I may not be able to get to my favorite tea shop for a week or so because I have someone who wants to buy my car tomorrow.
This is a good thing and will lift the burden caused by medical bills off my back.
I’ll find an inexpensive old car to hobble around in and be OK.
In the mean time, off I went to HAPPY LUCKY’S to be HAPPY with some
TEA!
It was just my luck that 3 of my favorite tea server friends were there at the same time! It wasn’t too busy in the shop, so it was like a party for me (maybe not for them though)!
I don’t think the people who work at Happy Lucky’s know just how much they mean to me and other customers as well.
While I was sitting at the bar watching customers wander in and out ordering tea, I noticed a regular customer that I had seen before who comes in for a daily matcha. Andy vigorously whisks the matcha powder with concentration and care until it froths to the perfect consistency…then hands the foamy bowl over and it’s gone in three or four splendid gulps.
Another young woman was matched with a custom Chai Latte…just for her (my server friend laughed and commented to me how he loves to pick out the right tea for the right person).
It was Andy who stood at the tea wall with me today while I sniffed tins of green tea. I picked the most expensive one. It smelled so savory.
He said, “Try the Lu An Gua Pian, it tastes almost the same and costs less…and I like it a lot myself.”
I picked up the tin to sniff and thought it smelled quite similar to the first tea but was just a darker pine green color.
I decided to go with his suggestion and ordered a clay pot full of tea.
When Andy took the basket out of the pot and presented the wet leaves they smelled so good. I kept saying that they smelled like lunch. I know that sounds stupid, but they smelled like something you’d want to eat. SAVORY and salty bright dark green leaves so vegital and spinachy, green bean, artichoke, blah, blah, blah…good that you think of it as a meal!
I took a sip of tea and before the liquor hit my mouth I could taste it from the savory scent. Oh, it was so good! Wet and juicy too! The tea was light and salty but never bitter or acidic.
As the pot of tea cooled down, the feel of the tea became a little dry on the tongue but never bitter or astringent. The aftertaste lingered for a long while. That is as it should be.
Much later, I added a little raw sugar before the pot was empty and the tea was delightful and enchanted with the kind of taste you get from anything you do in a culinary way with sweet and savory dishes. Yum, Yum, Yum!
This was a great pot of afternoon tea.
As I was leaving the shop. I made a comment about how grateful I am.
It wasn’t missed.
I was about to open the door and I heard,
“Thanks for reminding us to be grateful Bonnie, we need to be mindful of that every day.”
(Little do they know that it’s they that made me mindful of being grateful at that moment… by their kindness)
