I have mentioned my love of tea before on this blog. I also mentioned that I had the idea to start growing my own tea using indoor grow lights and indoor growing techniques. I have learned so much about growing food indoors, that it made a lot of sense to start growing tea as well.
And I’m here to report that it was a great success. Obviously, I’m not making tea that I will ever be able to sell to anyone else, but I’m getting results and I’m enjoying them. The tea leaves produced from my little tea garden taste amazing. So far I have only made them into green tea, because the process for that seem fairly easy, but I think I will try to produce other types of tea very soon.
I have gotten so much tea from that, that I’ve started drinking tea all day. The only issue is that I am on the road all day as well, traveling between different locations for work. That meant I needed a way to take my tea with me. For coffee you have the thermos and this works pretty well also, but there is an even better option. That is a travel mug.
I got myself a large ceramic travel mug with a lid. This allows me to use it with the lid on, which keeps in the heat and keeps my tea hot longer and it also prevents spills. I got one that fits into a cup holder, since I mostly cruise around in my car.
But it also has a no slip bottom, so that if I were to travel by bus or train, I could use it there as well. I also use it when I’m in the office, because it is just easier to keep using that instead of switching to a different kind of mug. It might be called a travel mug, but you can use it anywhere.
The hardest part when buying it, was to decide on the design. I had no idea, but there are thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of different types of travel mugs. They come in all materials, like plastic glass and metal, but I decided on ceramic.
It is the material a regular coffee or tea mug is made from, so it only makes sense that my travel mug should also be from that material. It is the only one where you know that it is not leaving any kind of residue in your hot drink.
Ceramic may not insulate quite as well in some of the double-walled metal mugs, but it is close. And since mine is a double-walled ceramic mug, it is very close. I find it keeps my tea hot long enough for my tastes.
Of course, I actually like cold tea as well. In fact, in the summer I let my tea cool down before I put it in the mug. I guess I would need an insulated mug after all, for the times I try to make iced tea, but I never do that. I just drink it at room temperature. And in the winter I drink it when it is hot, because it really does warm you up.
So that is where I am now. I am making my own tea hydroponically and I’m drinking it all day, every day. And I’m loving it. Growing your own food organically is just amazing, and that extends to things like tea and coffee as well.