Spilling The Tea

If you’re a tea lover, you should travel with your own and it’s super easy to do!

While hotels have widened their coffee selections with their partnerships with Keurig, teas have remained limited, except of course in Asia where you’ll find a nice selection. The airlines rarely have more than a couple of options and it’s the standard black tea or breakfast blend. The answer is simple, bring your own bags so you’ll always have your favorite tea.

You can also add teas to your travel medicinals. Tea is a nice herbal option with health benefits.

Anise (Star Anise) – helps expel gas, promotes digestion, relieves nausea and abdominal pain, soothes coughs and colds, and helps clear up congestion.

To keep it moving I like Smooth Move, for gentle, overnight relief. It’s a senna-based herbal tea. It’s also combined with fennel, coriander and ginger to reduce the potential for unpleasant feelings like cramping.

I also use Sleepytime tea, it has a blend of soothing herbs, including delicate chamomile, cool spearmint, and fresh lemongrass to help me relax at bedtime.

Chamomile is good for digestion, relaxing, rheumatoid arthritis, relief of back pain, soothing skin irritations, and good for sunburns, along with other benefits.

Echinacea – boosts the immune system and can reduce at least twelve clinical symptoms of bad colds. The native Indians of the Great Plains used this herb as a remedy for snakebites and skin wounds and applied it directly to the mouth for toothaches and sore throats. It has also been successful in treating candida.

Ginger relieves nausea and restores appetite. Also, good for morning sickness.

Peppermint or mint – is good for cramps and stomach pain, relieves gas, aids in digestion, reduces sick feeling, and can help with insomnia.

Another use is to soothe your tired eyes. Often after a long flight or because of jetlag, my eyes are tired and sometimes puffy. I use soaked tea bags to reduce puffiness, dark circles, and redness. Just steep two tea bags, squeeze out the excess liquid, allow them to cool or put them in the fridge, and place a tea bag on each eye and relax for 15 to 30 minutes.

Have some tea!