There is nothing like a nice cup of tea. This saying is so commonplace that it has become something of a cliché, but like most clichés it is deeply rooted in truth! While most people settle for supermarket tea, why not look into more specialist teas, such as those offered by the Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Company? The online tea and coffee shop offers a wide range of delicious, health-giving teas to suit all tastes. If you need to know a bit more about what tea can do for you, here are some ways that drinking tea can boost your mood at work.
Hydration
We all know that staying hydrated is important, but did you know that every cup of tea counts towards your daily water recommendation? Office environments tend to be on the dry side because of the air conditioning or central heating, either one of which tends to be on at most times of the year. Having a cup of tea now and then throughout the day will keep your fluid levels high, preventing headaches, irritability and lethargy that dehydration can cause. Staying well hydrated is also a good way to resist temptation if you are trying to eat healthier and your workplace is filled with sweets and treats – water fills you up and can help control the urge to snack – which also makes you feel good about yourself!
Caffeinated, not Overstimulated
An average cup of coffee contains around 95mg of caffeine, while the same size cup of tea holds just over half the amount of the stimulant – around 48mg. While coffee might give some drinkers the jitters and even make their heart race, tea’s lower caffeine levels instead keep drinkers energized without overstimulating them. This is ideal for ensuring that you can make it through the working day without sacrificing the quality of your sleep at night.
A Multitude of Health Benefits
As well as caffeine, tea is known to contain antioxidants which aid the body in ridding itself of inflammation and free radicals. It has been linked to easing symptoms, preventing or delaying the onset of some conditions or symptoms in diseases as far reaching as heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers. A small disclaimer: any health benefits of tea drinking may be undermined with the addition of sweeteners and sugar, syrups and so on,
(*Loosely, free radicals are single atoms with unpaired electrons. Electrons need to be in pairs, so they rampage through the body seeking another electron to pair up with. They are caused by oxidative stress in the body when oxygen atoms split.)
Knowing that you are doing your best for your body and self, is a sure way to improve your self-esteem, and thus your mood, whether you are at home or in the workplace.
A Moment of Success
If you work in a busy, high-pressure environment, or at a job where the work is seemingly never-ending, taking a short break to make and enjoy a cup of tea can give you a moment of accomplishment that can lift your mood and give you the mental energy to continue with the more relentless aspects of your work.
The act of making a cup of tea involves finding and choosing the necessary components, being patient while the kettle boils, combining the required ingredients (sugar, milk, tea bags or loose leaf tea) to end up with the desired result – a perfect cup of tea. And then come the reward: that so-satisfying first sip! The completion of such a task will enhance your mood, giving you the stamina to get back to the sometimes less rewarding main task at hand.
Take a Break
We all know we are meant to take a break away from close-up work for five minutes or so every hour or two, but when we are deeply absorbed in our work, or if our in-boxes are too full, it can be hard to make the effort to stand up and step away from our screens. But getting up to make a cup of tea achieves that purpose while not feeling like a waste of precious work time. In the time it takes to make a cup of tea, you can rest your eyes and allow your concentration to wander a little – and this lets you get back to your work with fresh eyes and a renewed sense of purpose.
What Tea To Drink
There are several types of tea – even more if one allows fruit and herbal teas into the mix, which purists do not!
Green tea is known for being relatively low in caffeine and bursting with healthful properties, while black tea is the brew known and loved throughout the UK and other parts of the world.
If you are not a fan of the mild flavor of regular tea, you can add to your tea drinking experience by opting for a chai tea. The name is something of a misnomer, ‘chai’ being the India word for tea, which English tongues corrupted into ‘tea’, so chai tea is ‘tea tea’ when taken at face value! But chai tea is now understood to mean tea blended with spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, star anise, and cloves for a fragrant and quite delicious hot drink that can be enjoyed with or without milk or even as a latte. Some brands include other ingredients such as pepper, coriander, nutmeg or fennel to add unique tastes or a fiery kick, but these are not considered standard.
Sourcing Tea
With the whole wide world of tea to explore, it seems a shame to limit oneself to supermarket boxes of standard English Breakfast tea all the time, especially when you can buy a wide variety of tea bags online. Why not look at loose leaf tea and tea bag offers online to see if there are any teas that appeal to your tastes?
Loose leaf tea is not as scary as it seems – you simply need a teapot and perhaps a tea strainer. Warm the pot with a little of the boiling water, then add one teaspoonful of tea per person drinking, plus ‘one for the pot’ and then allow it to brew for two to three minutes to ensure the full flavor has time to develop. Once you buy loose tea and give it a try, it will not be long before you are confident with it – even if you do have to change your ideas about whether the milk goes first or not! (In general, for tea bags, the milk is added after, while with a pot, the milk is added first.)
Whether you opt for loose tea or prefer a tea bags online shopping is the best way to ensure a good supply of fresh tea to your door as and when you need it! The Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Company offers great products at excellent prices, so why not put them first when considering your tea bag online shop? The online tea and coffee shop has so much to offer, whether you are a long time tea drinker or a novice. For tea bag offers or to buy loose tea, this site has it all, for home or for your workplace. Why not arrange a tea bag online shop today?
