My wife and I are both tea drinkers. For myself, I first started drinking iced tea, then green tea, and then my wife (only then girlfriend) introduced me to real tea, her family being tea drinking Anglophiles. That first true cup of tea was five years ago.
I’m not against coffee. I’ll drink a cup of it here and there, if it’s the only thing being offered for breakfast or with dessert. Coffee however has a harsh acidity that doesn’t agree with my stomach and it gives me such highs and lows from the caffeine that I sometimes get headaches. It seems many people experience the same side affects but strangely put up with it. Sure there are coffee snobs out there who only buy the beans from their favorite roaster and brew their coffee in a French press (myself included when I make coffee for guests) but the majority of coffee drinkers enjoy their java as long as it’s black, in liquid form, and are able to put cream in sugar in it. Wait, no, there’s also the third type. The Starbucks coffee shop types who order their lattes and cappuccinos with a magical code, take it in a to-go cup, and then always rush off somewhere. Americans rarely drink their coffee to enjoy it.
Tea on the other hand is meant to be enjoyed. The English even have a traditional pause in the afternoon for their tea. Tea comes in many different forms and comes from many different countries. You have herbal teas, green teas, black teas, and many in between. Black tea alone has an endless array of varieties – flavored black teas, traditional English blends, and single region teas from China or India, just to name a few. A full day of tea drinking may start for example with an Irish Breakfast blend in the morning, a mellower Ceylon in the afternoon, and a nice herbal fruit tea in the evening.
At work everyone drinks coffee, except for me. The older generation fills their cups of coffee from the communal coffee machine – the Pour-O-Matic, while the younger generation grinds their beans and fills their French presses at the hot water faucet. I on the other hand have a Bodum tea press at my desk, where I measure out some hearty black tea for the morning, fill it up with hot water, and then push down the plunger minutes later (basically like a French press). Many of my coworkers are used to me drinking tea by now, but I always get the occasional glance or comment.
The most common comment by far is that tea isn’t strong enough and isn’t enough of a morning pick-me-up. I always respond with “well you’re drinking the wrong kind of tea.” A good strong morning tea should be just as dark as a cup of coffee and be able to take milk just the same. With that said, I’ve been asked if I put honey in my tea. Not unless I have a cold, again just a bit of milk if it’s a strong black tea. As far as pick-me-up qualities, tea has caffeine as well of course, but for me it seems to be more gradual and with less spikes than coffee, so I don’t get jittery.
As an aside, tea made from a tea bag is not good tea! Usually tea remnants (from making the good tea) are put in tea bags. You might be getting good tea, but not the best parts of said good tea. Plus, with the small bag of tea that you normally get with bagged teas, hot water does not have enough room to work with the tea leaves and really make them bloom. You end up getting a mild and inferior version of what you could get with loose tea put into a filter or even a tea ball.
I often get by at work with just a tin of English Breakfast tea from Twinings, which isn’t a bad fallback by any means. However, with that supply running out and our cabinet of tea at home also getting depleted, my wife and I recently had to make an order through Upton Tea Imports from Holliston, Massachusetts. Among our selections for this purchase was a sampler set of Assam, a package of Premium China Keemun, a package of Richmond Park Blend (an English afternoon blend) and a package of Cape Cod Cranberry (a fruit tea).
Our other source of tea is the Tea Source, a small two-store chain of tea retailers in the Twin Cities. My wife’s family is from that area so we are there quite a bit and go to the Tea Source nearly every time. Even though we had just purchased tea from Upton less than a week ago, we still bought some tea – a package of Grand Keemun and Irish Breakfast. The Tea Source and Upton each have their own blends and different suppliers so they have slight variances in tea. For example I haven’t yet found a nice smoky Keemun from Upton that I have with the Tea Source’s Grand Keemun. Being larger and more traditional, Upton also has more varieties, especially of black teas. They also seem to be cheaper than the Tea Source. However, with the Tea Source you cannot only sit and drink a cup of tea, but they will let you smell the bulk tea before you buy.
If you’re new to loose leaf tea, Upton has a ton of knowledge on its website. They go in depth about the history of tea, but also explain the more simple concepts – like how tea is made and how to brew the perfect cup. Tea can be very overwhelming, but it’s very easy to get into. Put the kettle on, steep some leaves, and enjoy.
We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven’t had any tea for a week…
The bottom is out of the Universe.
- Rudyard Kipling
