Why I’m Drinking Less Tea

There are many reasons you might find yourself drinking less tea. Here’s mine…

In recent years, normally I enjoy one full tea session a day (about 3g of tea). Sometimes, I creep up to double that. Recently, however, I’ve radically reduced my tea consumption due to an acid reflux flare. Tea is usually mildly to moderately acidic. Also, caffeine can “loosen up your lower esophageal sphincter (LES), a ring of muscle between your esophagus and stomach,” according to the Cleveland Clinic.

So, I’ve worked my way down from the higher end of my caffeine range to less than half a gram a day. I’m sincerely hoping this reduced tea consumption will be a temporary measure and I am consulting with doctors. But, while I’m here, I still want to enjoy drinking less tea.

What Tea Means to Me and Maybe You

I’m imagining tea is important to you because you are reading a tea blog. You could probably guess that tea is important to me because I’m writing this tea blog. It’s much more than the blog, for me, as I share in my About Traci page. So, it’s been an interesting (and rewarding) challenge to consume less tea while keeping the pleasure and mindful engagement with it. I’ll share what’s been working for me so far as I try to enjoy drinking less tea.

How I’m Enjoying Tea Time with Less

Although I can still taste tea, I find myself leaning into some of the things that helped me enjoy teatime when I temporarily lost my sense of smell a few years ago. Using teaware that I particularly love, leaning into the sights, sounds, and touch of the entire tea experience helps! I’ve written about this in more detail in another post, “How to Enjoy Tea When You Can’t Taste.”

What’s different this time–and helping me enjoy drinking less tea–centers on on different teaware choices and steeping style. Three things I’ve noticed are:

• Bowl Tea. Choose a tea that can steep a long time without becoming bitter or astringent. Put a few tea leaves into a tea bowl and allow a long steep. This method gives more flavor than a regularly steeped cup that such a small amount of tea would give. Also, seeing the leaves brings extra pleasure–at least to me.
• Glass Teaware. Like with bowl tea, a glass gaiwan allows me to enjoy the visuals of the tea leaves and somehow enhances the flavor in my weaker-than-usual cup of tea. I’m also doing longer steeps.
• Tiny Tea. If you have any really small teapots–like under 100ml–this is their moment to shine! It helps with your tea-to-water ratio to give you a stronger cup of tea. The twist: these small teapots are usually used for gongfu cha, where the steeps are very short with a high leaf-to-water ratio. When reducing your tea, you essentially make a western style steep (3-5 minutes) in your tiny gongfu teapot. (Hat tip to Sooz of Being Tea who is the first person I heard refer to using less tea in a tiny teapot as “tiny tea.”)

Final Thoughts

One other thing has helped me enjoy drinking less tea and kept me from being sad about drinking less tea–the ability to make and serve tea to other people! Seriously, I guess it could make me sad to make tea that I can’t drink. But, it doesn’t. Instead, it makes me grateful!

Have you been in this situation, Dear Reader? Are any of my suggestions working for you? Have you found other things helpful? You’re warmly invited to share by commenting on this post.

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Prepare Your Tea

Mindfully prepare your tea.

Don’t multitask. Immerse yourself into the experience.

You can use a mug, a teacup, a bowl–whatever you enjoy.

Pro-tip: Don’t overfill your cup or bowl so you feel comfortable holding it without fear of spilling.

When your cup is a comfortable temperature, hold it with two hands.

Then, recite the gatha/practice poem as you coordinate it with your breath.

Tea Practice Poem

This cup of tea in my two hands,

mindfulness held perfectly.

My mind and body dwell

in the very here and now.

Breath in while reciting (out loud or silently) the first and third verses.

Breathe out while reciting the second and fourth verses.

Then, in subsequent breaths, you can shorten the verses:

In: tea

Out: mindfulness

In: mind and body

Out: here and now

If you try this tea practice poem with mindful tea, I’d love to know how it goes! There are many ways to practice mindful tea, of course. Building mindfulness or meditation into your tea practice–especially if you drink tea daily or weekly–can be a convenient “trigger” or “cue.” When I prepare my tea, I am mindful. When I drink my tea, I do so meditatively, etc.

I find mindfully preparing and meditatively drinking tea such a beautiful and meaningful part of my day. Tea is so lovely and friendly–it’s a wonderful meditation partner.

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Tea Inspiration List

• Have tea with someone you love.
• Have tea with a group of friends.
• Try a tea that is new to you.
• Savor your favorite tea.
• Go on a “tea walk” and drink tea outdoors. (Here are some tea walk tips.)
• Use your fanciest teaware.
• Use you coziest, easiest teaware.
• Arrange your tea space to make it visually appealing.
• Try mindful tea or a tea meditation. (Here’s a winter playlist I made to accompany mindful or meditative tea time.)
• Attend a tea festival, take a tea class, or visit a teahouse. Or, do all three!
• Exchange tea with someone you know and trust.
• Support a local tea vendor, tea shop, or teahouse.
• Check out a tea blog. (Congratulations, you’ve already accomplished this one! )

Are any of these ideas from the tea inspiration list new to you–or already favorites? I’d love to know!

