leather, spikes, and anarchy signs) on the qualities and subtilties of different types of teas. A suprisingly large number of them found great joy in the sophistication of fine tea drinking, and would proceed to ‘culture’ their friends. When it came time for me to permenantly close down shop we had droves of customers (mainly teen – college age) of vast diversity who prefered very specific fine teas to coffee. Many of them also developed pretty admirable chess playing skills. It was fun and rewarding to my significant other (now husband) and I, but it still amuses me endlessly to think about.

Please don’t oversteep your teas! They will get puckery and tannic, more bitter than tasty. A good rule of thumb is 1-3 minutes for green teas, no more than 5 for black teas.

I thought I didn’t care for tea until I figured out how to properly steep it.

Herbal and other teas can be steeped for longer periods.

Oh, and one great advantage to drinking tea over coffee: coffee gives you coffee-breath. Plain green tea, on the other hand, prevents tooth decay and plaque, and freshens your breath!

hey there. i am fully a coffee drinker. as in my students get nervous when they see me greeting them at the door to my classroom without a coffee mug.

i am open to any jedi mind tricks that would see me ditch the bean for the leaf…

best of luck with all of your goals!