Para Beber?

As you all know, I am a tea drinker. 

Always have been, always will. 

As a young kid, I could never quite understand why my friends chose to "Get busy with the fizzy" at my house after school, in preference to having a nice cup of tea. I was happy enough setting up the SodaStream machine for them, and helping them decide what flavour carbonated drink to have (I am sure we had most of the syrups that were available at the time), but that was about it. Home carbonation products just didn't to it for me. In fact, whilst growing up, I rarely ever chose to drink a cold drink, apart from milk. Tea has always been my tipple of choice (I'm not including alcohol here guys!!). 

Thanks for the pic, Guardian newspaper!

However, in recent years, I have managed to wean myself down to about three cups of tea a day - a brew in the morning with breakfast; tea in the afternoon as a pick me up to get me through the remainder of the day; and a cup of tea before bed. Of course, I am always willing to share a cup or two with anyone who asks, whatever time of the day. And when I say 'tea', I mean proper tea, with milk, absolutely no sugar and served in a nice big mug (although I am partial to a pretty bone china cup and saucer on special occasions). Strangely, I am not that fussy when it comes to teabags as opposed to loose tea served in a teapot; either suits me equally. But, I do absolutely loathe brews such as Early Grey, Chamomile, Lapsang Souchong, or any other airy-fairy fruit-flavoured tea. I do not particularly enjoy iced tea either, although I am working on this. 

Now of course this has presented me with a big problem here in Costa Rica: what am I supposed to drink during the day? I swig at water all the time, but that gets very tedious. I would like to keep my teeth, so I am not happy about supping on Coke or Pepsi on a regular basis. I can't 
really guzzle beer all day (well maybe for a bit, but my waist line does not need to increase further) and cocktails and wine are out of the question too.

So as an alternative, we have been making good use of all the wonderful, cheap fruits that CR has to offer and have been blending away making juices and smoothies since we arrived. Banana smoothies are always a success, and a must as the fruit turns so quickly here, most probably because of the heat: our current favoured choice is banana and tamarindo, with ice not milk. Yesterday you may have read that I concocted a juice with the beautiful manzana de agua; and earlier in the week, I made a pineapple drink whereby I placed the pineapple skin in water and left to ferment for 3 days - when served over ice (unfortunately with some sugar added), it made for a very thirst-quenching beverage.

Today though, I thought I would jump onto the 'Green Juice' bandwagon. I know they have been around for years, but as I said before, tea was my preferential drink back in the UK and I allowed little space, or time, for anything else. Green juices are everywhere and according to every article I have read, they are not only really good for you, but they are extremely refreshing, which is ultimately what I am looking for. I doubt very much that this will be the start of a newer healthier me, detoxing and using juice a solid food supplement, but if it revitalizes and refreshes, so much the better! 

The Green Gremlin!

Not having a juicer, I just blended my choice of green veg with a little water. It could be served like this, with the pulp, but I wanted a thinner consistency, so I poured the mixture through a fine sieve, then using a spatula, pressed the pulp to extract the most liquid possible.

Christening my attempt 'The Green Gremlin', I have to admit that it didn't smell great, nor did it look that appetising either. To be honest, the contents of the glass resembled the mushy peas that might be found in a polystyrene beaker at a fish-and-chip shop. "Pickled egg to go with that sir?"

But appearances can be deceptive and I seriously wished that it would taste better than it looked. After all, I had prpeared the drink, so had only included ingredients that I liked - no Brussels Sprouts in my Green Juice then!! I hoped that by being pulp-free, the juice would be velvety smooth and easy to swallow. Obviously too gloopy for tea, but if I really concentrated, perhaps I could pretend it was a slightly thicker, and non-alcoholic, mojito or apple martini!

Image from Savvyhousekeeping.com

From when YS was about 11 weeks old and onwards, we had to consume anything edible behind his back, as he started to drool at the sight of food. I was over the moon, making up little ice cube moulds of pureed fruit and vegetables for him, something I had rarely done with ES as he had never shown any interest in food. My freezer was full of lovingly-prepared, brightly coloured, nutritious blocks of sustenance. Anna Karmel would have been proud! But very quickly these chunks of cuisine soon became inadequate fare for YS and his switch to solids was rapid.