If you are interested in finding out about online and in-person tea events, tea meditations, notice of new blog posts, giveaways, and more, consider subscribing to Tea Infusiast News. It’s my monthly newsletter for tea lovers.

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On this blog, I cover tea from many angles–from tasting notes, sparkling tea recipes, traveling with tea advice, cultural investigations, part of a mindfulness practice, and more.

Besides offering updates on what has been posted on the blog, in Tea Infusiast News I run giveaways, provide advance notice of events, and offer pre-registration opportunities and discounts to many of my paid events.

Additionally, I typically offer monthly events that are only open to (and free for) my TIN subscribers.

Lately, I’m fairly consistently offering two free monthly event for TIN subscribers. These events draw on my love of tea, my tea and meditation teacher training, and the fun of crafting. (You can read more about me here.) The only way to sign up is through the newsletter.

The CrafTEA Social

The CrafTEA Social an online gathering where we share (and often show) what craft we are working on and then work on it while we chat. Tea is optional! We were meeting on a Tuesday evening at 8pm ET / 5pm PT each month from September-December. I’m adding some midday (tea-time!) Saturday crafting socials in January-March 2026. After that, we’ll reassess schedules.

Tea Mindful Together

The next monthly event for TIN subscribers that I’ve been offering for a while is Tea Mindful Together. It’s an online, midday tea meditation. I run it on a weekday, usually around 12 or 12:30pm ET. It usually lasts around 30 minutes. I lead practices like guided meditations, journal prompts, and (always) quiet time for mindful tea. Join us to see how a midday break might change how you flow through your day.

How to Become a TIN Subscriber

Enjoy these monthly events for TIN subscribers–and all the other benefits of receiving Tea Infusiast News–by subscribing, below.

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Join me at my October online workshop, Tea with Your Inner Critic.

Are you tired of battling or feeling belittled by your “inner critic?” I was!

For some time, I’ve worked to pay attention to that critical voice I often hear inside my head–the voice that critiques, questions, and makes me feel or act small. What’s more, I’ve managed to befriend my inner critic.

Doing this work has been meaningful and rewarding. Now, drawing on my experience as a tea teacher and a meditation teacher, I’m excited to serve as a guide and help others begin to work with their inner critic, too.

Tea with Your Inner Critic

I’ve created an online workshop. Our goal is to help recognize, better understand, and begin to befriend our inner critic.

I will be inviting participants to join in a:

• tea ritual

• guided meditations

• journaling prompts

• and more

Live Online Workshop Details

Date: Sunday, October 5, 2025

Time: 2:00 – 3:45 pm ET

Price: $35 (regular registration rate); $30 (early bird registration rate)

I’ve designed Tea with Your Inner Critic to be a live, online experience. It will not be recorded.

Although I cannot share a recording of the live event, I will share other workshop resources afterwards.

Registration and Payment

$35: Regular Registration Rate

For people who sign up between September 9 – October 4, 2025.

Questions?

If you are interested in my background, I invite you to check out my page, “About Traci” or read about me on the Steap’d blog.

If you have any questions about this workshop, you are welcome to email me at teainfusiast@okso.org.

You can see my other upcoming offerings here.

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Since you are reading my tea blog, you already know–or can guess–that I am a lover of tea and all things Camellia sinensis. I typically enjoy one or two mindful tea sessions every day. Sometimes, I take my tea on nature walks.

The Urge to Identify Plants

I am also always trying to identify plants. It takes me a while. I’ve come to the conclusion that my approach was not working. Instead of trying to identify every beautiful plant I walk past (seriously–don’t judge me!–lol), I realized I need to focus on a plant or two at a time.

Then, I had another idea! What if I used my love of tea and taking tea photos in nature to help focus my attention (and memory!) on identifying plants?

Using Tea to Help

So, during my last tea walk at my local botanical garden, I stopped every time I saw Lungwort (Pulmonaria) flowers. I paid attention to their leaves and flowers. (Look at those lovely polka dots on the leaves!)

I had a clay teapot with me. So, I also took a photo of my teapot near several different groupings of Lungwort. I thought arranging my teapot next to the flowers might impress this memory into my brain. I thought “let’s use tea to identify plants!” Hopefully, when they bloom again next year, I won’t have to pull out my Seek app and identify them…again! I’ll already know.

More Posts About Tea In Nature

If you are a lover of tea and nature, you might enjoy these other posts I’ve written.

