My history with Tea

With the amount of tea that I drink now, you'd think that I grew up around it in my family. My grandfather is was born in England, so I was told stories about "The Kettle". It was the kettle of black tea that was made every morning, and when the tea was gone, more water and teabags were added and simply reboiled. No rinsing out of dregs, no removing of the old teabags, just more bags and water. Suffice to say, that kettle was stained beyond hope and the tea was incredibly bitter. This led to my mother not really making tea when I was growing up.

When I was a teenager, I began drinking some brand or another of bagged herbal tea. I still remember drinking the peach one, with a ton of honey added in. Even then, tea was not a frequent drink for me. Hot chocolate was better. This was basically how I drank tea until I moved out of my parents' house for university. The city I moved to had two tea shops, one local and the other a chain. I began buying tea from both places, sticking to mostly flavoured black tea.

As my taste for tea developed, I began appreciating and drinking more types of tea. My tastes shifted from flavoured teas to straight ones, and from blacks to greens. Now I can't stand most of the teas from the chain store, it tastes very artificial and sugary. I even got a job at the local shop (which was amazing) until the owner moved out of the provence.

I currently have an entire shelving unit dedicated to my collection of tea, teapots, and accessories. The selection of tea is slowly dwindling, as I not longer have a good source of tea in my city. I have begun the hunt for another store or website that I can order from, as well as the very welcome additions my friends send to me from time to time. If anyone has a store that they recommend for good loose leaf tea, please leave it in the comments below and I will certainly check them out.

Never settle for anything less than what you deserve. You should have the best, and mediocrity can go suck a big bag of Red Rose.

Toodles!