Category Archives: Herbs and Tea

Plant Powered

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In all things of Nature there is something of the marvelous. —Aristotle

I woke up this morning thinking about my sixth grade friend Latitsia. She was very exotic in my mind: she was a vegetarian. (At the time that was rare and unusual.) That was 1959. She was very beautiful and took ballet. Also unusual, as I think she had to go to a neighboring town to find a dance studio. 

We were talking one day, and she said she and her mom and aunt were going to drive across the desert. “Wow,” I thought. That was not easy in those days, with practically no roadside restaurants– especially for vegetarians. I asked her what they would eat, and she said they took cans of frozen orange juice to sip, and they would eat avocados. That seemed very amazing to me.

Another thing that changed that year for me, in addition to having a vegetarian friend, was tea. My mom had always given me Lipton Orange Pekoe tea when I wasn’t feeling well, and to me that was Tea. That all changed when some new friends of my mom’s—out of towners—served us a very new and unusual tea that I loved, Constant Comment. It was an orange and clove flavored  black tea. That was the day that began my tea and herb hobby.

I love tea and herbs. 

I have many favorite brands, Yogi, Celestial Seasonings, Numi, to name a few. My top best pick is Traditional Medicinals.

I have highlighted them today in the chart above and in the photos below. I have used them and followed their growth and improvement over the last 25 years. Wonderful.

To my delight they have a new line of black teas. My favorite: an Assam Chai. 

So good. Organic Assam teas are often difficult to find; my Christmas Present to myself.

With each tea bag you receive carefully selected tea and a quote for the day on the attached paper. The company is B certified, and all of the ingredients are organic.

I love learning about the herbs, spices, and tea combinations. I find they are some of the easiest, most soothing, and comforting ways to enhance my well-being.

Bridges of love light.

Magic Gardens

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 Photo by Nina Wilkins. Magic Gardens by Corinne Heline

Magic Gardens and Tea have been among my favorite pastimes since I was 14 years old when I was taken to a Magic Garden and Tea party in Corona Del Mar, California. The garden is still there and is now called Sherman Gardens.

When I was 18 years old I had my first Jasmine tea in China Town, San Francisco. At the time, I didn’t know it was Jasmine tea, I just knew I loved the fragrance and the tea. I asked the waitress what kind of tea it was, and she just shook her head and said, “Chinese.” I carried the tea bag paper in my purse for years trying to discover what it was. Many years later I discovered in another Chinese restaurant that it was Jasmine tea, which, over the years, has become one of my favorites. The photo below is of dried Jasmine flowers that are available at herbco.com. You can add them to any green tea or experiment with making your own herbal tea blends.

I love resale shops. They contain so much variety, and often the goods span the decades. I discovered Magic Gardens at a resale shop many years ago. It has become one of my favorite books, even though I can only read one small chapter, or sometimes only one page at a time. The vibration is very high, and you can feel it was written by the angels. It contains joy and sadness in its pages; nostalgia and hope. “Heaven’s Love through flowers” is how I would describe it. The first edition, by New Age Press, was in 1944. I have the fourth edition from 1974.

For this upcoming Valentine’s Day I wanted to share parts of it with you:

In Flowerland the whispers of heaven may become audible to the children of men and women; for the celestial hosts, too, have a way of “saying it with flowers.”

The Peace Flower, Legend of the Jasmine

Angels hold converse with each other and with mortals by means of color. An assemblage of angels when engaged in healing prayers for the bestowal of blessings upon humanity appear as a glory of variegated clouds that fleck the sky in the hours of dawn or at sunset time.

…Winging through the vast ethereal expanses, hosts of angels gather some of the fairest, whitest, and most fragrant blossoms which adorn their etheric Land of Eternal Peace. These flowers they bring to the dust-haunted aisles of Earth. They are of ethereal whiteness and celestial sweetness, for of all the flowers the Jasmine is most fragrant.

The snowy  whiteness of the Jasmine- flower reflects the divine peace; its  fragrance, the prayers of angels. And… from its petals are broadcast the powers of peace.

So, if you haven’t yet experienced the bliss of Jasmine tea, I invite you to try it and be blessed.

Whole jasmine flowers from the Monterey Bay Spice Company. HERBCO.COM
Photo by Nina Wilkins

The Wonder, Love and Joy of Tea, Part 2

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There is an old expression that I believe comes from the Celtic tradition, which is, “If you can make a proper cup of tea, you can do anything.” I subscribe to that belief.

