Tea...Who Knew?

One of the 50 adventures I want to have during this year is learning about tea. I think probably the minute I was "legal" to switch from milk to tea as a small child, I did...been a consummate tea drinker ever since. Of course, my idea of tea drinking varied from the tried and true loose-leaf brewed tea from Lipton that my mom always had fresh and at the ready for her small family with voracious tea-consuming habits to the unsweetened tea my Grandma Meadors had on hand along with a sugar bowl and a teaspoon that allowed us grandkids the blissful pleasure of trying to dissolve the sugar in the tea. As you can imagine it just sunk to the bottom, but to a little kid this was the greatest--using that teaspoon to "scoop" the tea out which gave the mounds of sugar a little tea flavor. I still smile at the memory...

My dad was a tea man. I seldom remember him ever drinking a soft drink. When he did, it was normally a Dr. Pepper which was, to a little kid, almost a torturous taste. Back to tea for me!

My mom always had tea at the ready. Even now, God bless her, she has in the refrigerator a pitcher of unsweetened tea for brother Doug, and a pitcher of sweetened tea for brother Mike. And for me? I'm a 50/50, so I guess I can lay claim to both pitchers on any given day.

With this love of all things tea, I decided it was time to journey out and see what all is out there. What's the best way to brew tea? What's the best pot material for a good brew? How do I choose from the bazillion different types of tea out there? How do I avoid becoming a snarky tea snob?

I started my tour last night, of all places, on You Tube. There are some really nice short clips from Expert Village that not only gives you instruction on different teas, but also some great trivia on tea. And, as Tom can attest, I am the world's biggest sucker some some good trivia!

For example...did you know that orange pekoe is neither orange nor pekoe? It was named orange, according to our friends at Expert Village, since the government at that time was the House of Orange. It was named pekoe because (the discoverer) wanted some exotic, snazzy name--so he just made up the word! Gotta love it!

 When I read this, I was hooked...I knew from now on, no matter how snobby or snarky the tea research got, there would always the be occasional tongue-in-cheek moments to bring it all back.

So...I'm reading currently and will share pertinent information for anyone interested in my findings. I'm also thinking that this winter that one of the sewing projects will be, of course, a tea cozy :).

Cheers!