A Nice Cuppa

These days, health is everything and the phrase “you are what you eat” is truer than ever before. But, don???t you just get tired of it all sometimes? I mean, eggs were bad for you. Now the good outweighs the bad. Eat fish twice weekly, but here???s the exhaustive list you should avoid unless, that is, you want mercury poisoning. I find myself playing ping-pong with my eyeballs trying to remember that grapes from where is it? are evil while those from what???s that place? are a-ok. What???s a health conscious girl to do?

When I find myself reading the backs of boxes and analyzing the real meaning of organic a little too much, I pull out my big stop sign and freeze before wandering irretrievably into the land of wheat gluten-free breads and fruit extract baking sugar. That???s when I do something bad like adding sugar to my tea in the afternoons ??? something I???d sworn off years ago. As a girl, two lumps were never enough and several teaspoons were more like it. It was until the old freshman 20 reared its ugly head that I decided the easiest things to cut out were soda, and sugar in coffee and tea.

Now, I understand the French swear by sugar lumps, most Englishmen are fine with loose sugar and Southerners add sugar syrup to their iced tea. I recently stumbled upon my new favorite mode of adding sugar to tea: rock candy sugar sticks! They???re the old-fashioned rock candy lollipops and they???re very attractive for company. Just plop a few in a crystal cup or shallow jug and your guests will think you???re terribly creative.

* Rock candy sugar sticks can be found online at stashtea.com