So, perhaps I've taken the whole alliterative title thing a little too far...
I'm pleased to say that over the weekend I finally turned a corner on the cold thing. Not quite ready to say it's completely gone as the cough lingers on a bit, but it no longer directly affects my day-to-day so it's good. I'm back to my 5k training, which feels great, and I'll be able to pick things back up with my strength trainer at our appointment later this week. I knocked out a paper this weekend and am all caught up on my school reading. It's a nice recovery after the mayhem of the earlier part of this month!
Meanwhile, I have a recommendation for you. I was drinking gallons of tea over the couple of weeks I was sick. My husband, daughter, and I are all big tea drinkers, although my husband only has a limited number of flavors he likes (Earl Grey, Moroccan Mint, and the occasional green tea--though he mostly drinks plain hot water which we jokingly refer to as "white tea"). My daughter and I are the more adventuresome types. When she was still living at home we had difficulty getting all our varieties to fit on the tea shelf.
I was recently contacted by Andy Hayes, founder of Plum Deluxe teas in Portland, Oregon. He noted how often I referred to tea on my blog and asked if he could send me some samples. As I coughed my way through my email, I thought, "Sure, why not?" He asked me what kind of tea I was interested in and I let him know some of my basic likes and dislikes, and just a few days later I got Happy Mail including three samples of some of their more popular teas.
Let's start with the general overview: Plum Deluxe teas are fair trade and organic. I've been in search of a good fair trade coffee and have yet to find one I like. I'm pleased to say that the same is not true for these teas: These are fantastic! They're also blended by hand when they're ordered, so they're not shipped from some big production house and sitting in bags on shelves for years until they make it to you. They have a great blog covering all sorts of topics, and a newsletter that's got interesting tidbits, life balance encouragement, recipes, and ideas for entertaining. Additionally, Plum Deluxe has a philanthropy fund that it uses to support worthy causes. They list several of the things they've supported in the past on their website. As you can guess, that was a major plus for me before I'd even tasted the teas!
So...let's get on to the teas, shall we?
The three samples he sent were the Oregon Breakfast Black Tea, Refreshing "After Dinner" Mint Tea, and Easy to Be Herbal Tea.