January Tea Resolutions

How many of us have already broken our New Year’s resolutions? I for one still haven’t set foot inside the gym – not even for a cheeky Jacuzzi – despite the fact I’m paying a small fortune for the privilege.

I’ve decided to be more realistic this year. Turning my addiction to tea to my advantage, I have resolved to achieve the following 4 simple goals:

1. Lose a little weight

Although I firmly believe in the power of cake to help me get my PMA (positive mental attitude!), it is possible to overindulge sometimes. That’s where tea comes in. You see, tea without milk has no calories. Using semi-skimmed milk adds around 13 calories per cup, but you also benefit from valuable minerals and calcium.

As if that’s not enough, a Swiss study on green tea found that the caffeine interacts with the flavonoids and appears to speed up calorie burning, including fat calorie burning (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Nov 1999). Click here for more info on the health benefits of tea.

I also swear by drinking some sweet flavoured tea when you’re tempted by an extra slab of cake – my particular favourites are Rooibos Crème Caramel and Chocolate Abyss. Or try some Pu-Erh, favoured by celebrities like Victoria Beckham for its alleged slimming properties.

2. De-stress

After a hectic year setting up eteaket, I really need to learn how to relax a little. By making myself take at least 20 mins out a day to just sit with a pot of tea and no distractions (especially no mobile, internet, newspapers or TV), I have found it easier to stay relaxed and maintain perspective. Try it yourself – you’ll be amazed how much more productive you are.

My favourite teas to relax with at the moment are Yellow Gold Oolong and the aptly named Chillaxin’ Chamomile.

3. Spend more time with family and friends

Tea is a very sociable drink and the whole ceremony of tea leaves, tea pot and china cups really helps people connect. Don’t forget, eteaket’s Afternoon Tea is available 7 days a week and is only £9.85 per person. For that, you get a sandwich of your choice, a freshly baked scone with clotted cream & preserve and a selection of mini patisserie served on a vintage cake stand plus a pot of tea.

It you’re ‘too busy’ to make it into eteaket, we now do Afternoon Tea parties for any occasion, be it a private party, wedding or corporate event. We also hire our vintage china and cakestands. Further details will be on the website shortly – in the meantime, please contact us for further information.

4. Help the environment

Last, but not least, in my list of achievable targets for 2010 is to help the environment. Did you know that tea has a significantly smaller carbon footprint than beer, Coca Cola, or milk.* Also, by choosing leaf tea over tea bags, your carbon foot print is about 9/10ths less than if you used tea bags. It’s a no-brainer really considering brewing loose leaf tea gives the leaves room to steep properly resulting in fuller flavour.

I’m also going to start re-using my tea leaves by adding them to my plant pots and watching my plants thrive. If you’re interested in other ways to re-use tea, click here.

So, by continuing my perfectly healthy addiction to tea, I’m confident I can realistically help control my weight, relax and de-stress, spend more quality time with family and friends and do a little to help the environment. That’s not bad for a humble leaf!

* See recent research by tea expert Nigel Melican reported at http://samovarlife.com/teas-carbon-footprint/