Tea Time Tuesday: English Breakfast Tea
Tazo Awake English Breakfast Tea with 2 packets of sugar and a hearty splash of Hazelnut cream
When I was little, my Grandma was in charge of getting me ready and fed in the morning while my Mom got ready for work and my Dad was settling in for sleep. She would fix me a cup of watered down and milked-filled coffee with a piece or two of toast or an english muffin softly covered in butter and strawberry jelly. I don't remember much from my childhood, but I remember these breakfasts. I spent Kindergarten to almost high school having this for breakfast while everyone else seemed to be having cereal or pancakes with juice.
These days, my morning routine has shifted away from my extra mild strength coffee and more towards English Breakfast tea. Even more recently, I've began to add cream and sugar to my tea. This tea gradually wakes me up without leaving me feeling jittery and restless like coffee does. I suggest treating this tea like you would your coffee if you're looking to transition over. I prefer the Tazo Awake English Breakfast tea over most others. Last year, I got really into drinking this tea straight but had a hard time switching back this year from coffee due to the tea's bitterness. A friend encouraged me to try it with cream and sugar and I loved it... the second time I did it. I made the mistake of trying it with powdered creamer and IT DOES NOT WORK. Do not want. Do not try at home. Do not pass go. I picked up a small container of Silk vanilla soy milk and was using that for a while. That same friend let me borrow some of her Hazelnut creamer and it was delicious! Though I'm more of a vanilla kind of gal, this tea just seems to work best with Hazelnut.
I still enjoy a piece of toast or english muffin with my morning tea at my desk. It's a kind of breakfast that feels very dainty yet comforting to me as I eat it. It also fills me up just enough to hold me over until lunch. I love these breakfasts most in the fall months even if all I'm having is a cup of tea, like today. It helps remind me that, though she is no longer physically with us anymore, I'll always have a piece of my Grandma with me and that's what's most important!
I also grew up drinking tea with milk. I guess it was my nana's influence, although these days I'm definitely more of a coffee girl.
My grandma and parents have never really been big on tea. They'd have a little bit of green tea if we'd go to a Chinese restaurant, but never really at home. Towards the end of her life, my grandma got really into this mushroom coffee my aunts and uncles would send her from back home in the Philippines. I couldn't really stand the smell long enough to try it.
Mushroom coffee?!?