As We Waltz Toward the Holidays, Let These Teas Be Your Partner
The stress isn’t spiking — not yet, at least. But now that it’s November we begin the waltz toward Thanksgiving, the festive December holidays and turning from 2021 to 2022.
We love them all. And we also understand that the two months of atmospheric, seasonal fun can take its toll: the menu planning, cooking and entertaining; the buying of gifts; the family get-togethers and holiday parties that sometimes go awry.
November and December may be the most rewarding months of the year, but they also are the most stressful.
Tea to the rescue.
Stock up now on teas to mitigate the anxieties the season bears. Sip them yourselves, and bestow them as gifts upon family and friends for whom the holiday season might deliver occasional panic, periodic angst and brief jolts of dread.
And let’s savor these wonderful months, when fireplace fires crackle, mountain views formerly obscured by leaves emerge, and the diva snow swans to center stage now and again to make grand appearances that compel us all to marvel.
Holiday Teas for Stress: Bi Tan Piao Xue Jasmine Green Tea
There’s a reason so many Chinese and Japanese scholars and spiritual guides became impassioned tea advocates — green tea is simultaneously calming and stimulating. It’s a rare combination.
The beverage’s caffeine content is petite compared to other caffeinated beverages; instead of precipitating the jitters, it instead clears away the mind’s cobwebs.
But the plant compound that brings about most of tea’s serenity sparking qualities is theanine, an amino acid found in tea and some mushrooms. Scan the shelves of natural foods stores and you’re bound to find theanine supplements targeting people suffering from anxiety, sleeplessness and too much stress.
Good news to tea drinkers: No supplement needed. Just drink tea.
Bi Tan Piao Xue means “Snow Flakes Falling Upon a Jade Pond,” which we think is reason enough to drink it. But the tea’s superb flavor and aroma, as well as its quotient of theanine, make it a perfect tea for de-stressing.
Our Bi Tan Piao Xue offers tiny, silver-lined tea buds mixed with tender jasmine blossoms, and brews into a transporting beverage. The Camellia sinensis base comes from Mountain Meng, one of the most exquisite tea mountains in China. Soothing and sweet, this is our highest quality jasmine green tea.
If you have any jasmine tea lovers — we think everybody should be a jasmine tea evangelist! — this is a sublime gift.
Holiday Teas for Stress: Organic Desert Rose Herbal Tea
Many teas designed for anxiety-mitigation revolve around herbs, rather than Camellia sinensis. As we now know, the theanine in green tea contributes mightily toward stress reduction, so traditional tea is great for calming. But some herbs, for example lavender and sage, are especially well-known for their ability to help people sink into the moment and worry less.
Our Desert Rose Herbal Tea contains lavender and sage in abundance, as well as two more herbs, lemon balm and rosemary, and a flower, rose, that people use to dampen stress. The caffeine-free herbal blend is like some liquid distillation of arid, herb-dense Mediterranean environments. We sip it hot all afternoon. We make it into gorgeous iced tea. Drinking Desert Rose is one of those treats that doesn’t break the bank or require much work: just add hot water to the blend, wait for five minutes or so (we often brew herbal teas for far longer than traditional teas — 15 or 20 minutes can work splendidly), and commence communing with “garrigue,” the terroirs of coastal Provence that yield so many herbal pleasures.
Holiday Teas for Stress: Organic Night Time Herbal Blend
Sometimes the stress can be so potent that we toss and turn in bed — staring at the ceiling, moving pillows around to find cool spots, unsuccessfully avoiding glances at the clock when it’s 2:24 a.m.
While many herbal teas will help tip the sleepy into deep slumber, our Organic Night Time Blend doesn’t take any chances — it’s custom designed to send the stressed into la-la land.
This blend contains chamomile, catnip and peppermint. Each of these herbs is renowned for shepherding people into the land of zzzzzz. But then we add valerian root to the mix, which turns the blend into an extremely powerful sleep agent. Pro tip: Brew a cup of Organic Night Time Herbal Blend an hour or 90 minutes before clicking off the lights. You’ll experience a sense of calm envelop you, and enjoy the feeling of sinking shoulders, before drifting off to sleep.
The season of stress — and of revelry and community warmth and joy — is nearly upon us. Let Ku Cha help you pilot your way through it all with tea.
