by Catherine Nickerson

Created on: May 20, 2008   Last Updated: August 04, 2008

I routinely loaded my mornings with an ever-increasing amount of coffee creamer until I was basically drinking half coffee and half creamer. And one cup was not enough. One cup when I wake up, one cup to get me through the shower, one cup while I put my face on, one cup while I gather my stuff, one cup for the drive and one more cup when I get to my desk. That is an enormous amount of fats, natural flavors and what ever else they put in creamer to make it so wonderful.

One morning I put two and two together. What must all of this speed (caffeine) mixed with sugars, fats and who knows what else is doing to my body? I had this image of soft butter quickly coating my insides with powdered sugar. And I mean whole sticks of butter and about half a cup of powdered sugar every morning. Yes, I actually think of these things. I often pictured this fat filled mess shooting quickly through my veins and into my brain. All exaggeration aside, I figured it was a safe assumption that starting my day with so much fat and sugar couldn't be a good thing.

I tried straight coffee. I tried hard. I figured it was like beer and I did my best to develop a taste for it. It was no good. I felt like an old man in a diner who takes his coffee straight and always has a cigarette hanging out of the side of his pursed lips. I didn't want to smoke again, so plain coffee was out.

My husband, who travels the world for his job, said to me one day, "you know, this is the only continent that isn't filled with tea drinkers." He is always throwing out stupid facts like that. We spent at least ten minutes trying to figure why that might be. And no, we never solved the puzzle.

The next day I found myself in the tea isle of the supermarket, just looking of course. I looked way up on the shelf and saw English Breakfast tea and Irish Breakfast tea. Hey, they are cool countries. I decided it would be cool to try tea from cool countries.

The whole tea bag thing was a bit of a mess but I could definitely get used to plain black tea. Oh, and tea is like beer! Keep drinking it and you develop a liking for it. I finally solved the mess problem with an automatic tea maker. Yes, I said automatic tea maker. It brews four cups with no mess and steeps it at just the right temperature and it keeps it hot. It is my most valued machine.

Everyone needs to give tea a chance, but absolutely do not ever drink Lipton tea. Oh, and Earl Grey needs lemon juice.

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