Jewish Musings, Tuesday 2/27

[lee058]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.





Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:





Frieda (hopefully)?

Holly

Lee

Louise

Lynne

Peachy





And for those of you who stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.

Today's topic: Tea and the Jewish connection.

Have you ever looked up the history of tea? It's really interesting. Tea drinking is widespread around the world, and Jews have been part of this for centuries.

I grew up in NY, and there were many people who were also Jewish, with Eastern European backgrounds. They all drank tea, even if they also drank coffee (my mom drank both, for instance). Speaking of my mom, she would often drink a cup of tea and save the teabag for another cup. In restaurants, she'd ask for hot water for her second cup. They always obliged, and generally brought the hot water out in a small metal pitcher. Tea cups were smaller then, so she liked to have a couple of cups with her food. Some people drank their tea in tall glasses with metal or china around them so fingers wouldn't get burned. Another Eastern European custom was to hold a sugar cube in the mouth while drinking tea. We never did that, but I read about it.

We used to drink a brand called Swee-Touch-Nee tea. It was kosher, including for Passover, and very popular in NYC. It came in a red metal box. I think that's where my love of little boxes came from! I used to save the boxes and use them for toys.

I have no idea if all tea is kosher, but I do remember that Swee-Touch-Nee emphasized that theirs was.

There are also herbal teas: peppermint, chamomile, hibiscus blends, etc. Celestial Seasonings is a popular company. I tried to find out if they have a Jewish connection, but didn't find out any info. They also have pretty boxes; I wonder if they got the idea from Swee-Touch-Nee?

If I find out anything else today that's interesting, I will post some more. In the meantime, I hope everyone has a peaceful day, Lee

[gazelle18]

I’m afraid that tea is one of the very few flavors in the world that I don’t like. I don’t even like herbal tea, which allegedly doesn’t even taste like tea. (It does!). I am aware that I am unusual here!

My only connection to tea is this: when I stand up, put my left hand on my hip and my right hand extended out to the side, palm up, I somewhat resemble a teapot (short and stout.) It’s true.

[peachymom1]

I am definitely a tea-drinker. I drink iced tea every day with lunch and/or dinner - it's pretty much the only beverage I drink besides water, which I drink a lot of, between meals.

I also drink hot tea, but usually only when I'm sick or I want to warm up. I've had a cold for about a week now, and I've been drinking hot tea every morning, one or two cups of it. I like green tea, black tea, and a variety of herbal teas when they're hot.

My mom told us about the sugar-cube-between-the-teeth thing, but I always thought that was terribly inefficient, not to mention bad for your teeth!

[lee058]

Back again. I did some more reading about the history of tea; it's so interesting! Did you know that tea was introduced into England by Dutch merchants? Since there were Dutch Jewish diamond merchants, maybe there were Dutch Jewish tea merchants too! Who knows, maybe we are the ones who got generations of UK people to drink tea. I wouldn't be surprised if there were Jewish middlemen between the Dutch plantation owners, shippers, and wholesale/retail merchants.

I think I will go read some more. Have a peaceful rest of the day, Lee

PS --- The founder of Celestial Seasonings is Jewish; named Mo Siegel.  He founded it in Boulder, CO, in 1969.

[louise]

I am a tea drinker. I drink black, green, chai, and a few herbals. I used to have my tea with milk and sweet & low. I have mostly dumped the milkf - except for a chai latte - and am trying to cut down on the sweeteners.