Living without the Java

With the whole incubating life thing happening I’ve been trying to broaden my hot drink horizons beyond the coffee, the only view I’ve had most of my adult life. While coffee isn’t exactly banned from the diet of the gestating, it is frowned upon, and The Banker now starts backing squawking noises everytime I reach for the java. Much easier and more conducive to domestic tranquillity to take a caffeine hiatus for nine months. The three points I quickly found out in my post caffeine awareness were (in order); 1) the speed of my speech is highly connected java intake – I now sound more like a grown up person, less like a chipmunk 2) Decaf doesn’t cut it. Really. Ever. It’s just not the same 3) I still have the urge to be holding and sipping a steamy drink. I imagine this is like ciggie smokers who once quit are forever sticking tooth picks and other oblong objects in their mouths.

So to assuage my beverage fixation I moved on to the other heavy of the café world – tea. Strictly speaking tea is a bit of a lateral move in the attempt to avoid caffeine – lower octane then the java generally but still leaded. However if we move past the drinks made with the traditional tea pant Camilla Sinensis (Black tea, White tea and Green Tea) there are options to consider. Now before I get clobbered by the technically correct police, I know that I’ve wandered outside the classical boundaries of tea but today I’m going to be a heretic. So back to my quest of beverage – automatically out are the fruit teas which seem to have proliferated lately. I enjoy my fruit juice cold; steaming strawberries just doesn’t do it for me. I wanted something a little complex, something interesting and grown up – not sweet simple and cheerful.

My grail was found at The House of Tea, a truly charming store in Rosedale. The proprietress was both interested in my plight and fully versed in her stock; within minutes the choices were narrowed down. Red teas, made with the Roobis plant, had underwhelmed me on previous occasions but with the addition of bergamot the red earl grey developed a more interesting profile and counteracted the sweetness I’ve always found off-putting about the drink. This was what I wanted – something to wake up with and be neither slammed with flavor nor lured back to sleep.

Now onto the wine substitute……

The House of Tea

1017 Yonge Street

Toronto, ON M4W 2K9

(416) 922-1226