Something I learned my first year of eating better and taking care of my body is that I have to stop eating as many snacks. When I read of other people having issues with this too (I still have bouts of it) I am always reminded that my mouth is just needing something to do. My best method to stop over indulging with snacks is drinking tea in the winter. In the summer I love to drink iced tea or iced lemon water, whichever we have in the household. There are different types of teas and different brands but right now I am totally in love with Teavana Herbal Teas. I love black teas, green teas, red teas and etc but health wise the best are red and herbal for gentle snacking. Black and green teas both have a good amount of caffeine in them so one should consume less if concerned.

So the husband and I got a gift card for a tea of our choice at Teavana which we just couldn't pass up. We love Teavana but if you have ever purchased any, you know the price is a bit more steep than competitors. I have heard about David's Tea but unfortunately we do not have any of these stores on the Eastern Coast so I can't compare the two. When I lived in Japan I grew accustomed to fresh loose leaf teas that were not only green but also herbal so after moving back to the USA I've had issues with finding something as fresh. Don't get me wrong, I love all the stuff in the stores too - I'm not a tea snob. Sometimes you just want something herbal and in the "slow cooking" method. Sorry, I used to study tea ceremony in Japan which teaches the necessity of slowing down and enjoying the whole creation process too.

Back to the love tea story... So my husband and I came across Teavana which we have fallen in love with right now. We purchased our first two teas about a month ago and have been wanting some more in our kitchen stash. So we took our gift card and then 3x more the card value we ordered everything we wanted (or could handle for the price). Here's what we ended up with for under $100.


We have the loose leaf tea maker - basically you just place the loose leaf tea in and then pour in hot water. Let it sit for usually 3-5 minutes and then place it over a mug and it releases just the tea water. Perfect! Then we also got a tea container to go that is glass for me to take along to places to resist urges. Two more tin containers to store the teas to keep fresh and finally a few different types of teas. Yum! I'll keep you updated on the types and if the accessories work out.