Fill it to the Rim

One of my favorite things on cold day is to drink hot tea. Well, I guess that is not exactly true....it doesn't have to be a cold day for me to drink hot tea. I fell in love with hot tea back in high school. Not exactly sure why, but for some reason I got some blackberry tea, I think when I had a cold and I was hooked. I love making a hot pot of water in my green tea kettle that I picked up at a church yard sale for hardly nothing. I think it was .50 for the kettle, and it was brand new. Then after getting my kettle of water hot, I put the water in my gold carafe that I got at a thrift store for .25. It will keep the water hot for most of the day. Then I have a special cup that I use. It is bigger than a regular cup and requires you to use 2 tea bags. It has snowmen on it. I love it.

My special cup that I use was a gift from my friend Kathy Whitfield. She gave it me about 5 years ago for Christmas. I love drinking my tea in this cup and sitting on my porch with a blanket wrapped around me. If it is cold. No blanket if it is not cold. I am not a cold natured person. I love to put honey in my tea with a little squirt of lemon, no matter what flavor I am drinking. Since I have to watch my sugar intake, I just squeeze one time with the honey and finish sweeten it with Splenda.

This is my .25 carafe that I got at the thrift store. It helps keep my water hot so I can enjoy more tea all day long. I loved using it this past weekend, since there was a nip in the air. I boiled several kettles of water and put in here. I am not sure that there are many hot tea drinkers out there. So much emphasis has been put on coffee with the building of a Starbucks on every corner. I am not a coffee drinker at all. I guess this is my alternative to coffee. I think I would fit in well in England. I would love to have a scheduled tea time with scones and cookies. Hot tea with the honey helps soothe your throat if you have a cold or allergy problems. They say that honey produced in your area helps fight allergies. We have had several bee keepers in various churches that we have pastored, and their honey has always been the best. Sterling Russell in one of our churches had some really great honey. The bees were next to peas in a garden, and it had a purple cast to it. I guess cause the peas were purple hull peas. Don, who was a bee keeper in the foothills of NC were we lived had some of the best honey I had ever tasted. I am not sure what kind it was, but it was yummy.

I really love my tea kettle. You can see the steam in the photo, which I think is neat. I use to microwave a cup of water at the time, but our 18 year old microwave is on it's last leg, and it now takes around 8 minutes to boil a cup of water. I think that is time spring for a new one, but I hate to get rid of this one since there is still life in the old girl. Anyway, my kettle allows me to boil enough water to have about 5 cups of tea. There are all kinds of tea flavors out there. Some of my favorites are Lemon Zinger, Tangerine Spice, True Blueberry, Country Peach Passion and Wild Berry Zinger. At Christmas time you can find flavors such as Peppermint, Sugar Plum Spice and Gingerbread Spice. There is also Chamomile, Sleepy time, Blackberry, Black Cherry Berry, Raspberry Zinger and Cranberry Apple. If you love fruit, some of these teas help curb your craving for fruit. I have to watch my fruit intake because of natural sugars.

If you haven't tried hot tea before, I encourage you to do so. Pick you a box of Celestial Seasonings Fruit Tea Sampler. It has 5 different flavors of tea in this box. It is caffeine free, so you can enjoy a cup even at bedtime. Who knows, you might find that you like hot tea better than coffee...and it is cheaper too.