What happened? I don’t like tea any more!
How strange my mind-body works. Last week I got a bit of tummy bug involving fever and running to the toilet a lot. So over 4 days I reduced my diet to lots of water and just dry food in the hopes of starving off the bug. By Sunday evening I was starting to eat a normal meal again. I still reduced the amount of dairy stuff I was eating till Wednesday or so. But a weird thing happened when I started back using dairy again: I don’t like tea any more.
If you know me, you know I drink copious amounts of tea. In work, I regularly drink four to six very large mugs of tea during the day and I continue that rate into the evening too. But now, when I drink tea I don’t like it. I only sip it a bit, nearly out of just habit. The reason is that the taste of milk in my tea is overpowering, and not that particularly nice. Before I got sick I didn’t notice it at all, but now I find it awful. And I’m not sure I like tea without milk! What is strange is that I have no problem with milk in my breakfast cereals or cream on my pasta. Just in tea.
It’s really odd experience. For example in the evening after dinner I have a craving for a nice cup of tea and relax on the sofa while the kids are finally in bed. However I hold back, remembering the taste of milk, but still having that carving, but nothing to fill it. It leaves me a bit restless, not sure how to fulfil the craving. Most of the time I just go and relax anyway and forget about it.
Luckily though I beating back my new found aversion by just regular cups of tea over the course of the day. The taste of milk is still quite powerful but it’s getting less.
I could read in this some depressing thought about humans (i.e. me) are just creatures of habit and we don’t really change, but who cares. I need my little drop of caffeine okay? 