What's Your Wake-up Brew?
For me, it's all about that tea
Tea is the magic key to the vault where my brain is kept.― Frances Hardinge
A version of this post originally appeared in January 2022.
I've been a tea drinker most of my adult life. Growing up in the South, it's part of your DNA. Especially when you grow up in a teetotaler household. There's a reason they call it that! Initially it was iced tea, of course. Over time, I cultivated a taste for a hot morning beverage as well.
For whatever reason, I just never did get on board with drinking coffee. If you don't drink coffee, that leaves your choice of hot morning beverage somewhat restricted. Hence the tea. I used to just microwave a cup of iced tea, like a savage. Then I progressed to dunking a tea bag into some hot water (didn't even have to be boiling). I'm ashamed to admit that actually passed for 'brewing tea' in my youth. And yes, I was that girl walking around with a tea bag dangling out of my cup. Mea culpa.
But something happened along the way. I have a sort of ADHD, 'ooh, shiny' thing going on. I'm a sampler. I love to try new things and learn all about them. Get into the weeds. Down the rabbit hole. Years ago, it was about wine. I wanted to go all Sideways, but I just didn't have the nose for it. Then when the craft beer craze came along, yep, I was that girl who loved perusing the menu at my favorite watering hole to see what crazy new concoction was on tap. Those hobbies went by the wayside when I gave up booze.
One day as I was watching Jean Luc Picard order an "Earl Grey, hot", I decided right then and there I needed to branch out from the generic store brand bulk tea bags and see what else was on offer in the wide world of tea.
People, I have barely begun to scratch the surface.
There are so many options! You've got the bagged and the loose. Caff and decaf. The black and the green and the white. The oolong and the assam and the lapsang souchong. The chai. The matcha. The big name producers and the mom-and-pop artisinals. And that doesn't even begin to touch the teas that are made from something other than the camellia sinensis plant. It's glorious.
Camellia sinensis is the scientific name of the plant most teas are made from. And yes, it is related to the camellia plant we think of mainly for its flowers. The Camellia part is meant to honor a botanist by the name of Kamel; and the sinensis indicates it is from what is now China. You can make tea out of just about any plant, though. And you can use the other parts of the plant, not just the leaves. As an experiment a few years ago, I let the Texas dandelions grow wild in my back yard. I harvested them for salad, and brewed up a little tea with them as well. It wasn't terrible.
It's also easy to get overwhelmed. I've come up with a system. I have a specific tea assigned for each morning of the week. Then I hold a tasting competition; a Tea Olympics, if you will. I sample various teas. On whims, on recommendations, on throwing a dart. No Tea Day is guaranteed. Any tea can lose their spot at any time. If I find a tea that I love love LOVE more than one of those on my schedule, the gold medal winner gets the spot, and the silver/bronze/loser is relegated to the Wild West of my afternoon rotation, where anything goes.
My daily morning menu:
Monday: Earl Grey (EG is sorta grandfathered/Picarded in)
Tuesday: Yorkshire/Yorkshire Gold (I learned of the latter via Jane Friedman's blog - see below)
Wednesday: Scottish Breakfast
Thursday: English Breakfast
Friday: Irish Breakfast
Saturday: Darjeeling
Sunday: a Free Day so I can keep trying new flavors
As you can see, I'm up to my eyeballs in tea. I drink it pretty much all day long. And yes, I intersperse with plain old H2O, in case you are worried about my hydration status.
I would love to hear your recommendations. Competition helps keep these teas on their tea toes, so to speak. Any and all newcomers welcome. Let's hear those recs!
I will leave you with three things:
I mentioned I learned about Yorkshire Gold via Jane Friedman's blog, which is kinda weird, because Jane's blog is first and foremost about writing. But recently she also polls her followers about all kinds of interesting topics. Here's the full article with lots of other tea recs. This is probably where I heard about assam, and I have tried a couple of the Harney's here also. How could I resist a tea named Victorian London Fog?
This is a fascinating article about the Jeff Bezos of drug dealers. It amused me that he sometimes smuggled his illicit cargo in green tea packaging. Kinda ironic when green tea, in fact lots of teas in general, are supposed to be so healthy. Drug Bezos must have a sense of humor.
There are so many wonderful craft/artisinal tea companies out there. I really enjoyed sampling the teas from August Uncommon, especially their Silencio. My writer friend Dan alerted me to a shop he recommends in Pittsburgh called Prestogeorge. They are known for their coffee, but they have tea also. Haven't had a chance to try them yet. Stay tuned!
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Another tea drinker here! I usually have English or Scottish breakfast, but also chai, matcha, and various herbal teas. A company called T2 have some nice tea varieties and I bought some of their colourful teaware too in the past. Some of their loose leaf teas look a bit like potpourri! You've reminded me that I wanted to try the Egyptian blue lotus flower tea, but haven't got round to buying it yet. I've heard that some really special tea brews can cost thousands. Have also had a go at making my own using fireweed (Rosebay Willowherb) which grows everywhere. You can either ferment or dry the leaves depending on whether you want to make a black tea or a green tea. The Russians used to do this before Chinese and Indian teas took over.
I am also a tear person first thing in the morning (English mum), but I do drink one coffee as well later in the morning. Like you, I prefer Yorkshire and Earl Grey. Most coffee houses only carry English breakfast for their black tea. I do love a good London Fog at a tea house. I secretly believe that so many Brits live to such a ripe old age because of all the tea they drink.