Tea Time

My earliest memories of tea involve drinking it on an airplane, with my dad, headed west. It was a small cup filled with tea and milk and sugar. Whenever I had tea on airplanes as a kid I would always put two little bags of sugar into it, and liked tea more for its milky sweetness than anything else. In December 2003, not long before finals were to start, L. invited me to her parents’ house in Marin County and the first thing her English mom did upon our arrival was give us cups of tea. We always drank a form of black tea there, usually English Breakfast or another like that (I also liked Orange Pekoe and Darjeeling), and would put lots of milk, and instead of sugar, honey. Tea, and drinking it at L.’s house while escaping whatever drama was preoccupying us in Berkeley, was always a comfort.

This is how I used to drink tea - with lots of milk and sugar.

Yet despite liking tea, for both its taste and comfort, I wasn’t a regular drinker. I rarely bought any or made it myself and would usually only drink it on airplanes or at L.’s or if offered at someone’s house. That all changed this past fall when I had a really bad cold and almost completely lost my voice. I was home in Toronto for the weekend and my dad suggested I drink some of his white tea. I found the white tea in our cupboard, make a mug of it and decided I liked it very much. It has a fairly light taste that is easy to drink. I was also cognizant of the health benefits of tea and so decided I would start drinking some more regularly. From mid-October until Christmas, I drank a cup of white tea (specifically I buy President’s Choice organic white tea – I have also had Twinings’ White Tea and I like that a lot too) every morning. Since then I have also completely stopped adding milk, sugar or honey to my tea. I only drink tea (any kind of tea) black now. I think it was my dad's influence.

Here is the white tea I like

This past Christmas, D.’s mom gave him a tall turquoise coloured mug from the tea company Davids Tea which came with its own strainer for loose leaf tea. D. and I then went to a Davids Tea in Toronto and D. bought some tea leaves. He bought organic cream of earl grey and blueberry jam tea leaves. The cream of earl grey is one of the best teas I have ever tasted. After one mug of it, I was hooked. I always liked earl grey, even though I only ever drank it sporadically, but this cream of earl grey is absolutely delicious. It has vanilla in it, which makes big difference I think. After I made it through the bag D. bought, I went out and bought my own tin of it. I have since finished that tin too but I had also bought some chai tea from Davids Tea at the same time as I bought the cream of earl grey, which until now I’ve barely touched. I’ve had cups today and yesterday though and while the tea is good, it’s not exactly memorable. I miss the cream of earl grey! However, I’ve told myself I need to drink all of the chai before I buy any more cream of earl grey. This is a position I am not sure I can maintain.

Here it is! It's just so good. Try some...

Before this past January, I had never made loose leaf tea before, always only using tea bags. I like how easy it is to dispose of tea bags – no mess, no need to scrape the leaves out of the strainer. But now that I am obliged to use loose leaf in order to drink cream of earl grey, I quite like it. I still find cleaning out the strainer annoying but I have to admit that (though this sounds cheesy) there’s something more authentic seeming about making tea from leaves. Update: I wrote the above before I was on the Davids Tea website last night and discovered that they sell their own tea bags specifically for their loose leaf tea. I will have to buy some of those and then I’ll have the option of using the strainer or not.

It has been fun experimenting with new tea flavours over the past few months (D. always buys random teas from Davids Tea). I think at this point though, with the exception of the odd cup of blueberry jam tea, I am pretty set in my tea drinking ways. I like having white tea approximately 3-4 times a week and cream of earl grey the other 3 or 4 days. I long to get back to this as soon as I make it through the chai tea sitting on my shelf.

Something fun about discovering how much I like tea has been discovering tea accessories. This was mostly sparked by drinking loose leaf tea and by D.’s mom giving him that mug for Christmas. Seeing that mug and its strainer and the loose leaf tea reminded me of how in July 2010 I went to this tea store called Teaopia (it was subsequently bought out by an American chain called Teavana) and bought my dad a glass teapot and some loose leaf tea for his birthday. My dad, it seems, prefers tea in bag form, and so the teapot sat unused for much of the past three and a half years. (And perhaps he prefers a single cup versus an entire pot). I then decided to claim it and from January to March of this year made many pots of cream of earl grey. Unfortunately, the teapot cracked. Pretty much from when I started using it I worried it would crack. Glass is so fragile. D. and I have seen enough of our wine tumblers and wine glasses break or crack when we washed them that I pessimistically figured it was only a matter of time before the teapot cracked. After it cracked (and then actually broke apart…) I had to decide whether I would buy another glass teapot or a non-glass teapot. I love the look of glass teapots and I love seeing your tea just waiting to be drunk. That said, I decided against another glass teapot as I figured it may just break again. Instead, I got a teal bubble teapot from Davids Tea (see picture below) and I really like it. The description on their website says it is the teapot of your dreams and so far it has been great. D. also surprised me with a glass tea mug from Davids Tea and so far it has been perfect and hasn’t shown even the slightest hint that it might crack. I’ve actually been using it more than my teapot because I often don’t feel like an entire pot all by myself in the mornings. I need to have a tea party and use it!

 

Maybe it will be the teapot of your dreams too?

Here is the glass tea mug (with strainer) I have and use all the time.

Before I close, I do have to put in a little paragraph about the delicious mint tea in lovely little glasses served endlessly at the café in the main mosque in Paris. A girl I was friends with in Paris, (yet another) L., introduced me both to the café at the mosque and then to this Moroccan mint tea we could buy at Franprix (the ubiquitous Paris grocery store – although let it be noted that I had to go to several different Franprixs around Paris before I finally found one that had that tea in stock) – which was the closest we could get to replicating the tea from the mosque café at home. I made it at home sometimes (and brought a box back to North America with me) but eventually stopped. Somehow it had lost some of its allure and served only as a reminder of how much I missed Paris. Although the mint tea at the mosque is so (some would likely say too) sweet, I love it. And every time I return to Paris I make sure to visit the café and drink some of it. Now that I love other teas so much though, it really does seem quite like a totally separate drink as the sweet mint tea has little in common with the black and white tea I drink now.

This is the mint tea at the cafe at the Paris mosque

In closing, I am very glad I have discovered how delicious and wonderful a drink tea is. It has added a lot to my mornings and I am very glad it is now part of my daily routine.

I can't wait to have a tea party!