I was having anxiety about when I would make it to the farmer’s market, because it had rained all week. Yes, I get anxiety when I don’t shop for food. I was like: “I missed Tuesdays farmers market. I missed Thursdays farmers market. I missed Saturdays farmers market and Sunday was the last day before I would be able to find another farmers market until the following week.” Seems like all farmers take a break on Monday. I rarely shop for produce at the supermarkets. So yes I freak out if I’m missing out on the good good.

I was hoping for a sunny day to go shopping. Not all the farmers show up whenever it rains and since the farmer’s market is like my Toys R Us, I needed it to be nice and sunny. I needed everyone to come out, because there is always something that’s different from the jewels I purchased from the previous week.  l seriously look forward to new farmer’s market finds.
God answered my prayers. The rain stopped.  I went to the farmers market and lo and behold, I found fresh chamomile.
Yes fresh, vibrant chamomile, with their cute little flowers and pineapple looking buds just smiling at me, saying, “buy me! buy me!”
Y’all know I get excited about food and anything from the earth.
I knew I would make tea. I simply knew I would make tea.

My farmer’s market finds never cease to amaze me. I have never in my life stumbled upon fresh chamomile. Since I refuse to buy tea bags and haven’t bought any in ages, I usually select the dried flowers/herbs/roots (whenever fresh isn’t accessible) to prepare tea.
Chamomile tea is a natural sleep aid, so if you suffer from anxiety or insomnia you may want to add chamomile into your life. I drink tea, all day, every day and it’s perfectly normal for me to customize a fusion of herbs, to create that perfect blend such as chamomile, chocolate mint and vanilla. And I use real vanilla beans too. Can you see those little vanilla specks just floating around in there? Massive flavor!

Oh let me tell you about chocolate mint!
Since migrating to America about a hundred years ago, I’ve noticed that spearmint and peppermint happens to be the most popular of the mint species here. I’ve always yearned for that soothing, cologne mint in Jamaica (the tea that was so good with a slice of hard dough bread and a good slather of butter) and always had difficulty locating it. Matter of fact, I’ve never seen it in America. Last year, a friend of mine, told me that her mom grows it in her backyard in Florida. Now, I lived in the Sunshine State for thousands of years and have yet to find cologne mint; so I was quite confused and distraught at the same time.
Like, how come nobody ever gave me any cologne mint in America. I mean all these years I’ve been searching for this mint and no luck. Out of desperation, I’ve even asked a few friends that had traveled to Jamaica to bring me some, upon returning from their trip.
Did they ever?
No!
Okay cool.
So for hundreds of years I had to settle for spearmint and peppermint.

Until, one love Sunday morning, while shopping at the Hollywood farmers market, I was drawn to this lady with all kinds of cool herbs. Chocolate mint was one of them. The aromatics were slightly different from the other mint varieties and I couldn’t wait to get home to steep and revel in a nice cup of this here chocolate mint tea.
I’m serious about my herbs. They are multipurpose; I cook with them, add them to salads AND the easiest way to make tea is to grab a handful, add it to some boiling water and allow it to steep.
The best, most intoxicating teas ever!

I went home, made a cup of this tea, then immediately called a whole lotta people and told them to kiss my ‘you know what’ cause I done found me some cologne mint and don’t have to go to Jamaica to get it. Chocolate mint flavor profile is so similar if not the exact same flavor as cologne mint.  I’m in heaven and blessed on top of all the blessing that I’ve had.

I know, I kinda get passionate when I describe food. It’s the foodie in me.

What’s your favorite tea?