Content Preview: Tea Series Challenge

Hello and Welcome to my blog!!  It hasn’t been updated in a long time but I’m back!

I’m starting the year with a series of posts I wrote in December about tea.  A few Christmases ago I was gifted two boxes of sample teas.  We moved, I put them into a cabinet and promptly forgot about them.  Then, during a cabinet shuffle and reorganization session, I discovered them.  

When I thought about where to put them, I realized that I had this idea in my mind that I needed to save them because they were special.  Then I realized that that was silly and they shouldn’t just waste away in a cabinet (how not special would that be?) so they received pride of place in our most-used kitchen cabinet.  

The next morning I decided I should try one new tea a day and then got the idea that I could blog about the different flavors.  So that’s what this series is going to be: one new tea a day and my thoughts and reactions.  The first of these posts should start tomorrow and continue on one a day.  This is also a challenge for me as I have a tendency to lose track of time and not post for ages.

The rest of today’s post is a compilation of some notes and disclaimers about tea.

First, a story:  When I was an undergrad I studied for a year at a university in the United Kingdom.  During my time there I frequently ended up in conversations where stereotypes were discussed and, quite often, debunked.  One such debunking occurred when I was called upon to settle a dispute about tea.  

The two students, both British, could not agree about whether it was acceptable to drink tea without milk or not.  One of them said that all tea must be drunk with milk and how horrible it would taste without milk to balance out the flavors.  The other student claimed that certain flavors would be diluted with the milk and that in other parts of the world, where tea historically originated, it would not be drunk with milk.

Noticing that I was nearby and eavesdropping (I couldn’t help myself!) one of them asked for me to weigh in and settle their dispute.  This then, cue the stereotype, led to a discussion as to my qualifications to weigh in since, as I was from the U.S.A, I must drink coffee and not tea.  
Once I finally convinced them that I don’t like coffee and don’t drink it, but that I do drink tea, I admitted to hating tea with milk.  

It is this experience that has led me to write a post including a disclaimer about tea.  So, in case it wasn’t clear from the story, none of the teas I write about in this series was drunk with anything other than hot water.  If this is ever different (I have been known to sometimes add a bit of lemon juice or honey depending on the tea and the day) I will include a note about it at the beginning of each post.

Also, I am not much of a stickler about steeping times and water temperature.  Maybe one day I will be, or I’ll try it out during this series/challenge, but know that steep times and water temperature will likely not feature in these posts, at least at first.  

Alright, that wraps up the content preview.  I will see you tomorrow for Day 1 of my Tea Series Challenge!

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