I know I have already written an article on my new experiences of coffee (https://www.theodysseyonline.com/from-leaves-to-be... for possible references...*hint hint*). However with having experienced coffee for a little over month now, I can still say that I am a tea lover full in full. Looking around my room, I notice the plethora of mugs (and I have a lot https://www.theodysseyonline.com/strange-addiction...) and can see that most of them have been used in some way with tea, whether it is iced tea or hot tea.

Yet, it was not until last night that I really thought about what it was about tea that made me love it so much. Additionally, I thought about the perfect cup of tea for me. I thought about how much care I take in brewing my tea.

With teabags, I start off with placing the teabag into the mug and then adding water.

I do not add the bag afterwards because it is more time consuming and more of the tea is infused when in the microwave, which is the next step. You can put the tea in the microwave for as long as you want, but know that it will eventually boil and make a mess.

Once it is done heating up, I add a nice bit of honey to cover at least the bottom of the mug and then add some sort of sweetener. Now, zero-calorie sweetener works wonders on making tea sweet (just the way I like it). However, I prefer going a more natural way. I like to add rock sugar to the tea. Rock sugar is a small, brown crystal that you just plop right into the hot tea. If you put enough in and the tea is hot enough, it will actually fizz! I feel like a wizard making a brewing potion--well maybe not so cheesy. Rock sugar plus the honey makes the tea nice and sweet, but also naturally sweet.

Then there is the question on if I prefer loose leaf tea or tea bags! So many questions! To be honest, I have no preference as long as the taste is good. The loose leaf tea making process is very similar, but here is how I do it!

I first put the tea leaves and rock sugar into this neat-o little contraption I have (the neat part comes soon).

I then fill the MUG with water and heat it up. It is important to not just fill the contraption because it may hold more water than the mug and it will spill hot water everywhere.

Then I pour the hot water into the contraption and let the leaves sit in the hot water for about 5 minutes before placing the contraption on top of the mug and letting it pour out the bottom! Told you it was neat-o. I then add my honey and stir! Easy-peasy! (What is with my word choice tonight?)

Just make sure it is not too hot!

Anyway, how do you prefer your tea? Or are you a coffee-drinker who hates the bland taste of tea? Or do you love both? Let me know! Seriously, this tea drinker wants to know your recipes.

You guys are my cup of tea...you guys are my rock (sugar)...you infuse me with delight...just thought I would end this on a punny note!