I have not always been a tea snob. It used to be that I only drank Lipton iced tea, and usually only when out at a restaurant. It used to be that I just did not have the time it took to put a tea bag into a cup and wait the minute or two it took for the thing to brew. Oh, sure occasionally I would go through the effort, but the end result never seemed to be worth the bother.
Now, I had always heard about tea being a big deal in England. Tea pots, tea leaves, tea cakes and scones seemed to be more exotic and foreign than possible for a country with whom I shared a common language. Just what was up with all that tea. As a child I learned about the Boston Tea Party and my teachers seemed to intimate that drinking tea was almost un-American. I could not, unfortunately, indulge in the truly American beverage of coffee. Through trial and error I learned that coffee had a very negative effect on me. Profuse sweating, heart palpitations and hyperactive behavior were the side effects of even a single cup of coffee, and this was not lessened with decaf either. You might think it strange that after noticing these effects I would ever again try to drink coffee, but 1. I think we have covered my inability to pay attention to things in previous posts, so it took several repeated forays before I made the connection; 2. I love the smell and taste of coffee since childhood; 3. I am patriotic and felt I was somehow letting America down by not imbibing in the American colonists sanctioned beverage.
So with coffee out of the question, tea became something I began to pursue. I did this in the form of herbal teas at first. Celestial Seasonings made a bunch of very creatively packaged herbal teas of which my favorites were Sleepy Time (a chamomile based) and Red Zinger (a hibiscus based). They tasted great, but they were also a little fussy. The tea bags did not have a string, which necessitated scooping out the bag with a spoon and then finding some way to squeeze the bag without scalding your fingers. I usually ended up scalding my fingers.
Now it is just one short step from drinking herbal teas to drinking exotic black tea blends. This is due mostly to where you buy the herbal teas. The tea department at my local health food store was a riot of various teas with strange and exotic names. Just what is a Rooibos or Oolong or Yerba Mate? I had no idea however my best friend did. She was the goddess of teas and had about a billion types. What was more, she had loose leaf tea. I was very wary of that because it smacked of the kind of unpatriotic activity I was trying to avoid. However, she let me try many of her different teas with tea bags. I tried many different types, but discovered that drinking black tea led to headaches and this led me to the discovery of green tea. Green tea is different from black tea in that it is not fermented. Apparently it is just the fermentation process and I that do not get along. I found I could drink green tea by the gallons and suffer nary a headache. So, now I was set free from the liability of tea.
My first green tea love and one I am still particularly fond of was jasmine tea. It was almost like drinking flowers. I soon learned however that not just any jasmine tea would do and it was infuriating that the brand of tea I liked the most was some sort of hard to come by variety that was apparently backpacked out of China in small secretive quantities. Not really, but it seemed that way since I never found it in any stores. Then I looked on line and it was like a flood gate opening. I had only thought I didn't know anything about teas before. Now with all the varieties online I was a complete tea idiot.
I also discovered that there were stores in my town devoted to tea drinkers. At these tea emporiums you could order a pot of one of the many varieties of loose leaf tea and sit around drinking tea. I did that exactly two times. One time was in a meeting with a group, so there was an abundance of talk as well as an abundance of tea varieties. It was at this meeting that I first met an Earl Grey green tea. It was love at first sip. I went back a week later and ordered a pot of this tea. I was prepared for this solo experience in that I had brought a book. The tea was great, but the 'sitting around drinking your pot of tea in the tea shop' left a lot to be desired. First of all, there was no sugar anywhere on the premises. Apparently, based on the fact there were not 'tea condiments' anywhere in the shop, putting anything but hot water in with your tea was the equivalent to pollution. There was also this air of snobbishness the employees seemed to be soaked in. When I ordered an ounce of the Earl Grey green to take home the salesperson asked several questions in an attempt to ensure I deserved to purchase the said tea. "I would like an ounce of the Early Grey green," I said. "The green Earl Grey?" the salesperson said, dubiousness written all over his face. "You know the black has a much better bouquet." He then snatched the Earl Grey black off the shelf and opened the container so I could smell it, followed by the container of the green. I obligingly smelled them both. The green tea had an incredible citrus scent while the black seemed to pound my nose with an orange perfume. "See," he said, "The black is much more aromatic." He began to put the green tea away as if this demonstration had swayed me. "Uh," I said, "I still want the green." He looked shocked, and nearly rolled his eyes while filling my order.
