Do you drink more tea in winter, when it's cold?

It's winter. Yes, I know that winter "officially" begins on the 21st, at the Solstice, but for all practical purposes, it's winter. The trees have lost their leaves, and it's been below freezing here in Delaware for several nights in a row. The past couple days we've seen some light snow flurries, and on my bird survey this morning the ground was frozen. This is a photo from Phillips park, where I do my local bird surveying:



It looks like winter now.

The migratory birds are all gone, except for an (extremely anomalous) late American redstart that came through in the third week of November. Now on my walk I see mostly the cold-tolerant birds: chickadees, juncos, white-throated and song sparrows, woodpeckers, crows, gulls, pigeons, starlings. Anyone who is curious to see the data from my survey can view it publicly, by viewing eBird's records for Phillips Park, Newark, DE. This may contain other people's records at all--I'm not sure--but I'm the main person contributing the data for this park at this point.

Do you drink more tea during the cold weather?

I do. Not by a huge amount, but I tend to drink a little bit more. This "more" often manifests itself in the form of drinking more teas that are good for multiple infusions, so that I can enjoy a few cups of hot tea during the morning instead of just one. I also end up drinking a lot more hot herbal tea in the evening. Since I can't get it fresh from my garden, I am less likely to drink mint and lemon balm; instead I drink more rooibos and tulsi. I love the sensation of a warm mug in my hands, especially when I come in from my almost-daily bird walk.