Tea...and Sympathy

I have discovered that there are coffee people...and there are tea people. Then there is my friend, Melissa, who hates hot drinks of any kind. I used to be a "Diet Coke" people, but since I gave that up several years ago, I have had to join the ranks of coffee and tea drinkers in order to supply my caffeine fix. Mostly I have become a coffee drinker. This was an easy transition for me, since most of my friends and family are coffee drinkers. I already had all the "gear"--you know, coffee (two years old, but who cares, right?), a coffee pot, filters, milk and sugar to make it drinkable, etc.

As one drinks more and more coffee, and as one is introduced to more and more coffee drinkers, one becomes more and more picky about how coffee is made. I used to be a pre-ground, Kroger-brand, throw-a-little-milk-and-sugar-in-it-and-call-it-good coffee drinker. Now, I am a whole bean (purchased at the local coffee shop and ground just before brewing), half-and-half, filtered water, coffee drinker.

I am finding that the same thing is true for hot tea drinking. I have always thought that hot tea was okay. If people were drinking it, I would drink it. The thing I like about hot tea is that I can drink it without any sugar or cream in it--making it very "low-cal." And for years, I made hot tea the way I thought it was supposed to be made. Stick a teabag in a cup of water, put it in the microwave, and voila--hot tea.

Well...I have now met "tea drinkers." Specifically, Miss Betsie, owner of my daughter's dance studio. She "has tea" at her studio every day. And there is a PROCESS. First, you must boil water in a kettle. You then pour some of the hot water into the teapot (made of china) to warm the pot. You then fill the pot with boiling water and two Lipton teabags and set the teapot in its specially-made "tea cozy" for 5 or so minutes while the tea "brews." And guess what?? This process makes an AMAZING cup of tea! Oh, and this AMAZING cup of tea has to be poured into a teacup. Preferably a thin, china, teacup. No chunky, ceramic mugs for tea.

So now that I have "seen the light," I can't go back. I am now gathering "tea gear"--infusers, loose leaf teas, teacups and saucers, and most importantly--yummy chocolate "snacks" to have with the tea. Because you can't drink tea without some kind of yummy chocolate snack. I hope the 8 boxes of Girl Scout cookies that we have committed to purchasing will suffice for "yummy chocolate snacks."

Maybe I should have stayed with Diet Coke. It would have been much less complicated! Fountain?? Bottle?? Can??