Hello Guys, 

You may be wondering what happened to Tea Travels? Well, Tea Travels is still here, lurking in my mind and heart and we are ready to set off again to experience the best tea and tea rooms the world has to offer.  Tea Travels is based out of the IE and if your are not aware, I will try to school you here, the IE is one of the hotbeds of the Pandemic and bringing new meaning to Sheltering In Place everyday. So, most of you will say, Ah Ha! So you can’t travel then, so no Tea Travels, but I will have to say to those naysayers, Ah Ha! You don’t know Tea Travels and that it springs from a well of creativity that is deep and endless. That being said, Tea Travels is ready to launch again.  It will be an interesting adventure filled with social distancing and masks.  

When the Pandemic settled over us and took over our daily lives, we prayed for a quick ending, that the virus would pass swiftly and then we would be free again, but that has not happened. I happened to be one that really didn’t think a flu could get the upper hand this day in age. We have advanced technology, health science, medicine, but unfortunately, this has not been enough. Here were our a solid four months of serious contagion wreaking havoc on the world.  And we are told this may be hanging around for awhile.  So, now, more than ever, Tea Traveling is a good idea. Because Tea is healing. Tea is calming. Tea is entertaining and interesting.   

So I headed over to one of my favorite Coffee Houses in Chino, CA, DRIPP on my way to look for plants and trees at a local nursery and maybe get some inspiration for gardening. Dripp is located at The Shoppes at Chino Hills, a lovely outdoor mall that has great shopping and entertainment.

 It was lively even with the pandemic going on.  It seemed as if the world had put on masks and  was getting on with life. Dripp has been around for awhile and has morphed into an eclectic, creative, organic cafe.  It’s a beautiful place to gather due to it’s unique design.  Right now we can’t sit in the cafe, due to the fact that they are offering pick-up only.  The outside is very nice though filled with pergolas and arbors, so you can sit beneath a canopy of green and get close to nature while you are enjoying Dripps concoctions; which are rich and filled with organic whole ingredients.  

I ordered a Humina Tea; which is a very lovely Jasmine Green Tea over ice and I had them add a dash of coconut milk to add a bit of vegan creaminess.  I wanted something light and cool since the  temperature was already starting to climb. The tea had wonderful refreshing note of wildflowers and Spring.

 For Coffee lovers,  Dripp has the best Turkish coffee around and also specializes in a variety different of brewing systems for coffee drinkers with a sophisticated pallet.  

Sitting in the morning air on a lovely summer morning and enjoying a cup of refreshing tea at Dripp, I started to daydream.  My thoughts keep circling back to a documentary I had just watched on Amazon Prime.  Call of The Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees.  It was a great film and a call to action.   The topic was about our beautiful planet and the trees that have lived on the planet over the millions of years since life began to exist.  The documentary takes the viewer around the world to see the different forests of the world and visit ancient trees. Our guide is Diana Beresford Kruegar renowned scientist and author.   We learn how our lives are entwined with our ecosystems and dependent on the survival of our forests.   Forests purify our atomosphere and create healthy enriched air to breathe, that we need to survive and thrive.  By the end of the film I was in awe and also disturbed that once again we were sacrificing our health, our Earth.  At the conclusion of the film Kruegar says it’s not too late and if everyone on Earth planted six trees, we could make a significant impact on climate change. So, that being said, while drinking tea and thinking of Mother Earth and deciding to do something about it; I’m determined to plan six trees and I hope you will too.  If you don’t have a place to plant trees, you can help organizations that do. Here are some great groups to look into to learn more about planting trees: