In My Fashion Blog: Preserving Style: Teavana

"It's tea time."
Vogue, December 2003

Lately I have been on an experimental quest to find the best tasting teas for my daily morning wake up. With Green tea, Chamomile tea, and Earl Grey, being my usual favorites, this month I have been mulling over the tastes of other traditional style black teas including English Breakfast, Lady Grey, and Irish Breakfast tea flavors (aside: Lady Grey being a new favorite). These black tea flavors have been good for waking me up for these chillier fall days we've been getting as of late. Last month was the perfect time for me to have tried out a fruitier line of teas which included flavors such as Peach, Blueberry, Wild Berry, Raspberry, and Black Cherry. It was perfection because instead of drinking hot teas during the hot months, these fruitier flavors as iced tea woke me up just as well as hot tea, for the chilled shock of berries was a real eye opener. Always with a pinch of honey to sweeten my drink and I am good to go.

Last weekend walking in Stoney Point Fashion Park, a cute Teavana associate gave me a few samples of their new Golden Mojito flavored White Tea, which had my tongue’s taste buds spiking every which way from the sweet and sour tastes of this warming tea. As described in the pamphlet I was given upon my departure, this particular tea is a "sweet and sour citrus blend of three types of pineapple, sweet orange and 'super fruit' sea buckthorn." I love when you drink tea and you get that sensation as if as I had been warmed by a cashmere scarf that has draped itself around me from the inside out. One can feel the warm passing of herbal liquidity flowing like a river down ones throat and into the stomach where its comfort can really be felt. Perhaps I adopted my love for tea from my mother whom all my life filled the morning air of our house with her aromatic teas and occasional potpourri. She would boil a large pot of potpourri which would fill the air of the house in an arid scent of those dried flowers and leaves, and then she would brew her tea (iced or hot) in her over-sized coffee mug.

All in all, tea really helps to inspire me for the day. When I take a sip, it’s like my mind dissolves for a second and brings itself back together; a sip, acting as the equivalent of the "refresh" button on one's internet browser. After each sip, I feel calmer, and more collected then before—a more spirited state of mind, especially because I know that what I am drinking is insanely good for my body, anti-oxidant and nutrient wise. I know coffee lovers may feel the same way about coffee as I do about tea (for there was a time when I too used to use coffee to get through the day at work), but just knowing that my body is getting its daily source of disease fighting nutrients has a lot to do with that smug comfort I feel as I drink down a cup of mother nature's herbal delight.

If you are feeling as though you need to spike up your internal health to look good externally, try drinking tea consistently and try to distinguish the differences in your health per the inclusion of tea in your diet. As my mother always told me "cleanliness is closer to godliness". Tea is great way to flush out the mess in your life, physically and mentally. Read some facts below from the Teavana’s brochure I was given: