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Health & Fitness

Tea Love Talk + Wet Tags

Catherine Felegi is the founder and author of the blog Tea Love, a blog dedicated to all things tea-related. You can find this post and others on her page, http://cafelegi.wordpress.com/.

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First and foremost, who is going to the Tea Love talk on Saturday, September 21st in Riverdale, New Jersey?!   Come out, get free tea, and learn more about the tea process :-)   Registration is a must, so make sure you call the library and RSVP :-)

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And now, for the blog...

While doing a quick Google search, I came across TeaTime Magazine, a Burlington, Alabama publication that, "proclaims the pleasures of tea as a gourmet beverage, and offers informative articles that range from food features to tearoom profiles."   Their Facebook page posted an article from the Washington Post about tea bag tags slipping into drinks.   Ugh...   Always a mess, always a nuisance, and you want to stick your fingers in to fish out the tag right away but know you will face burning immediately.   By the time you get a spoon to fish out the tag, it is already soaked through and you have a blog hanging off of a string.

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Whatever is a tea drinker to do?

Well, the Washington Post polled around for this exact question and got some great responses.   You can see some of theirs below, with my own assortment thrown in every once in a while.

One reader, Lynda Maudlin of Chevy Chase, said to just tie it to the handle.   Makes sense, right?   After all, it is a string.   It should be simple enough to make a pretty bow on your mug handle.

Another reader, Laura, recommended to just use a clip, almost like a potato chip bag clip or an alligator clip found in the office, and just slip the string on.   But my oh my, now I have a clip in my tea!   I'm not sure I would be entirely fond of sipping my tea to have a plastic clip poke me in the eye.   No thank you!

What about Wayne Williams of Lake Ridge's suggestion to just wrap the string of the tea bag around the handle of a spoon before you pour the water?   Personally, I very rarely use a spoon when I have my tea.   More often, I drink my tea without any sugar, cream, honey, etc, so I don't have that handy-dandy spoon.

Why not follow Thomas Leo Briggs' suggestion to put the tea tag under the tea mug?   Ah, closer!   But what if your string is not long enough to go under your mug?

One that I like Jane Smith's reaction.   She said to just pour the water in first, then add the tea bag.   Personally, that's what I do when I have tea with a tea bag.   Usually, I'm fine with that.

Randall Bovbjerg has a pretty good tip - Hold the string against your mug while you pour.   I wouldn't highly recommend this one, especially as a sloppy pour-er.   More often than not, I slosh a little bit of water over the side and a burnt thumb does not appeal to me one bit.

My personal tip?   Use loose-leaf tea leaves!   While it's also not entirely error-proof (sometimes, the hook at the end of the tea ball will slip off the side of your mug and fly into your hot brew, leaving you at risk of a bitter tea), it's better than a spit-wad of a tag resting on your table.   Or you can always hold onto the string of your tea bag while you pour, allow your tea to steep, then toss the bag out immediately afterwards (which you're suppose to do anyway but, if you're like me, you don't mind a bit of a strong, sometimes bitter brew).

And that's that!   What are your tips to avoid having the dreaded wet tag?

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