Happy New Year 2017
As we approach the New Year, it can help to begin to formulate some New Year’s resolutions that pertain to tea. Doing so can help us to keep our tea drinking focused, and assists our palates and our experiences in tea in blossoming and developing. We have all heard time and time again the standard and rather mundane New Year’s resolutions that are thrown around at the end of every December by well-meaning people around the world. The resolutions to lose more weight, to exercise more, to get promoted, to earn a raise, to pay of the mortgage are as common in December and January as champagne flutes on New Year’s Eve. But what about a New Year’s resolution for tea?
Developing a New Year’s resolution that can be applied to tea drives us where we want to go in the hobby and keeps us mindful of the goals we want to achieve in our own tea experiences. For example, if you desire to be an expert in all things green tea, then your New Year’s resolution might be to try a new green tea every week or every month while taking extensive and comprehensive notes on the teas you sample. This type of resolution is helpful not only because it forces you to try a new tea on a regular basis, thereby expanding your tea experience, but also because it drives you towards a specific and definite goal, which in the case of the example is becoming an expert on green tea.
For those of us who are passionate about tea and truly love it, any time spent not drinking it can seem like time wasted. For this reason, if you feel that not enough of your time is spent drinking tea, then you may find it helpful to form a resolution that encourages you to grant tea a larger role in your day-to-day life. For example, if you only drink one cup of tea per day, your resolution for the new year might be to drink at least two or three cups per day.
In order to form a New Year’s tea resolution that is beneficial for you in the upcoming year, it is necessary to take the time to assess your your wishes and goals in the hobby. Find what you most want out of the hobby and design your resolution to work towards that goal. For the next year, my personal New Year’s tea resolution is to drink tea in more creative ways and situations than I have been. In my own personal tea drinking life, I often feel as though I have been caught in a ruff, only drinking tea at a certain time, in a certain place every single day. This repetitive habit has taken way some of the excitement that I had once had for tea and has turned tea into a chore rather than an enjoyable activity. With my New Year’s resolution, I’m hoping that my tea drinking life will become more vibrant and more exciting quickly as I experiment more with tea and how I drink it.
Regardless of what your resolutions are for the New Year, simply having one that relates to the tea hobby can keep you focused and driven in the pursuit of fine tea. As you search to find greater enjoyment and fulfillment in this upcoming year, not only in tea but in all of your endeavors, we here at Herbal Republic wish you all the best in 2017.