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Friday, November 11, 2005

“Have a seat in the conference room. Can I get you anything?” I offered. “Coffee, tea, water?”
It was a standard enquiry. It was always coffee or water. I only offered tea for the principle of the thing.
But she took me up on it.
“What kind of tea do you have?” she asked, warily. I could see a look in her eyes I was all too familiar with. She wanted a cup of tea badly enough to ask, but she was dreading the standard response (“Uh…regular and decaf?”) and finding a way to get out of it afterwards (with a polite “Um…maybe just some water, thanks”).
I found myself in a sudden quandary. I had never been on this end before. What to say? It’s all right, I’ve got the good stuff; no store-brands here seemed a bit…blatant. I gave my standard reply and hoped it would be reassuring.
“Black, white, or green?”
Apprehension faded, replaced by confusion. What kind of office stocks so many…?
“I have a very good darjeeling,” I hinted. My newest find. Light but rich, medium-bodied, ever so slightly toasty, with a hint of muscatel.
“Okay,” she said, beginning to figure out that I, not the office, was the one with the stash, when my boss emerged and swept her away into the conference room with smiles and greetings and hand-shakes.
When I came in a few minutes later with a steaming mug, perfectly brewed, she smiled and me and said “Thank you” like she meant it, and I disappeared as discreetly as secretaries should, leaving only a tiny moment of shared leaves.
Posted by: TeaLizzy / 12:10 PM | 11 comments

11 Comments:

Beautiful, Sweetheart. Simply beautiful.

By Blogger Fr. A, at 12:46 PM, November 11, 2005  

And like what's wrong with Lipton?

Yeh, yeh, I know go sit in the corner...

:-(

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:41 PM, November 11, 2005  

Come out of the corner; it's a fair question.
I don't just turn my nose up at Lipton's because it's cheaper. It's simply that it's an inferior product. Start by looking at the side of your Lipton's box. Read the ingredients. What does it say? 'Tea', or, possibly, 'black tea.' To translate, 'CTC, machine-picked, lowest quality available.' And again, it's designed for iced tea. Now if what you're making is Southern sweet-tea (which is always iced), fire ahead. It's overbrewed, oversweetened, horrible stuff, and it tastes great. I love it. I just don't really count it as tea, same as I don't consider Kit-Kats or M&Ms chocolate. They're candy.
A good tea, on the other hand, will probably tell you (on the side of the box) something about itself: Ceylon, Darjeeling, Assam, etc. It will specify what type of tea it is, which is usually the name of its growing region, though not always. A good tea, well-blended, has body, astringency, considerable flavor, even a bouquet. Most wine-tasting terms apply. Lipton's, if I remember correctly, is thin-bodied, bitter, and ubiquitously overbrewed, though that says more about the type of drinkers it attracts than the tea itself.
I hope that answers your question. If you're still in the dark, I'd be happy to go into the processing and quality-sorting of tea, which would continue to clarify.

By Blogger TeaLizzy, at 11:20 AM, November 12, 2005  

And let me specify--I don't think people are vile for drinking Lipton's. Just undereducated. A little knowledge (and perhaps 25 cents more per box) will get you a much better cuppa.

By Blogger TeaLizzy, at 11:22 AM, November 12, 2005  

And suddenly a nice warm/hot cup of tea sounds like such a good idea!

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:35 PM, November 12, 2005  

Thanks for the info!

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:47 AM, November 13, 2005  

We have no coffee in our office. It's "would you like a nice cup of hot tea?" usually people look a little confused and refuse any, but once in a while I'll get a taker. "What kind of tea to you have?" Well, I have a lovely herbal tea that is the recipe the Empress of China used to serve to her guests (dioxin-free!) I have a red tea, and I have white tea. It's like green tea, but tastes better and is even better for you. I might be able to scrounge up some black tea (NOT LIPTON'S UNLESS I STOLE IT FROM A HOTEL ROOM)" ha ha. My boss LOVES my herbal tea (Long Life Original Blend) He does not care if I never make coffee again.

By Blogger Xana Ender, at 11:17 AM, November 14, 2005  

I don't do tea. Long live coffee! Or hot chocolate will do in a pinch.

By Blogger Jen, at 7:17 PM, November 15, 2005  

We love you anyway, Jen. You're that special.
Good job on converting your office, Alex! I'm still a little iffy on most herbals, though, I have to confess. They usually don't have the body or astringency I'm looking for. Maybe you can recommend some that do? The problem I've had lately is with rose hips. Everybody's wild about rose hips. I like them too, but enough is enough. Every Celestial Seasonings herb tea to come in the past couple years seems to be half rose hips. And then I'm allergic to chamomile. Given that, what would you suggest?
And, BTW, what is a dioxin, and why are they bad?

By Blogger TeaLizzy, at 7:55 PM, November 16, 2005  

"Dioxin is the scientific name of each of 2 non-toxic isomers...The most prominent congeners are the chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins because of their toxicity in animales and the Herculean efforts of some governments to eliminate their existence. The most feared of these is 2,3,7,8,-tetrachloridibenzo-p-dioxin, which is commonly referred to as 'dioxin'. First discovered by industrial scientists as an unwanted trace byproduct in an effectice defoliant, 'dioxin' was first thought to result only from anthropogenic activity. Recent evidence, however, strongly suggests it has also been produced naturally. For example, it is one of thousands of different molecules produced at ultra trace levels in a fire." - Warren B. Crummett

To make a short story long: dioxin is an industrial byproduct that the media has latched onto as a horrible poison (think Erin Brokovich kind of media) and Dow Chemical is in our district...yeah so the fact we have tea (that I've been drinking my whole life) that says it's dioxin-free is pretty funny. Dioxin was also what they gave that yugoslavian politician (or somewhere around there) remember that guy who was poisoned in an attempt to assassinate him or something? That story came out around last Christmas. Anyway, many funny dioxin anecdotes, but there ya go:-)

Too much information as always, and a little nerdy

By Blogger Xana Ender, at 9:01 AM, November 17, 2005  

So you're saying all tea is dioxin-free? Like labeling the package 'all natural'? Because, sure, you were going to add...um...preservatives to a dried leaf? Yeah.

By Blogger TeaLizzy, at 8:13 PM, November 20, 2005  

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