I made my purchase ($8.00 for the ounce!) not thinking too much about the encounter because I had my tea. I took it home and made a cup this time with an application of cane sugar. It was as if my taste buds had been transported to heaven. It was a transcendental experience as far as drinking a cup of tea can be. I now knew what they meant when they said people that use meth can be hooked from their first encounter. I was definitely hooked on this Earl Grey green.
That first ounce lasted me about three weeks, but hey, no problem because the tea store was easy to get to. My habit was so strongly entrenched by then that I knew better than to run out, so I made another visit to the tea shop. A different employee was there from my first time and he was nice and didn't seem to have any snobbish leanings. I ordered my Earl Grey green, but as he was filling the order I noticed the tea looked a little different. I didn't say anything, after all, I was a novice in these things. Maybe it was my imagination. I got to my office with the tea and decided to have a cup. I opened my newly purchased back and inhaled deeply. Gag! What was this? What was that 'off' smell? And what were these strange purple flowers doing in my Earl Grey green? I thought 'Okay, don't panic, maybe the taste will come out when it is brewed'. I made a cup and took a sip. This was not a transcendental experience unless taking a mouthful of what tasted like dirty sock water transcends your personal life, and if it does, my condolences.
Obviously I had been given the wrong tea. It was a hassle, but I managed to make it back to the tea shop the next day. Luckily the same salesperson was there. I had brought along the previous bag of tea I had purchased to use as a comparison. I felt I had the issue well in hand and they would see the mistake and rectify it. That was not to be the case.
It all started off well enough. I talked to the salesperson and explained how I thought he had given me the wrong tea. I showed him the difference between the two bags, how they looked and smelled different. He took down the store canister and showed me the Earl Grey green they had was the one he had given me. I thought perhaps the canister had been loaded with the wrong tea. He did not know, but luckily, the store owner was there and could help us. The store owner turned out to be this enormous woman who had been hunched over the front counter talking to another customer. The salesperson politely asked her if she could help my situation. She barely glanced my way as I explained what I thought had happened - ie. wrong tea placed into the store canister. I showed her my previous bag with the dwindling supplies of a very uniform, dark green leaf tea compared to the newest bag of a light colored, purple flower filled leaf tea. I said, "They smell entirely different." Without moving her bulk from her slumped position against the counter, she took both bags and inserted her beefy nostrils into one and then the other pulling in a whiff.
I have spent quite a lot of time studying the marvelous book written by Dale Carnegie, "How to Win Friends and Influence People." I find that it is a wealth of knowledge in interactions with others and I apply its principles whenever I can. This tea shop owner had apparently never read his book, but perhaps she could write one of her own: 'How to make enemies and alienate people'. She did this by rendering her observation of the two teas. "They are the same." she announced without looking in my direction. "They most certainly are not the same!" I found my self saying in a booming voice as my temper reached the boiling point. She just pointedly ignored me, so I concluded my business with the shop by trading in the offensive tea for a generic green tea and left that store never to return again. I made it a point to let everyone I knew know of the bungling job the owner had done in handling my issue.
But there I was, having tasted heaven and now set adrift without that Earl Grey green nectar. I did find a passable substitute at my local health food store which also happened to cost much, much less than the horrible tea shop. This has kept me going for the last year but the transcendental tea experience became just a fading memory.
Until this last weekend. I was visiting my tea goddess friend and we were procuring her some excellent jasmine green tea (her favorite) from her local health food store. I noticed they had the brand I had been buying, but also, another brand: Rishi Earl Grey green tea. It smelled heavenly and triggered that illusive memory. I purchased an ounce and took it home. Just yesterday I tried it.
Transcendental!
