Interests: Tea

Tea-rrific...

To begin; a tea glossary

• Tea/Chai/Chai/Thayilai:

The leaves of Camellia siensis or Camellia assamica fermented for varying lengths of time to create different teas. Longest to shortest fermenting time: Black, Green then White.

• Tannins

An organic polyphenolic molecule found in many plant materials including the leaves for tea. It is released in brewing; the longer the tea is brewed, the more tannins are released. Tannins give tea a bitter taste.

• IMPORTANT Masala Chai:

Not to be called chai tea!! As you can see from the previous definition you would be you saying 'Tea tea' and that just sounds silly doesn't it...? Masala chai is a spiced tea which may contain cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamon, anise seed (imagine the tastes and smells of Christmas... now put that in a tea!)

• Rooibos/Red Bush Tea:

The leaves of Aspalathus linearis also fermented into tea. This tea is a naturally occurring decaffeinated tea. (Shop bought brand tea goes through a 'decaffeination' process.)

• Fruit/Herbal Infusions:

These are your camomile, mint, lemon and ginger, berry etc. "teas". They ARE NOT actually 'teas' because they do not contain tea leaves. You have been mislead, but, you will continue to call them teas (unless in the company of your tea-snobby friend) because when you say 'infusion' you sound like a right *insert relevant term here*

• Additions, to taste:

Lemon/milk (Earl grey should be taken with Lemon and not milk but if you take milk... well you should consider you life decisions very seriously!)
Honey? do do do do do do ah sugar Sugar? No thanks, I'm sweet enough.

Try something wild and crazy if you fancy you might find the right accoutrement for your tea in all manner of unusual places.

• Some may find a G&Tea quite exceptional
• A Chai Latte is a common occurrence with coffee shop chains (syrup in a coffee is not the same! Try  a teaspoon of loose leaf masala chai boil in a pan of water and milk - 200ml of each - add brown sugar and honey. Strain. Drink. Fall into a dreamy meadow of love)

Come in, I'll pop the kettle on...

When a friend comes round for a chat, natter, chin wag, you ask out of courtesy "would you like a drink?" I really don't know why we assume that our guest must be parched after their treacherous journey to your front door, but we do! It might go something like this...

You: "Tea, Coffee?"
Friend: Blank look, shakes headYou: "(... okay, what else can I offer) Herbal/fruit infusion, hot chocolate, squash/cordial, fresh juice...  (scrunches face) milk?"
Friend: Blank look, shakes headYou: (In head) Come on give me something here!! The dew from a rare mountain flower? The venom of a hydra? The blood of your enemies?!? What on Earth could you possibly want?Friend: "Just water is fine"
You: "Sparkling, bottled, mineral, filtered?"
Friend: "Tap water is fine"

I used to be that awkward 'Friend' not really a fan of anything:

• Hot chocolate is only okay sometimes
• I've been called "homeopathic" in my concentration of juice to water... Everyone makes squash/cordial too strong for me. Even fresh orange juice I dilute half and half!
• Herbal/fruit infusions were mildly flavoured hot water...
• Shamed by all of Great Britain, including my closest friends, for not liking tea. Damning me to the fires of Hell!
• Finding the taste of coffee repulsive... The coffee shop chains are just not something I can get behind.

You may refer to a casual meeting as "shall we discuss this over coffee" or a date may be "do you want to go for coffee?". My dad believed (as I did) that when you went for coffee, the coffee bit was essential. He, like I, did not like coffee; so when my parents were getting to know each other when my mum asked my dad to "go for coffee" he declined as he did not want actual coffee!

I have had many a friend try to get me into tea and my mum trying to get me into coffee but all failed until my current partner decided (because their blood is practically tea) that if our relationship was going to succeed I NEEDED to like at least one type of tea. At the beginning I knew about 'tea tea', decaffeinated tea, earl grey and herbal/fruit tea - though I was promptly corrected that they did not in fact contain tea leaves so therefore were not teas!

I began with masala chai, well no a cup landed in my hands at a little get-together with friends and I thought it rude not to drink it... It wasn't unpleasant but I wasn't sold. When the tea education began I had heard people suggest (from experience) "you learn to like tea, first, from a milky sugary brew!" I tried this and found it highly unpleasant. I don't like milky drinks at the best of times, mixed with this strange bitter brown fluid and sugar did not make it better! Then I heard "try honey!" honey, when completely saturating crumpets is the best thing on the planet! Otherwise it is just a sugary syrup to me, so this also did not help. People suggested "well what about fruit/herbal tea?" What, lightly flavoured water??? I eliminated the milk, sugar, honey and the barely palatable fruit/herbal teas and tried to match my partner with their black tea "as black as midnight on a moonless night"... NOPE! I was starting to feel the strength of our bond weakening.

Okay, I'm going to call 'masala chai' just 'chai' because that's a common occurrence in the western world. Don't go all crazy on me, you have been informed. So we tracked backward to the tea I liked (or rather didn't repulse), chai. We combined this with the milky sugary technique and landed at chai latte station! This was a happy and warm place to be, a yummy sweet milky tea, more savoury than a hot chocolate and less bitter that bog standard tea (mainly due to all that sugar AND honey...).

A "Blooming Marvellous" latte!

Suddenly a door was opened and I started inviting more teas into my life, first a Chinese white tea, then a delicious green tea from Eteaket in Edinburgh called 'Blooming Marvellous" and boy oh boy the name suits! Mint tea (infusion, I wasn't keen before), Earl Grey and black tea infused with fruit (lemon and orange). However after all this I have become a bit of a tea snob with my preference leaning toward loose leaf and being picky with my brands... For my Earl Grey and 'Lemon and Orange' tea I lean toward 'Taylors of Harrogate'. But yes I am a tea convert. A tea snob but a convert! I don't drink lots of tea and every so often the caffeine messes with my medication and I get all dizzy and wobbly, I have to take a hiatus from tea before I go back. But I do go back!

I still stand here not enjoying bog-standard/builders tea... I just don't like it. So now the tea/coffee question comes along I'm that awkward friend who likes tea but not the tea you've got... so "just tap water is fine thanks."

Hope you enjoyed,
Naomi xx