Seven Days of Tea

Last Tuesday I stated that I was going to drink at least one cup of tea a day for seven days. The idea was to reduce the amount of tea bags I have accumulated over the past few months. Thanks to Tuesdays spent with Kimmie drinking tea, I have accumulated a lot of tea bags.

Each spring it seems many of us Tuesday tea participants rush to make our first pot (or carafe or pitcher) of sun tea. However, I decided it was time to make one final pot of sun tea before the weather changes. I started with 10 Lipton green tea bags.


Although I spent part of the day elsewhere, running errands in the south part of town, it didn't take this tea long to


become drinkable. I added lemon because I thought this particular green tea is rather bland. I enjoyed several cups of this tea on my front porch.


On Thursday I was in my kitchen, this time checking my friend Sally's airline itinerary and drinking Tetley's Royal Blend. Everything is blue (with white and copper) in my kitchen, so it stands to reason I would have some tea from a blue tea bag container. Now I had both the bags and containers I could save.


I was gone most of Friday because I picked up my friend Sally at the airport after running a few errands on the west side of town, where the airport is. After eating out, we returned quite late to our respective places. Unlike Tea Tuesday, I had my tea late at night sitting in my living room/parlor at my writing desk.


English Breakfast tea was on the menu, even though it was late at night. This was by Crabtree and Evelyn.


Not bad tea, but some pretty awful dark photography.


I had been at my neighbor's most of the previous week, taking care of her sick cat, or running errands I simply could not avoid. That is also why I have not been around to visit my fellow bloggers and friends all week. So it was time to do my laundry. On Saturday I had my tea on the run in my laundry room, which is also where my microwave is kept. Yes, I have a microwave in the basement, but I use it mostly for craft projects.


This is some Bigelow English Teatime tea that I am drinking with half and half. I don't have milk, so the stuff I use for my coffee will have to do.


On Sunday, I worked in my kitchen because I needed to clean my own home after working at Sally's. I also realized it was time to put my sage and basil away now that they had dried sufficiently. You can see the original post where I started the drying process on September 22, here. In the above photo, I am preparing to remove the rubber bands and stems, and will place the leaves in these plastic bags.


I think this was my favorite tea, at least this week. Red raspberry herb tea made a wonderful cup of brew in my Taylor and Ng mug that I placed on a matching Taylor and Ng tea towel. And the ruby red color of the tea was superb, even though it doesn't show in the photo.


Yesterday was Halloween, so I had to celebrate in my dining room. My Halloween candle was fun and my tea was a gift from a friend. It was called Sugar Plum Holiday Herb Tea, and I had three bags.


The beads were handmade and sent to me by Duane of Surf Bunny Design. He was part of the Halloween houses swap and these beads were a hostess gift. I have now added them to my Halloween altered book. What a fitting decoration for this holiday.


I had to laugh at my desire to combine these two holidays after seeing pumpkins on the Christmas tree at a local store last week (see yesterday's post). At least I'm early for winter and Christmas!


It's now a new Tuesday morning and seven days of tea drinking have passed. It is very early and I'm up before the chickens and the sun, ready to drink my final cup of tea for the week, or my first cup for the day, if you prefer. Look at all those tea bags. I accumulated them for an entire week because I wanted as many unique bags as I could find and use. Now that these bags are dry, did I use up my excess supply of tea bags? Not even close! And I still have more loose leaf tea and tea bags than I will drink in a hundred years.


The spent bags actually look better in the harsh kitchen light than they do under early morning candles. You are probably asking WHY I did this and will I do it again. Yes, I will do this again at some time in the future because . . .



although it has taken me over an hour, here are the fruits of my labor. I now have empty and lovely tea bags, a bunch of tea labels, both for art, along with a few matching holders I have already put away. And the spent tea in front is going into my compost pile. Every little bit for art and nature!

Now please visit Kimmie for the rest of the Tea Tuesday links, because I'm sure there are at least a couple of shorter Tea Tuesday posts than mine this week.