I have a very bad habit – I drink tea. And lots of it.

What makes this better (or worse), is that I have a group of friends who are also connoisseurs of tea. We’ll sit down in a leafy courtyard on a sunny afternoon, and like old ladies, brew shockingly-expensive, double-decaffeinated, superior organic herbal teas and sip them from pretentious, fine China, vintage floral tea cups.

We’ll talk about leaf blends, regions of China, the latest range of dried fruit mixes, subtle distinction between variations of the same tea… it’s all riveting stuff.

How much do I drink? If I’m at home all day, I’ll have black tea in the morning. Lemon grass and ginger tea in the mid morning. Followed by 2 cups of green tea in the afternoon. Then peppermint tea in the evening.

If I don’t get my herbal teas, I feel a bit unsettled. If I don’t get my caffeine hit twice a day from the black and green tea, I get a cracking headache that makes me want to cry and smash things up.

Well, these last few months, life has been very busy. I seem to always be ON THE GO. There’s always never enough time. I’m always rushing here and rushing there.

So yes, over the last few months, I have slowly developed a new bad habit.

I have been FORGETTING to have my cup of teas.

Which means I often – unintentionally – find myself to be VERY GRUMPY FOR SOME REASON.

How this happens is that basically, I make myself a cup of tea in the morning and then I forget drink it.

I’ll run past the still-full cup sitting on the kitchen counter, an hour later, as I head out the door and shout – CRAP I FORGOT TO HAVE MY TEA! Then I’ll grab the cup of tea and down it.

Yes that’s right, I have now developed the highly acquired taste for lukewarm tea.

It makes my husband wretch, but , it’s kinda growing on me. I like it now.

People drink iced tea right?

So I’m thinking, maybe I need to instill another new habit, based on this new bad habit.

I tried this for a few weeks – Whenever I need to rush out the door in 15 minutes, I will quickly make myself a 3/4 cup of hot tea (with milk) and then pour cold water straight into the cup to make it LUKEWARM.

It worked for a while. I really liked the idea of slamming down my drug hit for the day in 2 minutes flat. It gives me more time to do all the other stuff I need to do.

But the TEA CONNOISSEUR in me, lifted her nose up in sheer disgust and disappointment. I decided that it would not do. It was completely unacceptable and disgraceful.

My solution to this?

I bought myself one of those re-usable, environmentally-friendly, takeaway cafe cups, with a lid. Brilliant!

I could now make a cup of tea in a takeaway cup.. and take it away with me!

But that didn’t work either. Even though it had one of those spill-covers, it would still swirl and splash in the car. I have had to mop up the car three times already. And off-milk does NOT smell nice.

SO NOW I’ve bought a flask. A bright purple beauty, with air tight silicone seals. It’s brilliant!

We’ll see how it goes!

(And shh, just don’t tell my tea drinking friends ok??)