The Simple Pleasures of Tea and Coffee

A month or so ago, a friend asked me how I was doing with the busyness and stress that comes along with this season of life. I told her that while it’s been exhausting, God has been so kind to bless me with little pockets of rest and refreshment here and there. Nothing extravagant, but just a few minutes to sit in the van and return texts while waiting on a child at soccer, reading a few pages of a good book before bed, or listening to an inspiring podcast during my morning walk. Those brief moments of calm do me a world of good!

One of my favorite simple pleasures is the opportunity to sit down with a cup of hot tea or coffee for a few minutes. Ahhh, the calm it brings to my day! Such pleasure and tastiness! The tension just melts away with each warm sip.

Today I have some new favorites to share!

My husband and I try to sit down for just a few minutes in the morning with our coffee to pray and chat before he’s off to work. Last week I picked up this Spring Blend from Fresh Market and it’s quite a treat for our morning coffee! It includes flavors of butterscotch, caramel, and vanilla. Fresh Market coffee is a splurge, so I don’t buy it very often, but the quality is so fine that I find myself not wanting to add too much to it in the way of cream and sweetener. Just a touch.

For the most delectable afternoon treat, this Vanilla Bean Macaron tea blend from Tazo just tickles my tastebuds and has the best aroma! A sweet friend gave me this tea and I’m pretty sure it will remain one of my all-time favorites!

A couple of nights a week I enjoy this Yorkshire Decaf Bedtime Tea while relaxing in my bedroom, reading or working at my computer.

Here’s a funny story. A dear friend of mine, who happens to be having surgery this very morning (please be in prayer for her!), enjoys hot tea about as much as I do so I wanted to surprise her with a get-well gift while she was feeling poorly. I had been enjoying this tea for a while, so I sent some directly to her house from Amazon with a note included in the order which she missed when opening the package. She had actually looked at this very tea on Amazon some days before receiving it from me so when it arrived at her house, she decided she must have gone ahead and ordered it without remembering. The day she received the package, she steeped a cup and texted me a photo to tell me about this new tea she was trying that she thought I’d be interested in! I got a little confused and then responded, “Wait, did you order some too? I sent you some from Amazon! LOL. There should have been a note in there.” She texted me back laughing a few minutes later with a photo of the note she dug out of the trash and said, “Well no wonder I didn’t remember ordering it!”

We got such a good laugh out of this, but the funniest part was that I was the friend she thought to share the tea with because we are ALWAYS talking tea! I’m sure we will laugh about this story for years to come!

For both the macaron tea and the bedtime tea, I steep 1 tea bag in 6 ounces of boiling water for 5 minutes with a plate covering the cup. Then I squeeze and discard the tea bag, and I like to add a spoon and a half of honey (this is just a regular stirring spoon, not an exact measuring spoon) and enough cream or half-in-half to make it the “right” color. Mmmm, so creamy and sweet!

And isn’t this mug great! My daughter gave it to me along with a beautiful coffee canister for Mother’s Day! It’s my new favorite mug for coffee or tea.

I hope you are blessed today with some pockets of rest and refreshment–some simple pleasures! And please remember to pray for my friend!