Sweet Tea for the Heat

I must admit I was never a big friend of tea.

I just can not stand hot beverages, not even coffee or hot chocolate.

Only hot drink I drink for pleasure is a good mochacino, sweet and with enough chocolate to hide the coffee taste.

And that will happen only twice, or maybe three times, a year.

Then I came to live here in Tena, hot and humid, heat and sweat.

You cannot drink the water here, it's too full of things like amoebas.

And warm bottled water is not a treat.

I could not drink sodas or juice because of how much sugar they had.

I tried to drink water with ice and I drank diet soda as much as I could.

Then I started to get cramps in my legs and I was told it was because of dehydration and magnesium deficit.

And I was told to drink sparkling water.

So begun my experimentation.

How will you make sparkling water interesting?

After all, I'm supposed to drink a gallon of it, every day.

I finally have devoloped the perfect formula for me.

And I must say that people who love tea have it right, especially in the South.

I make mine with sparkling water (as doctor ordered), stevia, lemon and tea.

The type of tea depends on the lemons.

There are big juicy, pale lemons that go perfectly with green tea.

And then there are dark green, lumpy lemons, that are almost like blood lemons when you open them.

They give a yellow color and sweeter taste to the tea and go perfectly with some black tea.

I must say: Tea is a divine herb. ~Xu Guangqi

Here are a few quotes from other tea lovers in the history:

Tea is quiet and our thirst for tea is never far from our craving for beauty. ~James Norwood Pratt

The cup of tea on arrival at a country house is a thing which, as a rule, I particularly enjoy. I like the crackling logs, the shaded lights, the scent of buttered toast, the general atmosphere of leisured coziness. ~P.G. Wodehouse

Autumn stars shine through gaps in the wall.... [H]e... brews midnight tea by the stove's ruddy light. ~From a traditional Taoist song, quoted in John Eaton Calthorpe Blofeld, The Chinese Art of Tea

Teas vary as much in appearance as the different faces of men. ~Hui-tsung
 
The sounds of the tea being made invite the peach blossoms to peep in through the window. ~Uson, quoted in Sasaki Sanmi, Sadô Saijiki  

Having picked some tea, he drank it,
Then he sprouted wings,
And flew to a fairy mansion,
To escape the emptiness of the world....
~Chiao Jen

Bring me a cup of tea and the times. - Queen Victoria’s first command upon her Accession to the throne. 

In the South, you can’t marry a man until you know how his mama makes sweet tea. -A quote from Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes, A collection of Southern short Stories. 

The first bowl washed the cobwebs from my mind —
The whole world seemed to sparkle.
A second cleansed my spirit
Like purifying showers of rain,
A third and I was one of the Immortals —
What need now for austerities
To purge our human sorrows?
Worldly people, by going in for wine,
Sadly deceive themselves.
For now I know the Way of Tea is real.
~Chio Jen  

There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea, -Henry James(1843-1916) 

There is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims 

We had a kettle; we let it leak: Our not repairing made it worse. We haven’t had any tea for a week…The bottom is out of the Universe.
~Rudyard Kipling

You can't get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. ~C.S. Lewis 

Enjoy your tea!