The Delicate Nature Of Tea

I am a huge fan of tea. I can't stress this enough. I love tea. Yeah, I'll have coffee if there are no good tea options - for me, Starbucks is still that place (that's an entirely different post). But I'm kinda snobby about my tea. And one of my absolute, drop-dead rules is: my travel mugs and thermos are only for tea. No exceptions! There is nothing worse than preparing a beautiful mug of tea only to bring it to your lips and inhale a coffee/tea mixture. Gross. I only put tea in my travel mugs and my thermos. Period.

You can imagine my surprise, and disgust, at realizing that somehow this sacred rule has been broken. I had my tea all ready in my thermos for a long day on campus. It's a comfort to me, especially as the winter days around here have been rather brutal. As soon as I poured the first cup I knew I was in trouble. My tea was coffee flavored.

"Undone" may not accurately describe how I was feeling at the time. But all praise be to the internet. A quick google search revealed many tricks to cleanse an impure thermos. And I am giddy to report, all I needed was an eighth of a cup of baking soda and some hot water. I combined this concoction and left the thermos to soak for 30 minutes. That's all. No scrubbing, no residue. I rinsed it out and, voila! Today my tea tastes like tea!