Three Teas To Sip Across A Busy Day
The first half of 2021 is now history. Over the course of the march of months it felt great to say goodbye to the constant masks, the takeout for dinner (again), and the lack of hugs.
Now it’s July, and we have entered the year’s second half. The world is busy again! Normalish, even. Looking ahead we’ve got so much to anticipate: summer vacations, back to (in-person!) school, leaf-peeping, a Halloween that welcomes 9-year-old witches and goblins to front doors and a long holiday season packed with family, friends and good cheer.
The rest of this glorious year requires tea, don’t you think?
We grew up drinking tea from morning until dinner, all of it traditional Chinese teas. Now that we own tea shops, we are exposed to far more teas than we encountered during our adolescence. We still sip tea across the day, but now it involves expanded variety. Which is a bonus. Given tea’s enormous diversity of styles, we constantly thrill our palates and moods with everything from South African rooibos to Scottish Breakfast to pu-erh from Yunnan Province.
Over the years, people have asked us how we incorporate tea into our lives, beyond a cup of something hot shortly after rolling out of bed. The persistent question has inspired us to devote all of our blogs in July to different strategies for adding healthy tea to the 16 hours or so that comprise a full day.
For this week’s installment, we look at three teas to complement and enrich a busy day.
Three Teas to Power Enrich Days Packed With Activities
Teas For Busy Days: Rocky Mountain Breakfast
As the name implies, this custom tea is designed to jumpstart any morning. Rocky Mountain Breakfast is a tea we often brew while bleary-eyed and still in slippers, but our desire for it seems even more profound when the hours ahead are packed with activities. Given our entrepreneurial pursuits, that’s a lot of days!
We did not grow up sipping black teas from India, but have come to love them since opening Ku Cha. Our Rocky Mountain Breakfast offers Assam, a classic Indian tea. But it also incorporates the famous Chinese black tea Keemun from the Anhui Province, which is wonderful. The regions supporting both teas are similarly blessed with ideal tea-growing environments: mild climates, loads of rainfall and cloud-infused dense forests.
This tea is malty, smooth and potent, with a piney fragrance and lingering aftertaste. We love it on its own, but also enjoy it with milk and sugar.
Teas for Busy Days: Boulder Boost
When we seek clean, efficient and lasting body and mental energy, we often turn to Boulder Boost. This organic blend offers guayusa, a South American shrub similar to yerba mate that offers roughly 41 milligrams of caffeine in an 8 ounce cup. That’s about half of the caffeine found in coffee. The tea incorporates black tea, too.
The subdued wallop of caffeine makes Boulder Boost an excellent companion for outdoor activities — hiking, mountain biking, paddling a canoe. Sipping something flooded with caffeine all day not only makes us jittery; it also interferes with our concentration. Our minds get scattered. We prefer sturdy, rather than scattered, minds when we engage with Colorado’s majestic outdoors.
In addition to the guayusa, Boulder Boost includes green rooibos, which is a South African shrub containing large amounts of electrolytes and minerals. Both of these are essential for the body’s ability to endure athletic pursuits. Finally, the delicious blend also offers Madagascar vanilla, tulsi, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, fennel and rose. The different spices, flowers, roots and flavors aid with digestion, mental alertness and more.
Sip Boulder Boost across the day and experience healthy, focused energy. And savor every drop! It’s delicious.
Teas for Busy Days: Iced Matcha Latte
No busy day is complete without at least one iced matcha latte. We think all fine whole-leaf teas are treats, but an iced matcha latte? Well, it’s extra special.
This might be the perfect tea delight roundabout 3 p.m., many hours after we revved-up the day with Rocky Mountain Breakfast and then turned to Boulder Boost to power us through the time on the trail. During this in-between period — after lunch, before dinner, we’re a touch hungry, starting to drag a little and need a little oomph — a cold matcha latte is the ticket.
The caffeine quotient — an 8-ounce cup has between 45 and 60 milligrams — is on par with guayusa, and quite a bit less than coffee. An afternoon break with iced matcha sends you forth with a happy little buzz. Within 10 minutes, you feel refreshed, invigorated and ready to tackle a game of backgammon, dinner, and some quality post-prandial hanging out.
Enjoy your tea-filled days this week, friends!
