Red Sky at Morning

I do love mornings. I also love feeling awake for them, which is why I usually pass up tea without caffeine.


I used to have to wake up at 5:30 a.m. for a soul-crushing job on Wall St. that started at 7 a.m.- and that didn't mean brewing my second cup of sencha in the filthy, florescent-lit kitchen or counting the number of tiles as I sat in my favorite bathroom stall then. It meant staring at a screen immediately at the start of my nine-hour day, having to turn sentences written by overpaid, bloviating investors and soulless hedge-fund windbags into useful and concise financial advice, as well as being constantly alert for (gasp) a misplaced comma or a company wrongly tickered NYSE instead of Nasdaq.

I got through it by thinking of the process as swine (the writers) before pearls (the editor). And by reminding myself that as Buddha said, everything is an illusion.

Drinking 10 cups of tea a day helped, too.

Thankfully, I've escaped that Hades. And my mornings no longer have to take place solely before sunrise, so I can actually get through the day without caffeine, if I choose.

Although I almost always reach for green or black tea, sometimes it's nice to let the fruits and herbs of the season determine the morning blend. Pomegranate was an ideal pick, as it's now at the height of ripeness and of course, carries its own underworld-enslavement-breakout tale.

This tart, vibrant, ruby-red brew would also be lovely to cap off a winter dinner party, or simply to welcome those endless holiday guests.

Pomegranate Tea
Makes: 3 cups.

1 large pomegranate, well washed and cut into quarters
4 cups cold water
Few sprigs mint
Few tablespoons honey

Bring pomegranate and water to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, without crushing the fruit, 15-20 minutes or until fragrant and colorful. Stir in mint and honey and strain into glasses.

I know I'll get right back to the Uji tomorrow, but I still can appreciate every sip of this today.