twistedleaves.com

08.27

I was rudely awoken this morning by my boyfriends alarm. At 06.30. An hour earlier than it usually goes off (don’t even get me started…) and to be honest, it doesn’t usually wake me up when it goes off at 07.30.
And I am feeling rather tired, having been up for two hours more than I should have today. In fact, I’m feeling rather knackered.

So, I thought, wouldn’t this be a good time to put the English Breakfast Tea to the test? Can it really wake me up more that a coffee would? Will it make any difference at all?

Well, I am drinking it now, and at 09.00 I am going to come back with results. Possibly.

If it doesn’t wake me up, I may have fallen asleep on my keyboard by then…

08.40

My head does feel a bit less lead-like…

08.56

I finished the cup about five minutes ago, and I do actually feel a bit more awake. Maybe it’s not as full-on as an espresso caffeine hit, but it’s a gentle, subtle awakening of the mind. I feel like I could get up and go and do stuff now. I won’t… but that’s neither here nor there.

Yep, a definite change. Okay, I accept it’s hardly a scientific experiment but whether it has woken me up really, or it’s just a psychological change, it’s definitely better for you that high-caffeine coffee!

By the way, the tea I used was ‘Organic Breakfast Blend Tea’ - a blend of Assam, Darjeeling and Dooars - from Equal Exchange (they also have a US website here) which is availalbe in shops throughout the UK (check out the site for details) and through Abel & Cole (which, incidentally, is where I purchased mine).
Doesn’t shopping FairTrade make you feel like you’ve done a good deed? Well don’t stop there! Go and help the elderly cross roads, volunteer in a charity shop, donate money!
(There’s a fund for helping aspiring writers somewhere, right? Right?!)