Chubby Bunny

Sunday Morning

Nothing brings be greater joy than healthy food for breakfast.

The weekend is usually the only time of the week I will eat oatmeal for breakfast– 3 minutes of cook-time in the microwave is too much to ask on a workday morning. Since there must be at least a dozen bananas in my house at the moment, I sweeted my fare with some quartered slices and some raisins to go with the oatmeal and milk.

While it crossed my mind to add a pinch of brown sugar and maybe even wheat germ for a nuttier taste, I refrained. Less really is more sometimes, and today was not a morning where I wanted to be overwhelmed by complexity.

Upon running out of Lipton Green Tea bags, I was hesitant to shell out another $3.50 for a box of 50 tea bags, since it must have taken me a half a year to finish on my own. Not only was I out of what I call American green tea, but I was also out of Japanese sencha and genmaicha. I had no more tea bags, except for Lipton’s Original (a staple in my house,) Celestial Seasoning’s honey-vanilla chamomile (or some other disasterous, multi-syllabic name) and some Carrington’s peppermint tea (it’s good for digestion, but then…mint relaxes your cardiac sphincter which can cause heartburn. I’m remain torn as to when to drink it.)

So one day at the office I decided that (a) I needed to resolve my green tea predicament, (b) it had to be something new and different and (c) it is time to grow up and dodge bagged tea.

Where could I find affordable loose tea?
Chinatown was the answer.

While I remain rather skeptical about foodstuffs from a country that has no strict legislation whatsoever on food management, I decided to take a chance and look the other way when it came to pre-packaged loose tea. After summoning what little I have retained from Japanese class to determine what the different Japanese teas were at Kam Man Supermarket, I finally chose a bag of sencha and a tea tin to hold it all.

Sencha is steamed tea leaves, and this particular brand has a pretty different taste from what I’ve had previously. Mom and my brother have decided that it smells like anchovies.

I admit there is some scent to it, but it isn’t fishy in anyway. It smells like…well..dried leaves. As per the episode of Good Eats on tea, I let my tea leaves brew without any constraint in a bowl (more surface area.) I used to brew it in my mug, but it was irritating when the stems would remain afloat during drinking.

The temperature of the water is important in brewing tea, to avoid extracting flavors that are not very desirable. Water that has been brought to a rolling boil can be used immediately to brew black teas. With green teas, however, patience is needed before adding the water– 190° F, give or take a few, is usually the recommended temperature. So it’s okay to wait a few minutes before bringing leaves and water together.

Why bother drinking tea? Aside from it’s supposed benefits thanks to antioxidants like ECGC, it’s just a good alternative to other drinks that are either pumped with caffiene or sugar. There’s much less processing involved, so a lot of the nutrients are retained. And it’s much more natural than the chemicals added to coffee just to keep it decaffineated.