I love me some tea, that’s for sure. I don’t even know when I first started getting into daily tea but it sure has been a while. Mainly it was green tea, Lung Ching (“Dragon Well”) Green Tea to be exact, as a co-worker of mine tracked down a high quality, yet very affordable, selection at Old City Coffee. I have been ordering it for years.

Teas provide many health benefits, among them a high level of antioxidents. Also, they are usually lower in caffeine than coffee, depending on how long you steep them for. After feeling the initial herbal buzz of the Dragon Well I was hooked. No other green tea seemed comparable.

You see, not only was I into the Dragon Well, but I got some free samples from Yogi Tea after coming across a link on Spoofee.com a while back. Their Pomegranate was very good as well as their Lemon Ginger and Goji. Found some on sale ones and stocked up. I was officially a tea freak.

But I had to change my ways recently, and I wasn’t happy. Not happy at all.

Due to my recent health issues, posted here, I had my first Coumadin Clinic appointment this week. The clinic monitors by blood clotting level and adjust my intake of the drug Coumadin to make sure I don’t clot too fast or too slow. Well, as they were showing me information about foods and such that can negatively affect my clotting levels, one that came up as proven to raise my clotting level was green tea, due to it’s vitamin K content (excess leafy greens are out too). Per The University of Maryland Medical Center:

Blood Thinning Medications (Including Aspirin) — People who take warfarin, a blood thinning medication, should not drink green tea. Since green tea contains vitamin K, it can make warfarin ineffective.

Great, my drink of choice that I have usually 24-48oz of every day. The drink that I just ordered 6 boxes of the Yogi Pomegranate of and still have a ziploc bag full of Dragon Well of. So I had to step back and think of other teas that I used to try before really getting into the green kinds. One of them was Jean-Luc’s favorite: Earl Grey

It has been at least 2 years since I had any, and I am really digging it. Letting it steep until almost cool enough to drink, then putting in a dash of soy milk as creamer. Sweeter and richer (probably due to the soy milk) than the green teas I drink. Looked up some health information and found the following on Health 24 about this bergamot tea:

Bergamot has been documented as a useful and healing fruit in 12th century Europe

Bergamot’s main properties are as a disinfectant and an antidepressant

The esters and alcohols present in bergamot reduce anxiety by calming the nervous system

The catechin and fluoride content of black tea prevent tooth decay, while the antiseptic properties of bergamot can alleviate halitosis and oral infections

The bergamot content fights flu, fevers and colds

So it looks like I can still have some healthy benefits from drinking tea, even though I had to give up my favorites.

Others I have been trying in the non-green varieties are Tazo Chai, Irish Breakfast, and English Breakfast.

I also remember liking the generic black Chinese tea I would get at restaurants as well, so I will have to pick some up as well as this black/raspberry I came across once (loose leaf). But that requires venturing into the wilds of Brandon Florida (25 miles from me) and that may be a bit too long of a journey just for some tea.

At least I have some options.

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