Caffeine Free is the Way to Be

So you all may have noticed that my blog posts have been few and far between for a while now. There is a simple and sad explanation for this, which I will mention briefly but won't burden you with too many details.

I have a stomach condition which, at its most basic level, results in too much acid in my tummy. What happens is during the digestion process food triggers your stomach to produce acid to help breakdown the food. But my stomach is all out of whack and it tells the acid producers to keep producing acid even when there is already too much in my tummy.

This is nothing new, I have had the condition since high school and my doctor warned me against a few things to keep it from hurting. The three most important include chocolate, alcohol, and COFFEE.

Now those only happen to be the three most wonderful things in the world!

I had an episode this weekend that hurt more than anything you can imagine, so, for the time being, I figured I should lay off the coffee and baby my tummy for a week or two.

Not to worry! I have been an avid coffee drinker for many years now so I have lots of good data stored in my head that will get all you coffee lovers through this difficult time.

But there is another drink out there that I will try to take a liking to in the meantime. You may have heard of it before; it's called tea.

I have never been a tea lover; I'm a coffee girl. But desperate times call for desperate measures. And at the risk of traveling off the beaten path I will write a coffee blog post on its archnemesis: tea.

This weekend my mom and sister traveled down from Massachusetts for a girls weekend in D.C. We did this and we did that, but what is more lady-like and perfect for a girls weekend than high tea at a fancy upscale hotel? Nothing. So by-golly that's what we did.

We went to the Mayflower Hotel in the heart of D.C. As I mentioned before, I am not a tea drinker, although I am trying to develop a tongue for the taste. The one tea that I do like and I find the easiest to drink is camomile. Camomile tea is especially good for my stomach because it has 0 mg of caffeine and is thought to be a digestive aid.

I took to camomile tea while I was in Turkey.

(Turkish tea. Not camomile though. Unfortunately this is the only photo of tea I have from my Turkish adventure so it will have to do.)

The Turks follow every meal with a cup of tea, and things always are so much better when they have a cultural component to them. When I was in Turkey, I loved tea! Because that's what you drink in Turkey. 

Likewise, when I was in England, I had the best tea of my life! Simply because there is something about cultural norms that when in the setting, anything becomes bearable, and even enjoyable. 

(My tea! In England! Again not camomile, but tea none-the-less.)

So instead of cursing my stomach for not allowing me to drink the most delicious lattes and cappuccinos and espressos, I am trying hard to enjoy my tea time. And I did! It was easy to enjoy high tea with my mom and sister at a fancy-shmancy tea house, especially when they serve you tea sandwiches, scones, and other goodies on cute little trays!

Now, this is a blog where I am supposed to post my reviews about coffee, and while I don't know enough about tea to offer professional advice, I will tell you why camomile is my favorite.

1. It is made from daisies! Well, not daisies exactly, but camomile comes from a flower that is in the daisy family and looks just like one!
2. It's a soothing tea. It doesn't have too strong of a flavor, which I like. And maybe there is a tea lover out there, who writes a tea blog, and is reading this right rolling her eyes and stomping her feet because maybe tea is supposed to be flavorful and pungent. But I like it this way better. So there.
3. Zero caffeine. Which is good for upset stomachs like mine.
4. Daisies!!
5. It smells nice.
6. It kinda spreads a whole calm feeling over me like I am in the English countryside sipping my tea while awaiting the Queen's arrival. (Yeah yeah, I know. I am a daydreamer so let me be.)