You will not believe what I did this week.

I had coffee.

COFFEE.

I haven’t been able to drink coffee for about a year. It just upset my stomach far too much. I was heartbroken when I realized the problem. I roasted my own coffee beans. I actually have a coffee bean tree. My sweetie always teased me about my coffee altar (the aeropress, the hand grinder, the electric kettle that had a thermometer built into the side so I would always use water at the perfect temperature, etc.)

After I stopped drinking coffee, just the smell of it turned my stomach. I would take a small sip of my sweetie’s coffee, and it always tasted really bad to me.

Then, about two months ago, I had a strange craving for coffee. Suddenly, the sips I stole from my sweetie started to taste good again. So I finally gave in and made myself some, with omeprazole and Imodium in hand.

I only had about half a cup. My stomach was slightly upset afterward, and it might not have been the coffee. And it tasted good.

*does happy dance*

That doesn’t mean I”m about to start my coffee habit again. I’ve been turning into too much of a hippy these days, investigating all the things which are growing naturally in the yard that I could make tea with. I planted tea bushes last year. It’ll be another couple of years before I can harvest the leaves off them. In the meanwhile, we have lots of blackberry bramble. I can make tea from those leaves. And strawberry leaves. And apple leaves. And all the mint we have growing to keep the ants at bay. And the lavender. And possibly the stinging nettles, though I’d have to be very careful harvesting that. Possibly also the rose hips–though we’ll see how well the roses do this year and if I’ll have any hips to harvest.

Hmmm. I wonder what huckleberry leaf tea would taste like?

So while I’m extremely excited to be able to have at least a little bit of coffee now and again, I’m just as excited about trying out a bunch of natural tea recipes as well.