Of Guns and Tea

Last week was a loong week, especially since most of it was spent inside, what with gun battles raging in the city as cronies of Christopher Coke sought to engage the state in a mini war designed to retaliate for agreeing to proceed with his extradition.Anyway things are somewhat back to normal (fingers crossed)

Meanwhile as gunshots barked I found solace in a new discovery: tea. I never enjoyed tea until now. For years coffee of all sorts was my hot beverage of choice. Blue Mountain Peak was my favorite and on a trip to Costa Rica I fell in love with their Cafe Britt, but recently after enduring some aches and pains I discovered Taheebo tea and I am hooked.

Another name for it is Pau d' Arco . It is made from the inner bark of the Red Lapacho Tree found in South America. What is amazing about this tree is that while it grows in the hot, red, forests it appears to repel fungus. While the other trees may be covered with the stuff, you won't find a spot on the Red Lapacho.

It's reputed to have a host of health benefits and is an amazing source of anti-oxidants. I'm not a doctor but I can attest to the fact that my aches and pains have gone and I have gotten quite accustomed to the taste, which is mildly bitter and very soothing. Oh and where did I discover it? My aunt is a 20 year cancer survivor and she lives on the stuff. I scored 3 boxes from her.

I'm going to do some more research as I think this is the same tree we grew up calling the Poui tree. We used to mark the times for studying for exams according to the flowering periods. We had yellow Poui and the pink Poui. It would be interesting if those very trees are the source of this amazing tea.  Just goes to show we produce the positive in abundance but our island is unfortunately marred by the negative depiction of a nation in the arms of criminals.