☕️ TREE 419: Change your tea, change your life

One.

In 1993, I visited Wales and discovered tea. Before Wales, I knew about horrible herbal tea my mom drank and Snapple iced tea, neither of which are actually tea. My end of day snack during that visit was a digestive biscuit topped with cream cheese and lemon curd and tea with milk and two sugars. It changed my life.

By the late 00s, I was living in Wales and drinking 5–6 cups of tea with one sugar every day. I did some math and realised that was a lot of sugar and probably had something to do with the extra weight I was carrying. I cut down to half a sugar for a week or so, then ditched the sugar altogether. Once I got used to it, the tea tasted so much better. This encouraged me to cut out other sources of sugar. I started running, I lost weight.

In the mid 10s, I was suffering from anxiety. It occurred to me that the caffeine in the 5–6 cups of tea plus a coffee wasn’t helping me be chill. I tried decaffeinated tea. It was gross. Then I tried Tesco Finest decaffeinated Earl Grey tea. OMG, so good. It helped reduce my anxiety and, bonus, I stopped having a major mid-afternoon energy slump.

In the late 10s I wanted to become a vegan, I started by trying to figure out my tea. I tried all the plant milks available. Soy is gross. Hemp is gross. Almond is gross. Oat is amazing – better than cow, as long as it is Oatly or Aldi’s own brand. Once I sorted tea, I knew I could give up milk, cheese and butter.

Now, I’m mostly quitting ultra-processed food (because it’s addictive and poisonous). The first thing I did was swap oat milk in my Tesco Finest decaffeinated Earl Grey tea for a squeeze of lemon juice. It’s so good! Bonus: tea is exciting again.

If you want to make a big change in your life, try starting with a small, easy habitual thing you do every day.

Two.

I drew this for a friend’s birthday a long time ago.

Three.

I’m really looking forward to what this band do. They are off to a great start.

After I wrote today’s post, I had a little wonder about decaffeination. My tea is almost certainly decaffeinated using methylene chloride, a toxic chemical also used as paint stripper. There’s only about three parts per million left in the tea by the end of the process and that evaporates during brewing. I’m going to try a different tea anyway. I want to participate as little as possible in processes that are bad for our planet. Clipper decaffeinate their tea with carbon dioxide, which is supposed to be better for the planet and the taste.

Grow slowly
Jeff