Today I am quietly sitting at my desk looking out onto the sea in West Palm Beach, how lucky am I? The sea is quite beautiful and calm, the fish are jumping on this clear day, and even though its  already hot and humid at 84 degrees at 830 am,  I am enjoying a cup of soothing warm rooibus tea.

Teas, just like us, have their own personalities.  I could feel rooibus tea calling me this morning  with its big and soothing personality ready to wrap its arms around me and give me a big hug. A much needed hug which makes me grin from ear to ear, relax and know that life is good.

Allow me to explain a little more. As you sip your chosen tea,  very slowly the tea will reveal its color, aroma, taste and then  finally, the impact you feel on your senses.  You will retain this sensory memory and for the future will choose your tea as you recollect how it made you feel, whether it was soothing, uplifting, calming, made you sleepy, helped you meditate, gave you stamina, helped you focus, opened your heart to reach out to someone …  however it works for you, the tea is encouraging you to trust your inner voice on what feels good to you.

Peppermint tea for example, to me, is peppy, peppermint patty type personality, bubbly, light and makes me laugh when I drink it!  Black tea, on the other hand, is my traditional afternoon drinking tea to help me focus and always shared with a decadent cookie, or biscuit as we say in England. No matter how hard I try to avoid it, that little nibble of sweetness is my delight … 🙂

Back to my tea of choice this morning. My rooibus with  a beautiful reddish brown color along with  a tiny amount of ginger powder and honey added adds to the depth of flavor.  As the earthy almost chocolatey fragrance rises from my teacup I feel relaxed, and I purposefully close out the rest of the day, the projects, the schedule etc and have a mini vacation.  For any scientists out there, Rooibus is known to melt away tension or irritation owing to its nothofagins (antioxidants) that calm the output of my adrenal hormones, and the quercetin (a super antioxidant) is easing inflammation in my body … In addition the ginger is warming and settling my digestive system… and all I did was put a tea bag in the teacup… and I have become the tea alchemist.

The personality of rooibus originally came second to the forcefulness and power of black tea, but rooibus made its debut during World War II when black tea supplies were difficult to secure. Produced in South Africa, rooibus won through with its abilities to regulate blood sugar, Diabetes Type 2 , and help insomnia and even high blood pressure.  Its skin care benefits are also legendary with its ability to cool sunburn when applied to the skin (cold tea), heal eczema and rashes, and can even slow down the aging process.

I love tea! Its so simple and so amazing.  If you would like to find out more about the healing qualities of herbal teas, traditional teas, essential oils and follow my suggested recipes and blends for  health and skin care, perfume, tea cocktails  and more, I am happy to be offering my Hot Water for Tea, e-book for Kindle, Nook and  I Book for a limited period of $2.  To become the tea artisan visit my apothecary store to download.

In good health,

Nicola