Monday, February 6, 2012

Coffee in New Jersey? TERRIBLE! Hellllooooo Teavana



Typical of someone moving from San Francisco to South Orange, New Jersey, I am disgusted by the coffee here. Options are Starbucks or cafes serving shit water in a mug. San Franciscans are seriously spoiled and now I am forever ruined living here with no coffee options. We basically stick to making coffee at home, there is one company here in New York called Irving Farm and they make some delicious coffee but it ain't cheap.
Low and behold, a small wonder lurks inside the Short Hills mall (try not to gag.) Teavana. I was "teaducated" by my good friend Rebeca who is a tea genius. We ordered a hot tea there last week - it was just the jasmine green tea with a bit of sweetener (some fancy german sugar) and since then I have been back three times! My second visit I had green tea mixed with a citrus flavored tea and it was delicious.
I have never been a fan of MATE teas. Talk about gross. BUT, today I tried Morning Mate tea with a bit of sweetener and it was unique in its chocolatey nutty flavor that I bought some to bring home. Tea is not cheap, but it is so much better for you than coffee. The amount of teas to choose from is overwhelming but the woman who works there is super knowledgable and always comes up with some unusually tasty blends. Just tell them how much caffeine, hot or cold, sweet or not and they will give you whiffs of various teas until you fall in love with one or two. The other bonus of this new discovery is that I don't have to worry about the milk debacle. I don't need milk in my tea so its a non-issue.
Today I had to read a story to my daughters class and I just ingested a huge cup of tea with 100% caffeine. I was a little nervous I was gonna sweat and freak out because of the anxiety caffeine can bring about but I was totally fine and I even feel a little snoozy, not all high. Needless to say, I am a tealiever.