For at least two years I’ve been in a trench war with smoking. I’d be without for a few months, “something” would “happen” and I’d pick up the habit, and then I’d fight it again for quite a bit… Wash, rinse, repeat. Come to think of it, this vicious cycle might be worse for my lungs than if I were a consistent smoker.

Lately though, I have been doing better, and I’ve had the best of help from loose-leaf green tea. I buy mine from Teavana at the Mall in Columbia, in half-pound quantities every two weeks. For forty dollars a month for very good tea, it has the cost of smoking beat.

After experimenting around with different mixtures of rooibos and other herbal teas, I’ve gone back to good ol’green tea, Japanese sencha, to be exact, which is less pungent than Chinese varieties of green tea. Now that the fall is getting a bit harsher, tea has been a source of great comfort and stress relief.