How My Love of Tea Started

Jess at tea - Henley Park Hotel

You might have heard that event planning is one of the most stressful jobs out there. I can confirm that this is true. There are so many details remember, you are often the first one at an event, and the last one to leave - likely in the early morning hours, depending on the event. In the early years of my career, I loved the level excitement that came with events and went after it full bore. This meant lots of stress, without balancing out those stressful times with a stillness and mindfulness that I would learn to incorporate in my career. 

My first real job as a teenager was working at Starbucks Coffee Company. I wasn’t a coffee drinker when I started working there, but soon come to love the smell, the taste, and process of brewing coffee. At the start of my career, I found myself trying to manage my stress by drinking more coffee for energy and quickly went from drinking a couple a few times a week, to six a day. I put in long hours, and that meant that I need lots of coffee to fuel the work that I was doing.

 Over time, my stress level continued to climb, and so did how much coffee I was drinking. The stress started to show in the form of migraines and other issues. I’d go through severe withdrawal on the weekends when I didn’t have access to the fancy coffee offered for free at work. It was affecting sleep, my diet, and everything, but I kept pushing through.

I went to my doctor to find out if anything could be done about my headaches and she flagged that my coffee consumption was a pretty serious problem, but there was no way that I was going to be able to go cold turkey. When I went on that fateful first trip to London, I was sitting in a café and was asked if I wanted coffee or tea. I thought I’d make the first step towards weening myself off of coffee and went for the tea. I was shocked at the robust taste of the tea, and that it made me felt restored, but I didn’t get have the head spinning that often came with the first sip of coffee. I spent the next several days trying all kinds of tea, and it wasn’t long before my addiction to coffee transferred to my tea. I loved learning more about the full culture of tea, it only fueled my anglophila.

My tea loot from a trip to London

I brought boxes, and boxes, and boxes of tea back with me, and shared it with my family and friends. Now every year when I go to the UK, I make sure to replenish my supply. Even though I have lots of the fully bodied tea at home, there’s still nothing quite like that first cup of tea when I arrive in the UK. For me, it’s tied to the memory that I was able to overcome migraines caused by stress and an unhealthy lifestyle. That transition from six cups or more of coffee a day, to one or two cups of tea a day were a first step for me in putting my health – mental, physical, and spiritual – first before any work.  Don’t get me wrong, I still love a nice cup of coffee from time to time, but now it’s more a special treat as opposed to something that I have a dangerous dependence on.

UP NEXT TIME: I’ll share about how I went from being told that I was never going to be able to read at normal levels, to getting detention in English class for reading too much.