Hot drinks

I like hot drinks, some people don't. I don't really know why we have them, or how they were discovered. Maybe I could set that as a little homework task- to find out how hot drinks came into being. I was thinking today about tea. I was looking at the (very) many different varieties we have in our household and marvelling at the choice we get offered (although this is A Bad Thing too but in this case, I get to gloss over the evils of choice in our wanton consumerist society).

I cannot tolerate caffeine, even fairly minimal amounts as can be found in tea so my options have always had to include either decaffeinated teas or teas that are naturally low in caffeine. I have also tried to endorse Fairtrade products as far as possible and combining my principles and the need for no caffeine wasn't happening for a couple of years. Well now I need to thank The Evil God of Choice because I can get fairly traded decaffeinated tea bags. My initial compromise was Clipper decaff.
It had a pretty blue butterfly on the front and I knew that some of the Clipper range were fairtrade so they are a company with principles. That was my reasoning anyway.

But now I have discovered that Traidcraft do a decaff, and I can buy from church which means bypassing evil supermarkets!


But on our shelves we have allsorts of varieties including Birt and Tang, which to me smell like a mix of Bovril and sweaty socks. Needless to say, the pungent aroma hasn't enticed me to try them but they are popular with my husband.
We also have a VAST array of green teas: Tetley decaff, Clipper decaff, Twining with Jasmine, Clipper with Echinachea and another with Ginseng. We also have peppermint and chamomile tea bags.

I am not a fan of coffee. Looking at my selection of tea bags, that is probably a Good Thing. We do however have a jar of coffee for visitors.



Hot chocolate is another drink that I tend to have as a treat if I "go out for coffee" as I don't like coffee and I usually don't like tea purchased elsewhere. We do have a jar of Clipper instant hot chocolate at home. Not tried this yet. Because of the caffeine content, I can only really have it once in a while which is just as well as it doesn't really fit into the whole healthy eating programme!