A Spot of Tea

I’m not a coffee drinker. Sorry, don’t pelt me with rotten fruit. I just don’t like the way coffee tastes.

And would you believe I still get chided for not knowing that ‘coffee cake’ does not have a lick of coffee in it because I’d avoided it simply because of its name? Yeah, I was 27 when I learned that coffee cake doesn’t necessarily have coffee in it. You see, I sooooo dislike the taste of coffee that I was unwilling to take a chance on something with coffee as part of its name. I just don’t like the taste of coffee.

I’m still wary of the stuff.

It’s no secret that I’m a weirdo and my dislike of coffee is certainly a contributing factor. I like the way coffee smells, just not the way it tastes.

So it’s a damn good thing I fell in love with tea in high school.

At first, I mooched off Mom’s Lipton. Then I learned there was more than one brand in restaurants and they taste a little different from Lipton, but pretty close. Then a boyfriend of mine introduced me to oolong…but I thought it was a little weird. I drank it, but I still preferred that Lipton kind of taste.

Then, tea played a little role in the 11-day courtship following meeting my husband. He’s a coffee drinker, but he likes tea as well. That was one of the things we talked about on our first date, actually. Tea. And that Lipton had made a cold brew version for iced tea. The day after our date, I mailed him some…just ’cause I like him. I knew he was ‘the one’ for me from the getgo and I somehow knew he’d appreciate the gesture. He did…I got a phone call from him shortly after. Yay!!

Since then, we’ve visited the Chinatown here in LA. We’d wandered into Ten Ren Tea and a whole new world of teas opened up and swallowed me! I couldn’t get enough. I discovered that the reason teas taste different is because there are different types and processes and growing regions and estates. I surfed the web for more and more and more and more information.

Until I got bored reading about it all and decided that I just wanna drink the stuff. I tend toward oolongs and greens, but love a good black tea now and then. I like varietals and single origins, but don’t infuse ’em with them fruits and berries or any other non-tea leaf. Nope, not for me. I’m apparently a purist.

I’ve since discovered Wing Hop Fung for teas as well. They’ve got a huge variety and they give free samples. Plus, if you want to try one, they’ll brew it up right there and see if you like it enough to buy.

A few months back, they gave me a little sample of a mystery tea. It was in a little green pouch and while there was no Chinese on it, there was also no English…just a number. Hmmm… A whole day went by until the curiosity was unbearable. I brewed it up and good golly, I was hooked on this mysterious 1222 and had to go get more.

Next time I was there, I brought the pouch with me so I wouldn’t forget the number and hunted through the aisles of huge glass jars until I found the number I was looking for. But that couldn’t be right… The tea I loved couldn’t possibly have ginseng in it. Ginseng tastes horrible. Every time I try a ginseng tea, I wanna gag. How could the mystery tea I loved so much be infused–with ginseng no less–and still taste good? It must’ve been a mistake. I pulled off the lid and sniffed. That was the stuff all right. So I got a quarter pound of it and am enjoying it even as I write this post. Yum.

In Second Life, my avatar, Twyla Briggs, drinks it non-stop. I even modified the script so she’d sip more often than every 15 seconds. I can’t help it. I love the stuff. I love the way it tastes and wish I could drink it all the time.

I’ve turned into such a tea snob. I’ll drink that cheap-o, thrift-o, get-it-anywhere-snore Lipton because it’s still tea and I still love it, but I’ve come to prefer loose leaf teas. Their flavor is much brighter. I bring my own (sometimes including my self-warming pot because hotel coffee makers flavor the water too much) when I go on vacation. And since there’s almost always hot water available when I’m on movie sets, I bring my own there as well.

So, there you have it. My one vice. I don’t drink, smoke or do any kind of drugs…except snooty, caffeinated teas. Just another of my eccentricities. In fact, I think it’s my most expensive! Well, as far as food or drink is concerned…

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