My name is Stephanie Davies, and I have been graciously invited by The Tea Table to share my story with you, dear blog reader.  It’s a story of success, of using tea to overcome obstacles, but it’s really about how tea saved my life.  And by chance, the tea that saved my life, was from The Tea Table.  Allow me to explain…

Back in February of 2007, I was a cigarette smoker.  Not only was I a cigarette smoker, but I was a die-hard pack-a-day for 15 years straight smoker.  I loved my cigarettes.  I would tell people how much I loved smoking and how I would never quit.  And at the time, I meant it.  After all, cigarettes are addictive for a reason…they make you feel good!  They relax you while keeping you alert at the same time.  In most long-time smokers, the relaxation response derived from the simple act of inhaling smoke from a cigarette is just about as nice as you can imagine.

Three months previously, I had discovered The Tea Table’s website by chance.  Until this point, I had not had much experience in tea, at least, not past Lipton, Celestial Seasonings and whatever else they sold at the local grocery store – which wasn’t much.  When I first saw The Tea Table’s website, it was such an incredible surprise…so many teas with so many different flavors.  What really caught my eye was their Triple Threat Temptation, with white chocolate, coconut, and caramel – it seemed like heaven!!  And when it arrived in the mail and I tried it, well, I was hooked from the start.

So I was already familiar with The Tea Table when I became very ill in mid-February 2007.  I was hospitalized with an extreme case of e coli and salmonella poisoning.  During my stay I realized how much control cigarettes had over my life, how much sicker I was than a non-smoker might be in this situation.  I realized that I never wanted to be that sick ever again if possible, and one of the ways I could control that, was to quit smoking.

But quitting cigarettes after 15 years of smoking is no easy feat as I’m sure you know!  I’d tried before several times, cold turkey.  But never made it past 2 months tops!  So this time, I decided I needed a good strategy to help me quit.  Since I figured that I smoked cigarettes for their calming quality while providing alertness, I needed something to simulate that, and allow me to “take time out” from what I was doing as cigarettes had allowed me to do.  And so I determined the best way to quit was a sort of “replacement therapy” – I replaced every single cigarette I would have smoked, with a cup of tea from The Tea Table.

And it worked!!

After a while I came to rely, and even depend upon each cup of tea.  I started learning about the new flavors and types of teas, and not only did my plan to replace cigarettes with tea work…it started a passion for tea in me that I’ve never had for anything else in my life.  I literally became addicted to tea instead!  The Triple Threat Temptation was only the beginning – there were flavors and aromas I’d never heard of before!

As cigarettes became less of a part of my life, tea became more a part of my life, and I started a Tea Review Blog to express my passion for tea and to share it with others.  Unfortunately in November of 2008, that site was hacked and lost forever.  I began a new Tea Review Blog in December of 2008, and have built it up to this day.  It has nearly 1,000 reviews on teas of all types from all over the world, with a panel of 12 tea reviewers as well as myself.

Because of this I’ve become a bit of an expert on teas, and have enjoyed thousands of different teas from hundreds of companies.  I still share my passion on my Tea Review Blog, where you can also read my reviews on some of the wonderful teas here at The Tea Table, the place that started it all for me.

My last cigarette was smoked on February 15, 2007, and as of this February in 3 short months, I will be 3 years cigarette free.  Thank you Tea Table, for allowing me the freedom of being a tea lover and a non-smoker!

– Stephanie Davies, The Tea Review Blog Editor