Spilling The TEA- About Us
The God's Honest Tea is a faith-based, female-owned, and operated company, and through it, I present my love of God's Truth and fine teas. You can find tea accessories in the online store and purchase my specialty blended and hand-selected Rooibos tea blends, lovingly referred to as "RemeTEAs." I pray you will love them as much as my family and I do.
In my blog, "What's in your Cup?", you can read my divinely inspired and Biblically based devotionals about God's Honest Truth. I find synergy and peace in His truth and a great cup of tea. Filled with His truth, delicious tea, and a healthy dose of spriritualiTEA, I am pleased to share beauTEAfully blended teas and tea products with you!
Keep reading for more about me...
In the south, where I was born, raised, and live, sweet tea is commonly known as the "house wine." We Southerners typically like our tea dark, sweet, and loaded with ice. It wasn't until I met my European husband that I discovered hot teas, "tea-time," tea with milk or tea leaves of any color other than my beloved black pekoe tea or the ever-so-popular green tea. Black tea and green tea were the only teas I thought existed in the world of tea leaves. If you are from the South, you know exactly what I mean.
My husband is from South Africa and was raised on Rooibos (red bush) tea. Many South Africans drink Rooibos from sun up to sun down. They like their tea piping hot, and most drink it with milk, cream, condensed milk, and/or sugar—everyone from infants to the elderly drinks Rooibos tea like water. They dip cookies, dried biscuits, aka biscotti, and other assorted desserts into their tea cups.
I was taken aback when offered my first steaming hot cup of red tea with milk and sugar alongside a hard, dried, lengthy, bread-looking thing (biscotti). "Who dips stale sweet bread into hot tea?" - "Where is the ice"? -"Milk in my tea?" -"It's not already sweetened?"- "Why is this tea red?"- Did they put food coloring in it?" - "Where are the tea bags?" Thus was the rush of thoughts in my head.
Despite my deeply Southern roots, I considered myself somewhat cultured; to me, this tea-time ritual of theirs was unbelievably foreign. The baby at the tea party had cooled Rooibos in its bottle. "You give tea to your babies, really?" My husband had told me he drank Rooibos from a bottle as a baby, but I could not imagine it until I saw it. "We give Rooibos tea to all of our babies to help relax them and soothe their tummies. It is naturally sweetened and has no caffeine," responded my mother-in-love.
My husband's elderly grandmother was drinking it. His teenage cousins even joined in for tea and the 'dried sweet bread things.' Next came all the men in the family who gingerly and gently held the tiny porcelain tea cups patterned with miniature flowers in their big, manly hands. The spotlessly polished, sterling silver tea tray with tiny spoons, delicate porcelain cream, and sugar containers was passed round and round. "Is this one of those fancy English tea parties I have heard about? But they're not English." I thought to myself. Friends, I admittedly had so much to learn about life and tea.
When the teapot of boiling water with the strainer basket of loose red leaves, and glass containers of cream, milk, and sugar got low, they were quickly refilled, and the tea party seamlessly carried on. Everyone's cups were perpetually filled with the red concoction, and the tea ritual continued for hours. Accompanied by laughs, stories, and tales of the past. This South African tea party changed me and my misinformed mind in ways I never imagined possible.
I learned many things about my husband's culture, myself, and the science of tea at my first Tea Party. Here are a few things about Rooibos tea that you, too, may find interesting:
1. It is naturally decaffeinated and lightly sweet.
2. It contains zinc and calcium and is loaded with antioxidants.
3. It is lower in Tannins than black or green tea.
4. It **may benefit bone health, heart health, and type 2 diabetes, reduce cancer risks, and improve digestion.
**These benefits are solely based upon public and personal opinions that may be unverified and should not be considered as a means to diagnose or treat any physical ailment or health concerns. Always check with your doctor before consuming any food or drink that may interact with your prescriptions, and never use Rooibos in place of your prescribed medicines from your doctor.
Needless to exclaim, I completely fell in love with the Rooibos tea-time tradition. I began to understand why my husband loved his precious red tea so much, and I learned that there was an entire world of tea and tons of health benefits from drinking and using tea that I knew nothing about. With my newfound love of tea and a small piece of tea knowledge, I vowed to learn everything I could about it and to share it with the world.
It wasn't until several years later, when our daughter was born, that I personally experienced, the real health and wellness benefits of Rooibos tea. My "mother-in-love" came to the rescue with a bottle of liquid red gold one sleepless night when our 4-month-old daughter suffered from colic. I had tried everything from simethicone drops, white noise, gripe water, and warm water bottles, but nothing worked. She screamed and wrenched her little body almost around the clock until her first bottle of Rooibos. After she drank it, within about 30 minutes, she relaxed and finally fell asleep. Let it suffice to say that the experience changed her little world and mine! "Rooibos to the rescue" became my mantra and to this very day, it still is.
My love for Rooibos permanently replaced my love for that sweet ol' southern black sweet tea, and I gave the precious red tea to our daughter regularly for tummy aches, sleeplessness, and any time she was feeling anxious or upset. My husband was right! There, I said it. Rooibos was a staple in my husband, his parents, and their parents' households, and I knew why. Twenty-five 25 years later, a gallon-sized jug of fresh, cold, and sweet Rooibos tea lives in our refrigerator.
Our sweet little girl is now 18 years old and making variations of Rooibos, green, black, and chai tea daily, but when it comes to tummy aches or sleeplessness, Rooibos is her go-to. It has taken many years for me to come full circle with my love and knowledge of tea, and here we are!
Coupled with a gift and calling from God to write for Him, I have found complete harmony and peace in God's Honest Truth and Tea, and my cup runneth over. I pray that through Him, with Him, and Him, I can help answer this question: What's in your cup today?
