Finished 5-4-12, rating 2.5/5, health/food, 41 pages, pub. 2012

I like tea.  Jason and I both like to drink tea at night (sometimes wine wins out for me, but on a good night it’s tea!).  I like the act of brewing it and sipping it in pretty tea cups.  I’ve been known to buy the loose leaf tea and try to blend depending on my mood.  So, it was a no brainer when this book was offered to me.

This is my first book about tea, but am confident in saying that this is not a definitive one.  However, it does have interesting information on 10 big teas-ginger, garlic, green/black, chamomile, cranberry, peppermint, raspberry, goldenseal, echinacea, & lemon.  My favorite versatile tea is peppermint; I blend it with lots of other flavors. But I was surprised to know that it affects male fertility.  On a related note, Jason’s favorite raspberry, can affect women’s uterine area and should possibly be avoided while pregnant.

The book is very short, but it does include recipes for each tea.  I was thinking about giving it away, but think I’ll hang on to it for a bit longer as I try a few of the combinations.  I like that the recipes are for tea bags and not loose leaf since that’s how most people drink their tea.

Valerie Lull is currently studying herbalism and I thank her for sending me her book.  I hope the tea drinkers out there will take a look.  The only reason I didn’t rate this higher is because it was so short.  Fine for the what’s in there, but it felt incomplete.

Do you have a favorite tea?  My go-to tea the past few years has been Asian Jasmine White Tea.

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