Good Tea Moments

I had a good tea moment yesterday morning.

Went to Dim Sum after working out and when I was ordering tea, I asked if they had any oolong, rather than just going for the Jasmine they usually offer. But I said it with the “woo” rather than “oo” sound, as I read was actually the proper way to say it.

The proprietress looked at me and said.. “um.. well, oolong is the same thing as pu-erh, so I can get you some pu-erh.” I said ok, even though they really aren’t, and had the pu-erh. She actually looked a little impressed that someone actually thought about tea more than “I like that Chinese tea stuff” which most people do going in there.

Then when the tea got there, I was able to say “Yep, that’s a pu-erh” just by the smell. I’ve only been really learning about and paying attention to tea now for about 4 months now, and I’m tickled with myself for being able to identify the pu-erh-ness of a tea just by the smell.

It wasn’t a bad pu-erh either. :)

I think that many average moments are made good by tea!

Tea has gotten me thru may days where my depression was beating me down.

My best tea moments are with my friends and family.

Eating chocolat and tasting tea with my friends while catching up and gossiping.
Playing cards with my father and listening to his opinion on life (and everything else) while cheating shamelessly.
Sitting in a mild snowstorm staring at the wall – just silently sipping the tea and enjoying the moment.

My best tea moment would be drinking my first “not lipton” tea that tasted of liquorice and had a small orchid like flower unfolding in the cup. This uncovered a whole new world ;) It made me so happy, I had to share the tea with every collegue, every friend who came by and my parents.

I know the topic was “Good Tea Moments” but this is a ackward/BAD tea moment:

I went to Pandera for lunch by myself, which I seldom do because it’s boring. I ordered a bowl of soup and some Ginger Peach Green Tea by republic of Tea and it was in one of those keep warm cup thingys I don’t usually order tea when eating out and I have never been a coffee drinker so I am fairly new no not fairly new I am NEW to drinking tea out instead of at home and so I had my soup with a glass of ice water and was enjoying myself looking at random people and I decided it had probably been long enough for my tea to cool off I even like put my nose near the little hole to see if I could gauge the heat and it seemed drinkable a little hot but hey I often drink it that way well as I am sure you can probably guess it was freaking scolding hot and my face must have been quite comical to any onlookers because I had never experienced drinking anything sooo hot it was very extreme to say the least and it has now had time to heal but it has taken me the better part of a week. The worst part of the story was not the pain but that I had several tea orders come in and I wasn’t able to fully experience them because of the tongue injury. I will definently wait more than 15 minutes before drinking anything out of one of those insulated cup things AGAIN! I don’t wish that kind of pain on anybody!

I had a lovely tea moment last week – it was snowing outside, but it was quiet inside my house, everybody was home but doing something else somewhere else and the doggies were just quietly snoring away on their respective doggie beds, and I was hogging the couch in the family room reading one of Kristin Hannah’s lovely little romantic novels and drinking Harney & Son’s Da Hong Pao Oolong tea. It really was a perfectly quiet me-moment (not easily come by sometimes) enhanced by that wonderful oolong tea. Such quietness, such peacefulness, and utter tranquil serenity. Sometimes the whole package (mood, setting, weather, activity (or lack thereof), warm tea, etc.) just strikes that perfect heart-warming note of complacency. And as a side note, the hero & heroine did get together by the end of the novel! Lovely!