Tea is one of my guilt-free pleasures. It doesn’t make you put on weight, and unlike coffee, it doesn’t dehydrate or stop me from sleeping. So I really go for it and buy good quality leaves. I then have a mini tea ceremony, with a small tea pot for multiple brews and a gong dao bei (a small jug) to decant the tea in so it doesn’t get too strong. The teas I’m currently drinking aren’t traditional: rose-scented tea (rose is good for moving Qi in Chinese medicine) and GABA oolong. GABA is tea oxidised in nitrogen so that it’s high in GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), which is said to lower stress.
I’ve recently bought a new tea table. Most tea tables are, unsurprisingly, from China. But I spotted a Ukrainian artisan selling them on Etsy, and decided to support him. It looks sturdy, with a tree etched in the wood. At the bottom of the tree is a hole, which the tea drains through to a stainless steel tray.