• Tips to Take More Tea Walks
• A Lesson About Beauty from Tea Life
• Tea in the Canyon
• Tea, Flowers, and Happiness

An invitation: let me know tea and nature speak to you, too, by leaving a comment.

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Background to the Monastery Visit

Although it was my first time visiting a Buddhist monastery, it wasn’t my first time interacting with monastics from Blue Cliff. As I have previously shared on the blog, Sisters and Brothers from Blue Cliff came to my university and ran a two-day retreat in the fall of 2025. It was amazing!

The director of my university’s mindfulness center–Michael, a wonderful human being–organized the trip for folks at my university.

I traveled up there with a group of students, other faculty members, and staff. The bus ride up and back was very social–a lovely way to travel and bond as a group.

Structure of the Days

This visit to the Buddhist monastery was such a gift. The structure, practices, and beautiful energy nourished me. The typical schedule shared on the Blue Cliff website, shown below, is the one I participated in.

05:00 am – wake up
06:00  am – sitting meditation
07:00  am – exercise (stick exercise or personal practice)
08:00  am – breakfast
09:30  am – Dharma talk or working meditation
11:30  am – walking meditation
12:30  pm – lunch
03:00  pm – working meditation or activity
05:00 pm – sitting meditation & chanting
06:00  pm – dinner
07:30  pm – activity or personal practice time
09:30  pm – noble silence

I loved all of it. I particularly appreciated that all of this community and supportive structure took place in the natural beauty of the Catskills area.

Noble Silence at the Monastery

I’ll pause to mention the practice of noble silence. This practice particularly resonated with me. It involved not talking from 9:30 pm until after breakfast the next day. I’ve done mindful eating with others in noble silence before, but never on a scale like during my first visit to this Buddhist monastery. We were not talking while dorming, walking, meditating, and eating with others.

Noble silence was incredibly powerful. It had more effect on me than I could have imagined. Practicing and being together without talking brought a kind of peace and a heighted a sense of unity of purpose. In effect, it meant we weren’t multitasking–not ever–during this time. It’s was a powerful way to touch the present moment more deeply.

Tea Memories from Blue Cliff

I have some special tea memories from my visit to the Buddhist monastery.

One morning, I took my steaming cup of tea outside to a bench protected from the elements. I had been in noble silence since the night before and was feeling very relaxed and tender-hearted after the morning meditation. The weather was misty and it was raining lightly. Fog veiled the surrounding woods. I watched the nearby birds and drank my tea in companionable silence next to another visitor also drinking tea. I was such a beautiful moment.

Another highlight of the trip was leading a tea meditation in the Big Hall for our group before we had our first dharma share. The intimacy of our small circle of chairs and meditation cushions in the huge hall was striking. It also felt great to serve the lovely group I traveled with. I love Thich Nhat Hanh’s gatha on drinking tea, so I used that, preceded by some other gathas I added on the fly, realizing our tea cups weren’t cool enough to hold yet.

Since the Visit to the Monastery

Since returning from Blue Cliff Monastery, I have being practicing longer sitting meditations. I’ve also started using the mindfulness bells on the Plum Village app. I was inspired to do this because I absolutely loved the mindfulness bells at the monastery–the quarter hour reminder to stop and reengage with your body, breath, and spirit. I’ve also been practicing mindful eating more often since returning.

It’s not a contest to practice or do more. I want to underscore that. This is what I feel called to do and find very supportive right now.

My phone was put away most of my visit to the Buddhist monastery. Otherwise, I would be able to share more photos–including the morning mist in the woods, the delightful mossy paths by the creeks, and the beautiful folks that I traveled with and the monastics who welcomed us with such a generous spirit. Those photos are only in my heart.

The post My First Visit to a Buddhist Monastery appeared first on Tea Infusiast.

It uses the bubbles from pouring certain teas–NOT bubble tea–as the focal point of the meditation.

Does a particular tea that you drink tend to make more bubbles when poured? If so, that’s a great tea to choose.

Examples could include chai, Darjeeling, etc.

Preparing for the Meditation

Make some tea but don’t pour it into your mug yet.

Find a comfortable place where you can pour your tea into a mug and then sit and watch it.

The Tea-Bubble Meditation

Mindfully pour the tea into your mug. Raise the pouring vessel high enough to form a lot of bubbles but not make a mess.

Sit in front of the tea and watch the bubbles disappear. All of them.

Focus on staying with this tea-bubble meditation.

As the tea releases its bubbles, release your thoughts. Allow them to dissipate without grasping or following them.

If it feels helpful, say or think the word “release” when you notice yourself following any thought. Bring your attention gently back to the tea and/or your breath.

When done, thank yourself for taking about five-minutes for a tea-bubble meditation.