I now understand why! 

Pulverized vegetables, however healthy, beneficial and nutritious, are in no way, shape or form, enjoyable!!!! They taste of mush - and that is putting it mildly! I am sorry to say that I gagged my way through the Green Gremlin; I had to force myself to drink the whole glass. Within about 10 minutes, I had severe stomach cramps and without going into too much detail, I think the benefits left my body quicker than they had entered! 

But here's the thing:

• Did I feel refreshed, rejuvenated and hydrated afterwards? No, not really. 
• Are green juices as tasty as smoothies or natural juices? Most definitely not. 
• Could green juices ever replace tea? Do I have to answer that question???
• Will I try this experiment again? Probably, I mean I could have included a rogue spinach leaf, or knob of ginger in my recipe, couldn't I?

Y para beber?  I think for now, I will just casually hitch a ride every now and then on the Green Juice Bandwagon rather than wholeheartedly jumping on it.

Postage Problems.

Earlier this week, we received an email from DHL, via Costa Rican Customs, wanting to know "What ingredients are in tea?".

Yes, you read it correctly the first time.

What ingredients are in tea?

"Tea", DH replies, via phone rather than email, "tea, contains tea, just like coffee contains coffee". Even though he his talking Spanish, I pick up on his sarcasm, which is usually non-existent.

We have been waiting for some documents from England for about six weeks now. The package left Reading on Tuesday 17th December and passed through East Midlands airport, Barbados, Venezuela and Panama City, before arriving in San Jose on Thursday 19th December! Yes two days to get from one continent to the other, and yet three weeks later we are still without the documents. Meanwhile, we have had to pay extra money to customs, in order for them to actually receive the package; this is before they even bother to look at the contents. That was over two weeks ago when customs briefly returned to work between Christmas and New Year. 

Now that normal working hours have been resumed, it seems that customs have just looked at my package, hence the email "What ingredients are in tea?". As it says on the Tetley Tea packaging '100% Black Tea'. A phrase which I believe is easy to understand in most languages, however limited your English maybe. 

Of course there is always the off-chance that my friend in England is actually smuggling dope to Central America, via me in CR, in individual teabags that are enclosed in cellophane-wrapped boxes which advertise tea! No wait, isn't that the wrong way round? Surely it is usually cocaine and marijuana travelling from Colombia to the US or Europe as described in today's Independent? No mention of teabags being used - maybe they should consider it!

Anyway, even though customs are the ones holding the package and investigating its contents, we are the ones that will have to pick up the extra charges, which mount daily. As we have paid a silly amount already, we have begged and pleaded for the paperwork, but have said that we will not pay for the rest of the items. Looks like they may be winding their way back to the UK, sorry friends. 

In the meantime, we received another package from the UK on Monday, which was bizarrely sent the same day. This too we had to pay extra dollars for, as it seems everything that comes into this country is subjected to hefty import taxes. I think perhaps the customs officer in charge of this case was perhaps bi-lingual; teabags were allowed through no questions asked!

Is it good luck when ...?

Why is it you never have a camera when you need one?

Just popped into Coco to try and get YS a pair of shoes. Hanging from the trees outside the shops were about ten black monkeys! There were even a few babies too. Just swinging from tree to tree, watching the people below in the streets, munching on a few leaves. Most probably howler monkeys. But this afternoon, they all were very quite, no howls could be heard: this usually only takes place either in the early morning or evening, when they are checking out the area for competitors. The beach-side boutiques in Coco are obviously not worthy of defending!

Really rather beautiful and quite fascinating creatures ... that is until they started pooping!!! Large splats of what looked like chocolate ice cream were falling from the branches onto the road below. "One scoop or two senor?".  Luckily, no Tico or turismo were in the line of fire!

It did make me wonder though, if monkey poop on your shoulder, like pigeon poop, is considered lucky? Google didn't throw up any answers, but it did lead me to a site where monkey poop beans make the best coffee - YUCK! Now I know why I prefer tea.

The Three Monkey Musketeers.