One of the things I've noticed about myself lately is that I drink way too much coffee. It's not really a bad thing, in my opinion, because what I consider too much isn't what others might consider too much. I don't like cold coffee (iced coffee or anything like that) because then I drink more than when I drink hot coffee. Although I've cut down to under 10 cups of coffee in a 24-hour period, I have a different reason for saying it's too much. All types of coffee (whether flavored or not) are starting to taste the same to me.

Let's Try Hot Tea

I don't always drink hot coffee. By saying less than 10 cups a day, I'm leaving the actual number open to interpretation. I've been known to drink no coffee at all for days at a time, but when I do drink coffee, it tends to be 4 to 6 cups a day.

When it comes to iced tea, however, I only drink it when it's hot (when I've spent a lot of time outdoors) and that's only when I don't want to drink plain cold water. I never drink hot tea and I recently started wondering why.

In some places, people drink hot tea like I drink hot coffee. It can't be bad or they wouldn't be doing it. I'm going try to switch to drinking hot tea for about a month, instead of hot coffee, to see if I'll like it better. I'm not going to use instant tea; I'll be using tea bags and this is going to take some work since I'm not familiar with doing it by the cup.

Tea Varieties

Just like coffee, there are many varieties of tea. Of course, I'm talking about tea that comes from a tea plant, not some other concoction called tea.

I don't like flavored coffee and I don't like flavored tea. While I prefer the regular black tea, I'm not opposed to green tea or other versions.

I'm limited in what kinds of tea I can drink by the availability of what I can buy locally. Black tea and green tea varieties are in abundance while the others are not. I also have to be careful that it's not tainted with added flavoring that I don't like, like lemon (or raspberry or just about any fruit flavor). I don't mind cinnamon, but I don't like it like that very often.

Coffee or Tea instead of other Beverages

People may wonder why I talk about coffee and tea. Well, it's because I don't talk about other beverages. When it comes to expenses, even though coffee isn't that cheap anymore, it's still cheaper than a lot of other beverages.

I don't drink plain water, coffee or tea exclusively. I also drink fruit juices and on occasion, some kind of alcoholic beverage. My primary beverages, at least in the foreseeable future, are always going to be plain water, coffee and tea, so I'd be lying if I said otherwise.

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Unlike coffee, the many kinds of tea are not produced from multiple species. The different varieties of tea come from one plant, the camellia sinensis. I'm not talking about teas (like herbal tea) which do not come from the tea plant; I'm specifically talking about the varieties made from the tea plant.

Tea is Classified by the Producing Technique

The traditional tea consumed by most Americans is black tea. It's the same plant used for green tea, so green tea isn't any healthier for you than black tea in its original form. Here are the classifications:

• White tea: Un-Wilted and unoxidized
• Yellow tea: Un-wilted and unoxidized but allowed to yellow
• Green tea: Wilted and unoxidized
• Oolong: Wilted, bruised, and partially oxidized
• Black tea: Wilted, crushed, and fully oxidized
• Post-fermented tea: Green Tea that has been allowed to ferment/compost

What about Red Tea?

When my family moved to Hawaii in the 70s, and I was a teenager, my parents planted a unique hedgerow. It was a repeating row in an order than included Tea, Red Tea and Bird of Paradise. The tea plant was the tea plant I'm talking about. The red tea plant is something else. Although it looks like the regular tea plant, it's not red version of it. Frankly, I don't know what it was.

How Tea is Consumed

I've always known about tea being consumed either cold (iced) or hot. The British like it hot, while most Americans like it iced. Unlike coffee, again, tea isn't used in candies and cakes and the leaves aren't eaten with chocolate.

Local Tea Varieties

I'm unaware of any tea that's grown locally. If I look at some of the packaging, I'd probably find out that some of what I think is imported is actually made in the Philippines.

I usually buy the instant NESTEA, without sugar or lemon flavoring added. I like to taste the tea, not the additives. Yes, I add sugar, but how much I add depends on how strong I make it. I like it iced and lightly sweetened, not heavily sweetened like the US southerners.

Unfortunately for me, most Filipinos like the added lemon, so the plain NESTEA is always hard to find.

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