Many years ago I had the pleasure of going to a hot tub in Santa Cruz that had a beautiful Zen Garden, and in the waiting room was The Book of Tea, by Okakura Kakuzo and Bruce Richardson (introduction) from 1906. Richardson says: “You will discover the fascinating character of Okakura Kakuzo and the story of how he came to write one of the 20th Century’s most influential books on art, beauty and simplicity all steeped in the world’s communal cup of tea.” This book was a wonderful discovery for me and the perfect preamble to our hot tub experience. Our attendant gave us an introduction to the space and took our tea order. The tea was graciously served and was a type of white tea I had never tasted. The pleasures of tea are infinite.

Cover art for the book of Tea

I love tea ceremonies. They combine mindful movement and contemplation with the simple enjoyment of tea. The grace and beauty expressed bring those qualities into our awareness and allow us the break from our logical mind. We can feel the expression of the Divine as each small part of the ceremony is a gift of higher consciousness.

I wanted to share a tea ceremony with you today and was surprised at how many videos there are on YouTube of Chinese, Korean and Japanese ceremonies. I wanted to share also, a tea shop in Monterey, CA, that gives special tea ceremonies.

Over the years I have loved creating my own tea ceremonies and enjoyed the variety of teas.

My friend took me to her Russian grandmother’s home. She served us black tea that had been simmering atop a silver samovar. The cups were artistic and golden. The tea was rich and strong and served with sweet cherry candies on the saucer. You popped one in your mouth before taking a sip of the black, smoked tea. That experience was 40 years ago, and I still remember the taste and fragrance of that wonderful tea.

I love the various colors of perfectly steeped teas. Amber, orange, dark brown, many shades of green and a hint of gold in white teas. The Japanese use a pale green in their tea cups to enhance the beautiful color.

That brings me to choosing the water for your tea. You might want to experiment with distilled, spring, filtered, oxygenated and tap water. The waters will produce a different color using the same tea. Chlorinated tap water is not recommended. I like to use my gem water and gratitude water.

As you contemplate joy in your communal cup of tea that quality just may waft through your neighbor’s window and put a smile on their face.

The Wonder, Love and Joy of Tea

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Photo by Nina Wilkins

My tea journey started as a child with Lipton Orange Pekoe tea. My mom would give us tea with lemon and sugar when we were sick, and it was a comfort and help to ease us into wellness. It wasn’t until I was 14 that I discovered another tea, Constant Comment, a black tea with cloves and spices. That tea was a revelation. When I was 18, I discovered a new tea at a restaurant in Chinatown that I loved, though didn’t know what it was. I carried the teabag paper in my wallet for years looking for that tea. The paper was in Chinese and I didn’t discover that it was Jasmine tea until I was in my 20’s.

Jasmine tea was the best beverage I had ever tasted at that point, though later I would discover Darjeeling (the champagne of teas), Irish Breakfast and Earl Grey, a revelation of black tea with bergamot flavoring. Next was Mango Iced tea that was served at a restaurant. My mom and I searched and searched for it and found it at a small shop in San Clemente, California.

The universe loves to give us what we love.

My next unlikely experience with tea came when I was in my 30’s and attending San Francisco State University. I took a course in Asian Humanities focused on China in the Sung Dynasty. Tea’s birthplace is in ancient China. In 2732 BC, Emperor Shennong discovered tea when leaves rom a wild bush blew into his boiling pot of water. In this course we studied the poetry of Su Tung-po, and we read The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo, by Lin Yutang. Su Tung-po lived from 1037-1101 and his wonderful poetry has survived. It contained hints of metaphysics and the love of nature. What I remember of him was his detailed writing about tea.

Tea ceremonies were almost a religion to Su Tung-po. He said that for a proper tea you needed 23 special utensils, and if you only had 22 not to invite a guest. He and his friends would travel to a river and choose to draw water from the right curve of the banks, where the water would be freshest. Then they would choose a fragrant wood for the fire. When the water boiled there would be deliberate movements for pouring the tea and contemplation. To this day I remember his joy in tea.

Enjoying your tea contemplation is a wonderful start to your Day and a worthy Bridge of Love Light.

To be continued next week…

Photo by Nina Wilkins