If you have more time to practice: enjoy mindfully sipping your tea without doing anything else. That means no audiobook, no scrolling, no reading the news, etc. As Thich Nhat Hanh famously says just “drink your tea.” It can be very soothing.

Ways to Connect

Interested in learning more about mindful tea? Check out my post “What’s Mindful Tea?”

If you are interested in tea and/or mindfulness? You might enjoy subscribing to my monthly newsletter for tea lovers, Tea Infusiast News.

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Imagine carving out time to enjoy a peaceful, mindful tea session. You spend a few moments using a practice to ground yourself. Then, you mindfully drink your tea and take time to journal. Maybe there is even music playing. At the end, you notice that you feel more at ease and peaceful.

I designed this Spring Rest Kit for Tea Lovers to help you have experiences like this!

Rest Kits are available now. And–this is NEW–limited quantities of eco-friendly physical decks are available as well!

Spring Rest Kit Overview

The Spring Rest Kit for Tea Lovers centers on spring themes (and metaphors) of new growth and mixed weather. It provides:

• 4 grounding practices, 4 mindful tea suggestions, 4 journal prompts
• sound experiences (a curated mindfulness playlist shared via YouTube and Spotify)
• the opportunity to practice at a time and place that works best for you
• a password-protected webpage to access resources

The practices can be enjoyed many times.

Optional: Add Physical Cards!

You can opt to purchase the online version of the Spring Rest Kit for Tea Lovers only or, while supplies last, add a physical deck. The deck includes a card for each journal prompt, grounding practice, and mindful tea suggestion. (Note: Due to shipping costs, I regret that I can only ship decks to addresses in the USA.)

The cards are printed on seed-infused paper. They are rustic, with gently torn edges. After you are done enjoying the cards, you can compost or plant the seed-infused paper. (You’ll keep access to the online kit for as long as I have my website.)

The kit’s paper was handmade in Nepal using eco-friendly techniques and infused with seeds. According to the paper seller:

Seeds include Petunia (Annual), Primrose (Perennial), Catchfly (Biennial/Annual), Maiden Pinks (perennial) Beardtongue (Perennial), Poppy (Annual), Chamomile (Perennial)

The plants tolerate partial shade and need 4 hours a day of direct sunlight. Will grow to about 3′.

Note: I haven’t been able to test growing the seeds. Many factors could affect success. So, I can’t guarantee that the seeds will grow. But, the kit will share the advice for planting the seed paper.

Choose Your Spring Kit!

Cost for the Spring Rest Kit for Tea Lovers are in USD. The online kit is available world wide.

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Online kit only–$22

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Online kit plus eco-friendly deck–$38 and includes free shipping

(available to ship in USA while supplies last)

Rest Kit Testimonials

Still not sure? Here are some comments from tea lovers who used previous Tea Infusiast rest kits.

• “It was so relaxing and enjoyable!”
• “Thank for your time and effort for this Kit and communiTEA!”
• “It was so great, thanks!!”
• “It was a great way to rest at the beginning of the day, to pause and chill.”

Let’s rest and connect with and through tea this spring. Interested in reading more about tea and rest, check out my Tips for Restful Tea Time.

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You carve out 10 minutes. Or 20 minutes. Or 30.

Imagine sitting down in front of your tea things with resources to help you have a convenient, restful, and mindful tea session. Or, you just have your cup of tea.

Maybe the sun is streaming through a nearby window. Maybe the rain is sliding down it. Maybe you’re at the beach.

Perhaps you’ve arranged your tea space with intention. A smooth rock from a beach vacation is next to your teacup. Blooming flowers are nearby, as is your journal.

You try a grounding practice to settle into the moment. “It helps,” you marvel, as you notice your muscles relax a bit.

You steep and enjoy a peaceful tea time, using a mindful tea suggestion from a tea and meditation teacher. The suggestion gives you an anchor point, helping you feel more connected to your tea and present in the moment. You feel a little calmer, a little more centered.

Some days, you choose a curated sound experience to listen to while you sip your tea. The music amplifies the experience.

When the time is right, you pause and consult a journal prompt. It inspires you to jot down your thoughts. Afterwards, you exhale and smile, feeling restored.

This scenario is one iteration of what it could mean to have a mindful tea session. There are a million ways to adjust and personalize it. And, the busier you are, the more important it is to take time for it. I know! It feels a bit counterintuitive. (I’ve written about the need to pause here.)

I drink my tea like this regularly. It’s one of my rest practices and mindfulness anchors. It really does bring me a sense of peace, rest, and presence. There’s a reason Buddhist monks have been using tea as part of their mindfulness practices for centuries! It helps to realize the truth in the words: present moment, beautiful moment.

If mindful tea interests you, check out my events and offerings. Maybe you’d even like to subscribe to my free, monthly newsletter for tea lovers, Tea Infusiast News.

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