I’ve been sitting through meetings all week and have faced a few difficulties with my tea drinking addiction!  I’m not talking about the actual brewing equipment part of the process, but instead…the hot water aspect of it all!  I never realized how hard a cup of hot water is to come by until this last week.  Basically, I was at the mercy of coffee machines with a hot water option.  I have no problem with this…IF I can find a coffee machine with a hot water option.  That is the problem.  Many of the businesses that usually have a coffee machine were closed this past week where I was attending my meetings.  Now I realize that some hard core tea drinkers might shun the idea of coffee machine water…but sometimes beggars can’t be choosers! Desperate times call for desperate measures. Speaking of measures, I can’t measure the water temperature or get picky about filtered water versus unfilterd or spring water versus regular water when dealing with coffee machine water, but I can pack a few basic greens or oolongs in my purse and count on a fairly good cup of tea.

I’ve found that coffee-maker-water is usually on the cooler side of “hot,” so greens and oolongs are perfect.  Oolongs are really my preference for on the go drinking.  They can hold up to swimming around in a infusing mug all day.  I just  continue to add hot water — that is, if I can’t get my hands on some.   One day, I resorted to driving through an espresso/coffee joint on my lunch hour in a desperate attempt to find hot water. I didn’t even want the crappy shot of espresso I ordered (all of .55 cents) but I hated to ask the lady to fill my crazy-looking tea concoction without at least buying something from her.  Some of my friends suggested filling my tea infuser with hot water from the bathroom sink. They are non-tea drinkers. I just cannot — and will not bring myself to go there.  Nope – can’t do it! Perhaps I need to get my stainless steel thermos out  and fill it up. (I used to pack hot water in for baby-formula-mixing in this thermos. My kids don’t drink baby-formula made with public bathroom water either!!)

Companies make awesome infusing mugs, thermos’, glasses, cups— all with strainers, cold-to-the-touch outer layers and other seemingly convenient and easy-to-use features for those of us who like to sip tea throughout the day. I have several of these and use them all the time. What about hot water though?  Just when I thought I was done packing baby bottle supplies, I’m into it again…this time for my tea.  I guess I will get the thermos out again and just pack my own hot water. Like most things…if you want it done right, just do it yourself. Just as some people need their high-fructose, corn-syrup loaded soft drinks to get through the day, I need my all-natural, unsweetened-tea to get through my day!