Monday, February 14, 2011

New start

I've given up on the whole Yankee in the South idea for this blog. I never kept up with it in the first place, plus I've lived here for almost 18 years, so the novelty has worn off.


My current project will be to chronicle my attempt to live a healthy, balanced life, in tune with the seasons and in synchrony with nature (we'll see how that turns out!), while my husband tries to convince me that we should have macaroni and cheese for dinner every night of the week.

First story in this vein--I love Teavana. I went to the store in Park Plaza Mall for the first time last weekend, and spent way too much money. How could I not? They had so many great teas! Plus I bought another matcha bowl, and a cute tea set with a retro-looking bird pattern.

Anyway, green tea is healthy, so it was a good thing.

If you've ever been to Teavana, you might think the tea is way too expensive--$8 to $22 for just 2 oz.? No way, right? Well, I figured it out, per cup, and it's actually cheaper than boxed tea in bags.

If you look at a box of tea in your cupboard, you'll see it only contains between 1.25 and 1.5 oz of tea in the whole box, with 15 to 20 tea bags. Let's say, for the sake of this argument, that you bought your box of tea at a health food store, for the bargain price of $4 for 18 bags. (I'm using a box of Yogi Tea that I actually bought at Whole Foods as the example.) That works out to about 22 cents per cup.

Now, let's say you also bought 2 oz. of loose tea from pricey Teavana for $12. First off, by doing the math, you'll see that 2 oz. will make 24 cups of tea, as compared to 18 from that 1.5 oz box. BUT, most of the tea for sale at Teavana can be brewed up to three times if you store it in the fridge (for up to 24 hours) after you brew it the first time. So, if you drink tea regularly, every day, you will get 72 cups of tea out of that 2 oz., which works out to approximately 16 cents per cup. Ta-da! Your husband can't get mad when you explain that you actually saved money by buying tea that costs $96 per pound!


Just don't buy a whole pound at once, because you'll probably never use it all before it gets stale.

To be clear, I do not work for Teavana. I was really only trying to justify my purchase, after the fact, and the justification came out so well in my favor, that I had to share, in case anyone else needs some tea-habit support.

Happy sipping!

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