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Curl Up With a Cup of
(Loose) Tea
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| Eating Economically at the
Co-op series |
by Miriam Axel-Lute
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Warm and comforting when
you're chilled, refreshing when iced for a summer day: tea (and herbal
infusions, often called "tea") is a varied and wonderful beverage.
If you've been buying your tea in beautiful colorful boxes of tea bags
or single-serving bottles, you may not realize that the Co-op has
another option that could slim your tea budget significantly. Nestled
in between the Wellness section and the bulk spices is the loose/ bulk
tea section.
Just how much can you save by forgoing the packaging? Quite a bit. Here
are just a few examples: Organic Irish Breakfast--loose: $2.06/oz.;
boxed: $3.63/oz. Lemon Ginger--loose: $1.24/ oz.; boxed: $4.08/oz.
Non-Organic Black & Green--loose: $1.16–1.46/oz.; boxed: $2.11/oz.
The bulk tea section has variety-- more than a dozen varieties of
black, half a dozen varieties of green, a white, an oolong, and several
herbals including the currently popular caffeine-free option rooibos.
But the variety is even greater than it first appears because with
loose tea you can blend your own: Green tea and mint? Easy. Homemade
chai with your favorite black tea? The spices are right next door. You
may well find proportions you prefer to those that some pre-mixed.
Now, if you're not a loose-tea drinker already, "loose tea" may conjure
visions of stuffy Englishmen pre-scalding a delicate china teapot and
then making one pot of the same kind for a whole dinner party.
But in fact, drinking loose tea can be easy. If you turn around when
you are facing the bulk tea, behind you you will find an array of
affordable ($2– $8) gadgets designed for making single cups of tea from
loose leaves. There are three main kinds: tea balls (close with a
latch, hang on a chain), tea "spoons" (hinged handles that open a
perforated or mesh ball at the end when squeezed), and tea
strainers/baskets. My household has a motley assortment of all three in
circulation at all times.
Each has its advantages: I like having a handle, which makes it easy to
stir and remove, and doesn't fall in the tea by accident like the
chains on the tea balls (or the strings on tea bags for that matter),
so I prefer the spoons. Strainers are easy to clean, though the shallow
ones require you to fill a mug pretty full to steep properly.
Experiment and see what you prefer. They're all dishwasher safe (I clip
the hinged spoons over the side of the silverware basket so they stay
open).
If you have a low tolerance for stray leaves ending up in your tea, you
can also get a few reusable muslin tea bags (just don't use more tea
than you need because they hold so much!). If you let them dry and turn
them inside out the tea should all brush out. Alternately, emptying
with a little rinsing should do the trick. I don't know how long these
last, but once they are worn out they should be compostable themselves,
just as both tea leaves and tea bags are.
Even boxed tea bags can be budgetfriendly, depending how you currently
get your tea. Unlike the trickier-to-make coffee, tea can be made
directly in a travel mug--with loose leaves or a bag. Pour and go. The
cost savings of making your own instead of grabbing a togo cup from a
café far outstrips the difference between boxed and loose.
As the weather warms up, don't abandon your tea. It takes a tad more
forethought to keep a pitcher of homemade iced tea in the fridge to
pour into your travel bottle, but when you have a swig of a tasty Co-op
organic blend instead of shelling out for a powdered oversweetened
bottle for several times the price, you'll be glad you did.
Staying healthy also saves money in all sorts of ways--so it's worth
remembering that tea can be a significant part of an immune-boosting
plan. According to Herbal Companion, green tea is one of only three
herbal remedies scientifically shown to increase resistance to the
common cold (and echinacea and ginseng, the other two, also come in
teas). It's worked for me this year. If you've had bad luck with green
tea in the past, don't steep it for longer than 3 minutes--it gets
bitter. Or try mixing it with mint.
Happy sipping!
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