Tea time

Coffee's older cousin is tea. It's been brewed for centuries. There are hundreds of different types and flavors, but they all fall under six regular categories: Green, White, Oolong, Black, Herbal, and Rooibos.

From left: Black, rooibos, herbal, green, white teas.
Credit: http://www.teasentials.com/images/IMG_05572.jpg

Green tea: One of the oldest teas in the world, it was discovered in China, it is the most popular tea choice in the world. The tea has a low caffeine level. It is great iced or hot. Also wonderful mixed with flavors such as lemon, mint, or peach.

White tea: White tea is not fermented at all, which makes it look so light in the cup. It has virtually no caffeine. It can be mixed with lavender, violet, or fruit pieces to make a wonderful cup of tea.

Oolong tea: Oolong was also discovered in China, but the flavor profile is different because the tea is bruised after picking and the leaves are fermented. The caffeine in oolong is very low. It also is great mixed with a chai blend.

Herbal tea: Herbal tea is made from dried flowers, fruits, and herbs. They are mixed together so when they're steeped the flavors mix. Herbal tea blends have no caffeine in them which makes for a great cup right before bed. The most popular herbal blend is a chamomile tea.

Rooibos tea: Rooibos tea is made from the African red bush. The leaves are picked and fermented. Rooibos (pronounced Roo-e-bous) is a great tea to be mixed with herbal teas such as flowery or fruit based. It is caffeine free.

Black tea: The most popular tea in the US. It is a fully fermented tea. It does have quiet a bit of caffeine in it. It is great hot or iced and mixed with just about any flavor. The typical sweet tea is made from the base of black tea.

Have you ever tried tea? What was your favorite?
I'm partial to herbal teas because I love the flowery taste.

If you'd like to learn more about tea, you can visit one of the largest tea re-sellers - Teavana: http://www.teavana.com/tea-info/types-of-tea

No coffee? No problem!

What if you don't like coffee? That's okay! There are many different options for the non-java junkies out there who want to get their caffeine fix, if you go to a coffee shop or not.

If you aren't going to a coffee shop, there is regular options such as soda, tea, green coffee based drinks, energy drinks, or even semi-sweet chocolate has a little caffeine!

If you are going to a coffee shop, most have both iced and hot teas. Some tea has caffeine, but some do not. (I will address types of tea and caffeine levels in a later post). A very popular coffee shop that has a store everywhere in the world, has a green coffee based drink that tastes like a fruit juice. It has almost as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. Most mocha based syrups have a tiny bit of caffeine in them, so a cup a hot chocolate has a slight zing.

There's also a few options if you want to go out, that don't have any caffeine in them at all. There's lemonade, non-caffeinated tea, apple cider (try caramel apple spice at Starbucks during the fall, it's amazing!), and smoothies. All are great options if you're trying to avoid caffeine or getting a drink for a child.

Creative Ways to Brew

The last post was the common ways to make coffee at home, but what about those cool gadgets at that wonderful home store (you know what it is)? If you would like to impress your friends or feel like a real coffee connoisseur, maybe try one of these three methods.

1. Vacuum Pot - There are two chambers, a lower and upper. Coffee grounds are placed in the upper, and water in the lower. As the water is heated, it's pulled into the grounds on the top, thena s the water cools, it filters out of the grounds back into the lower chamber as coffee.

Vacuum Pot
Credit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/30/
best-coffee-brewing-method_n_5233438.html

2. Aeropress - A very cool gadget that uses hot water, grounds, and air pressure to make your cup of coffee. Simply place the aeropress onto of your cup, add grounds, hot water and then the 'plunger' and begin to press down. The air pressure forces the first stage of coffee out of the beans without the oils.

How to make that java at home

There are many different ways to brew coffee at home to make it feel like you're having a fancy cup at a cafe. You don't necessarily have to go out to get your fix.  Below are the top 3 most common at home brew methods.

Top 3 brew at home methods for coffee:

1. Standard coffee maker (like a 12 cup Mr. Coffee maker) or a single cup coffee maker (like a Keurig). This is the most common and easiest in the brew methods because the standard coffee makers are so cheap, and the single serve is so easy.

Single serve coffee maker
Credit: http://mr-coffee-espresso-machine.
applianceschoice.com/keurig-k140-coffee-maker-and/

Standard coffee maker
Credit: www.viewpoints.com

2. French Press coffee - While this one is slightly more difficult, it is not so much so that it would be discouraging. Just place coffee grounds and boiling water into the french press device, wait a few minutes, press the filter down and you get a fresh brewed cup of coffee!

What does your java say about you?

I stumbled on a fun post from en.ilovecoffee.jp in which they stated that there was a experiment where 1000 people were tested to see what they drink and related it to that person's personality. Here's ilovecoffee's info-graphic.

According to them, because I enjoy lattes I like to please people and I am indecisive. I suppose that is slightly true. Although there are a few drinks that are missing on here. It's still fun. Is your favorite drink listed? If so, does it fit into your personality?

All Types of Fancy

Now that you should know where the coffee and beans come from, we'll look at the types of drinks you can make. There's a ton of combinations of tasty coffee beverages. A few popular ones are lattes, cappuccinos, and just brewed coffee.

83% of adults drink some type of coffee every single day in the US. Most of those households own their own coffee brewer at home and drink regular brewed coffee. Some add cream, some add sugar, some just like it plain. Brewed coffee is wonderful in its own right. It's the fuel that almost everyone needs. If you have any questions about how to make brewed coffee, please shoot me a message or comment.

The next step up from brewed coffee is getting into fancy drinks made with coffee. A cafe au lait (also known as a misto) is half brewed coffee and half steamed milk of any type, and sometimes a flavored syrup. (One of my favorite versions of this is medium roast coffee, vanilla soy milk, and a bit of cinnamon.)

Next are drinks made with espresso (do make sure to pronounce this right, it is spelled and pronounced with a 'c' and not an 'x'). There are a lot of options in this category.

Credit: annystudio.com

• Espresso - One shot of 30 ml (just over 1 ounce) of espresso.
• Dopio - Two shots (2 ounces or 560 ml) of espresso.
• Latte- Espresso with steamed milk and about a quarter inch of milk foam.
• Cappuccino - Espresso with steamed milk and 1-2 inches of milk foam.
• Mocha - Espresso with steamed milk and chocolate (usually sauce mixed into the drink). 
• Americano - Espresso and hot water (similar to coffee, but stronger taste.)
• Macchiato - One or two shots of espresso topped with a dollop of milk foam.

Any of the above drinks can be mixed with syrup, whipped cream, or spices to make other drinks such as a vanilla latte or dopio campana (two shots of espresso and topped with whipped cream).