OH HEY. Yes, I have been conspicuously silent on this blog for some time. But, can you blame me? I've been having some sweet adventures!

I went to the Bay Area in October, Costa Rica November to December, and I moved to Charlottesville, VA in January! For the past 4 months I have been packing in as many new experiences as I possibly could. It's all luck, really, that I've been able to travel so much with my fiancee, Mr. B. Well, perhaps I'm playing down the intentional manifesting of positive experiences part... but that makes me sound a little bit too much like the hippie-chick I really am, yes? Dreamy-eyed and ready to spring off into the sunset.

I'll just do a little post today. After all of the adventures I've been having, and the work I've been doing on this years business project (hint: it's chocolate related), I've been feeling a little tweaked out in the afternoons. I'm sure this has to do with the substantial amount of coffee I've been drinking, but if a badass small-batch coffee roaster was right around the corner from your house you would go there every day too. I've really been enjoying the single-origin hand-pours I've been getting there. Their Cerro Las Ranas for El Salvador... uuuuughhhhh yuuuummmmm. Alas, my sensitive system gets so worn out in the afternoons because of the ups and downs in my adrenal glands. I'M SURE I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE. America runs on coffee. And tea. And sugar. And generally adrenaline draining activities. Not only does this cause fatigue, but it can max us out emotionally, causing feelings of anxiety and depression.

SOOOOOOOO here I am, to bring it down a level, to help you chill out while boosting feelings of happiness and positivity. I mean, sometimes you just want to sip a hot drink, stare out of your window at the softly budding trees outside, at the clouds on the horizon, and perhaps have a good snuggle session with a kitten/puppy/good book.

Thanks to a lovely herbalist friend, I rediscovered lavender as a single herb tea. I usually have lavender in some sort of tonic mixture, or I use it as a room freshener. But it is excellent on it's own steeped in hot milk. According to the Chestnut Herbs blog, which has a great, incredibly in-depth blog post on lavender here, lavender is an excellent herb for decompression and lifting the spirits. It is often used as a tonic in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and insomnia, with rather immediate mood-lifting and sedative effects. It is a balancing herb for the fiery systems of Pitta-type people (it is "bitter, drying, & cooling"), in Ayurveda. 

Lavender Honey Milk Tea 

Makes ~ 2 cups tea

Ingredients

• 2 cups unsweet soy milk (or almond milk, coconut milk, etc.)

• 4 tablespoons fresh lavender buds

• 2 tablespoons local honey (I used a wildflower honey)

Method

1. In a small pot, heat soy milk until it gets to a nice simmer, just before boiling. Cut of the heat, and add lavender buds. Let steep for 15 minutes. Place a sieve over a medium sized bowl. Pour the milk and lavender mixture through the sieve to remove the lavender buds. Press the strained buds to get all of that lavender goodness into your milk. Pour the milk back into your pot, heat until simmering once more. Add honey, and stir.

2. Pour into a mason jar, and enjoy immediately. Or, let cool, and cap it off to drink cold over ice later. YUM.