Come summer or winter, there’s always time for a cup of tea. Even if it's scorching outside, you better believe we’ll still be putting the kettle on.
Especially amid a pandemic, a calming cuppa can be comforting, not to mention a brilliant hangover cure for your Friday night zoom catch up with friends.
Marked in our calendars is 21 May for International Tea Day, and here at IndyBest, we’re well experienced in the department, having tried and tested everything from kettles to plastic-free teabags.
Up ahead is the tea making arsenal you need to make sure every cuppa is a good one.
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Tea bags
Kicking off with the foundation for any great tea is of course, tea bags. You might think tea bags are just simply paper and tea, and that they decompose, so you’re doing your bit by putting them in your home food waste to compost.
But, you’re wrong – unless you use plastic free tea bags, that is.
In actual fact, many of the tea bags we buy contain polypropylene, which is what the tea bags are sealed with, so when you put in the used bags in your food waste, you’re actually putting toxic chemicals into your beautiful compost that will eventually seep into the ground.
Each tea bag is unbleached (hence its more earthy colour), organic, Fairtrade, plastic free and non genetically modified (GM).
If that’s not enough to convince you, it was even the world’s first Fairtrade tea, as noted by our reviewer. The tea bag is made from abaca plants – a type of banana – and the plastic that seals the bag is replaced with a material made from non-GM plants. It's become our new go-to for a good brew.
Sleepy tea
If you struggle to drift off, a sleep tea can be a godsend. In our round-up of the best sleep teas, our reviewer awarded Pukka's organic peace tea (Holland and Barrett, £2.99) the best buy.
This is infused with ethically sourced hemp (CBD), chamomile and spearmint to help mental and physical relaxation, calm feelings of anxiety and soothe digestive discomfort, making it the ideal cuppa to create a bit of inner peace before bedtime.
It also uses ashwagandha – a root commonly used in Ayurvedic practice to treat insomnia. When blended with other supercharged healing herbs, it helps to encourage a deep, restorative sleep.
Herbal tea
If you’re looking to cut back on caffeine, but still want your tea fix, try a herbal alternative instead.
Try the Whittard Marrakech mint 50 traditional tea bags (Whittard, £5.50) for a refreshing brew when the 3pm tiredness hits. It’s a blend of smoky green tea with pure peppermint leaves. The brand recommendeds leaving it to brew slightly before drinking.