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Cold Brewed – as an accompaniment to an afternoon of swimming! This was surprisingly very light/mild in terms of flavour – just a refreshing citrus profile with some sweet berry, rose and a hint of hibiscus. Tasty, but nowhere near as tart and tangy as anticipated. I’ll be honest though; this isn’t really a review about the tea – it’s a review about swimming.

I went swimming a lot this week; there’s a public swimming pool around a ten minute walk from my house that’s free – and swimming is one of my absolute favourite things to do in the summer. I used to take swimming lessons for two weeks in the summer every year until I was about thirteen; we’d spend a month at my Grandparent’s house in Eyebrow and right in the middle of that month swimming lessons were offered. It was the best part of every summer growing up! I loved it. As I got older, I’d be able to swim for hours and hours straight without ever stopping – I think the most I swam in one day was during a vacation one summer to Edmonton where we stayed at a camping ground with a pool: I was at that pool for five hours swimming. When I came out I was basically one giant prune. It definitely helps that chlorine has never bothered my eyes, so I’ve always been able to swim without goggles…

Then I got older, and really insecure about my body. I gained a lot of weight, and for years I couldn’t bare the sight of myself in a bathing suit. Skip forward a few years and it was worse, because I was covered in scars all along my shoulders, arms, and legs from years of self harm. I missed swimming deeply, but being seen in public in a swimsuit!? 100% not an option. Finally, about four years ago, when I was living in Saskatoon a group of friends pushed me to skip work one day and come to the beach with them. I really didn’t want to go, but they were pretty damn insistent. So I went, on the condition that I wouldn’t be swimming with them…

Well, we got there and a few drinks later (yes, we smuggled beers to the beach with us) they were pretty damn insistent on me getting into the water. And you know what!? It was hard to come up with a reason to say no; the friend who had pushed me into going the most was my friend Billie who weighs, easily, about 350 pounds. She’s a big person; but she’s gorgeous and one of the most confident people that I know. She doesn’t take shit from anyone and she is not afraid of her body. Seeing her there, in a bikini, having a BLAST in the water along with the rest of friends group, including her husband who is also drop dead gorgeous and very skinny/fit – who doesn’t give a fuck about her weight, was so compelling. If she wasn’t scared, why should I be!?

And so I fucking swam at the beach! I was wearing shorts and a tank top, but I was fucking there and having fun! And you know what!? No one cared that I was overweight or that I had a bunch of scars. It was the beach, and everyone just wanted to have fun! So, that’s my story of how I got my love of swimming back – of my friends who pushed me just enough to rediscover something that I love. So, I swim every summer now – as much as I can. It makes me incredibly happy; and I’m still not at the point where I can wear a bathing suit (swim trunks and a tank top for me) but it’s more than I had for almost six years. I love swimming – no one gets to take that away from me again, even myself!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.