So this evening, I decided that I would write a little bit about my journey to the world of tea.
Like most kids in middle America, my first experience with tea was iced tea, Lipton, of course. My family in Texas mostly drank it sweet. REALLY sweet. Southern style sweet tea usually involves adding sugar until it stops dissolving...and I'm only sort of kidding. My uncle here in Missouri also liked his Lipton iced tea, but he drank it unsweetened. And so, for many many years, I thought that the only two teas in the world were "sweet" and "unsweet".
Sometime around age 11 or 12, this once very picky eater started to be more adventurous with food, and so, I decided to go along with my mom and my aunt to a Chinese restaurant, and actually order food with them this time.
My mom and my aunt always got "hot tea" along with their meals at the Chinese place, and I decided I would try some too...my first taste of jasmine green tea. I loved the aroma, but found the flavor sort of lacking. I didn't order it again.
I spent many years more or less avoiding tea. There were a few occasions where my choice of drink was limited to tea or water, so on those occasions, I would opt for some iced tea. Other than that, I was not a tea drinker.
Fast forward many many many years into my adulthood. I took a trip to my friend's house in Nashville. I had driven all day to get there, and it was late in the evening when I arrived. My friend was a big tea drinker herself, and offered me a hot cup of caffeine free herbal tea to unwind. I accepted, so long as it wasn't chamomile. She gave me a cup of the (now discontinued) Vanilla Hazelnut tea from Celestial Seasonings. I was wowed. I didn't know that tea could be so delicious. I tried several other delicious teas at her house during my stay, and hit up the supermarket for all kinds of delicious-sounding flavored teas, to mixed results. Most of them ended up collecting dust in the cupboard.
My next encounter with tea was while I was a student in Austin. I went to the local Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to study. I walked in and walked up to the counter to order a drink to accompany my studies. It was my intention to order some sort of latte or white mocha, like I generally do in such places, but as i approached the counter, I was hit with a delightful scent of creamy strawberry. i asked the barista what it was that I was smelling. He said, "oh it's a latte made with our Strawberry Cream green tea." I replied, I want THAT!
My next trip to the counter involved the purchase of a tin of the Strawberry Cream tea. I opened it up in the car before I left the store and inhaled the delicious fragrance.
After that, tea was still not my go-to drink (I was still suffering from a hardore Dr Pepper addiction, coupled with a Starbucks White Mocha habit), but I branched out and tried tea beverages every now and then. A Passion Tea Lemonade here, an apple chai infusion there.
The real addiction when I visited my friend in Nashville again, and she took me to her local Teavana. I tried every sample in the store and fell in love. When I got back to Texas, I discovered that there was a Teavana in the ritzy mall on the other side of town. I went and bought a few teas and a couple of infusers. My addiction was born.
Since then, I have realized that loose-leaf teas are so much better quality than the tea dust on the supermarket shelf. I've also branched out to loose-leaf tea providers beyond Teavana and the Republic of Tea selections that I was buying at Whole Foods.
Now, I treat teas as a wonderful journey of new flavors. My stash grows exponentially every week, because I love to try new teas as much as I love to drink my favorites. Tea drinking is really my zen. It's my meditation. Sipping thoughtfully over tea has actually helped to calm me so that I can better deal with all of the rough stuff and tragedies going on in my life lately. I now know why the stereotype of a tea-sipping yogi exists...tea is meditation too.
As my favorite mug says, Keep Calm and Drink Tea!
No comments:
Post a Comment