Twenty-Three

thanks to my wonderful sisters for the fun mug!

On the side of the fridge amongst lists of “Items in the Freezer,” “Places We’d Love to Visit,” and “Meat Prices at the Neighbor’s” is a hot drink tally. Recently—just-for-fun—Sara and I decided to track our boiled beverage intake for a week. The paper has two columns, “S” and “J,” and hash marks representing our respective number of hot drinks each calendar day.

My week total (Tuesday to Monday) came to twenty-three, making my average daily hot drink consumption just over three cups. Most of my hot drinks are plain tea (often black), but occasionally a cappuccino, latte, or hot cocoa sneak into the mix. (Hurrah for Sara’s amazing lattes!)

Since this study was just for fun, we didn’t worry about the technicalities of how many ounces each hot drink was (because how many total ounces of hot drinks consumed could vary greatly depending on the size of each cup). Sometimes I had a big cup, or maybe three tea cups, or perhaps just a small mug. The event was more what counted, not the measurement of liquid consumed.

On days when we were in town or super busy, our hot drink intake suffered. It’s a shame when life is too busy for tea, don’t you think? I mean- do you ever have those days where you find yourself heating the kettle once again for that mid-morning cup of tea you were going to have six hours ago?!?

In an ideal word, I think four hot drinks a day would be perfect. A daily schedule would go something like this:

• 06:30/07:00 tea with breakfast
• 10:00ish tea with fruit or a muffin
• (13:00 lunch)
• 16:00ish tea (with a little something to “support” it)
• (19:00 dinner)
• 20:00/21:00 tea before bed

Wouldn’t that be delightful?

*just for reference, my favorite way to enjoy tea is simply: tea steeped in boiled water. I’m from Michigan, where tea is served in its pure, unleaded, ultra-refreshing form—often iced, never sweetened. However, I have now spent enough time in British-influenced parts of the world to also enjoy a good cuppa with a wee bit of sugar and a splash of milk. I confess, every now and then I even enjoy Wonderbake tea, which is a rooibus tea bag steeped in steamed, frothy milk and served with Zambian cane sugar…