It's mint for a stomachache and chamomile for a bad hair day, ginseng for looming deadlines, catnip when you miss them. And it's starting to look like the last island of civility in a sea of insanity where you find yourself wishing there were eight more hours in the day just so you could get more done . If there were truly more time in the day, we could take more time out for tea. I'm not talking Lipton's here, or even Celestial Seasonings. The topic of tea is much, much broader than that, an agricultural marvel on par with wine-making and mushroom cultivation.
Tea is grown all over the world, with the vast majority coming from Asia.
Still, within the types are many, many ways to relax, slow down and get into a better frame of mind, either through an herbal concoction such as chamomile or echinacea, or through scents and flavors that soothe or invigorate. Several of those rooms are set aside for tea, with linen-covered tables topped by beautiful mismatched china cups and saucers. Tea here is in the hands of the gracious and charming Roxanne Mays, a former manager of afternoon teas at the Brown Palace. That tea provided an interesting counterpoint to the homemade potato-leek soup, a thick, creamy concoction that was as comforting as Mays's welcoming manner. We'd have gladly paid extra, though, for the tomato brew we tried, made from fresh tomatoes and basil.