from:

Acquired Taste Tea Co.

In a commodious, yet intimate tea shop two women are sipping tea and having a conversation:

"I read that the Queen of England has her own blend of tea... I wonder how it tastes."

"It's a black tea. A traditional Chinese black afternoon tea blend. But Queen Elizabeth isn't the only one with her own blend. Many people have them. You can design your own... Start by thinking of teas that you already like..."

"I had a cup of tea at the Empress Hotel once that I remember as perfect…”

"It was probably black... a black tea. Canadians are particularly partial to black teas, a predilection inherited from the British..."

"And along with it, all the British pretensions of status..."

"True. The rituals of black tea are closely tied to status. When it was first available in Europe, the British upper class claimed it exclusively for themselves, saying the lower classes were not entitled . Of course these days everybody tries whatever they want. And as different people adopt different blends, the rituals change and grow and become very personal property.”

“That's what happened at home... Just put on a big pot of tea and let me sit down with my family. We cry and laugh and we solve our problems... We would leave the pot on the stove all day. I grew up in Edmonton, and it was just the way. “

“Tea gets a pleasing flavour when it's brewed all day. It’s always there to give calm to the moments between laundry and cooking dinner and to lubricate any conversation that might arise."

"For me, conversation is the best ritual attached to tea. Doesn't seem to matter if it's inner dialogue or conversation with a friend... meaningful discourse is the cream filling of any day... goes down nicely with a spot of tea."

Both proprietor and friend take a long sip of the blend they are drinking. They smile at the musician who enters the shop and sets up his tall stool in front of the window.

Anna, will you tell me another story about one of the teas on your shelf…”

ANCIENT DRINK.   

"The plants were originally found in India but brought back to and cultivated in China and then beloved by the rest of the world as soon as it became known.  "So rare and so precious in the beginning, tea was more valuable than gold.

It was currency for centuries, traded in the north, for example, for Mongolian horses over the Great Wall of China.

"It was the Dutch who first brought it back to Europe in the 1600s, and although it was embraced by many cultures, the British took to it with particular enthusiasm and thus began a bloody set of dealings between East and West. Black tea was at the root of the Opium Wars (as the British had traded opium for it) in the 1700s and then when then when the Brits were expelled from China, tea was cultivated in India, which puts me in mind of particular blend called Russian Caravan. You’re looking quizzically at me now because you don't get the connection, but it's simple... 

To get tea from southern India to Europe, it was packed in dense bricks  and taken by camel, north to Russia from whence it was further distributed. The bricks were impervious to moisture, but not smoke. The tea took on a delicious smoky flavour as the camels stood close to the fires of their masters in an effort to get warm on the cold nights of their 18 month journey.  The flavour became so popular that tea sellers of today go to great lengths to duplicate it, so you can still taste those long nights on the camel caravans so long ago. 

IS SO PURE

you can taste the air and the soil where they were grown. The simple but important wilting and drying process preserves every natural influence as a subtle nuance in taste. With names like Golden Monkey and Dragon Pearls, they are as rich in lore as they are in natural flavour. The dragon tea is named for the slow moving picture of the Chinese tea pickers as they zigzag their way upwards to the fine and rare teas that thrive in mountainous geography. The pickers resemble the undulating scales on the spine of a waking mountain

of dragon.                  The monkey has a story of its own.

In North America there are few who know these stories and traditions because, thus far, green and white teas have made their way into our cups primarily on the merit of their physical properties, which is a bit of a shame really. It's true, they're full of anti-oxidants, yes... but I believe the most healthful effects of these teas comes in the comfort and calmness of the preparation and the soothing contemplation in the act of sipping it. The brewing is mesmerizing. We lose our daily troubles momentarily in the floaty, spinning leaves and see our thoughts reflected in the luminous gold liquid." 

ON THE TEA SPECTRUM

about halfway between black and green. Oolongs taste like fruit and flowers with undertones of richer flavours like orange and lotus. They are so robust.

"The depth of their flavour is found in the tea pot. Oolong is best brewed in traditional unglazed clay tea pots shaped like animals, trees, fruit... anything from nature. They are created by artists in China to hold just one tea, one blend of Oolong for the life of the pot. The clay holds the essence of the blend and contributes to its earthy depths. Each pot, each blend, and every combination of the two is unique. So for the tea drinker it is a very personal expression... in which a part of nature literally embodies the spirit of the tea. It becomes a project over time. If you take care, the tea pot will eventually give back the tea without using the leaves. My favourite blend is Goddess of Mercy. I brew it in a little pot shaped like two birds. I pour the tea into my cup through their open beaks. It is pure delight every time." 

endowed Rooibos 

with such magical, cure-all qualities that this humble traditional South African tea has taken on almost mythical proportions. Like other teas, the effects are more likely the result of healthy ritual and self-fulfilling prophecy than magical ingredients. "Much of the benefit comes, I think, simply from drinking more fluids. Also people feel good when they take time, either at work or at home, to spend on themselves, doing something that pleases them. Even the ritual of coming into the store to pick just the right blend has a positive effect in that people find exactly what they seek.

"In South Africa Rooibos tea enjoys no such exalted status yet it has been pervasive throughout the sun-steeped land for centuries. I believe this is because the tea actually is magic, just as we suspected... but the magic is in the promise and the flavour, rather than the chemical composition. Rooibos has no caffeine and shares other similarities with herbal teas, but the flavour is another story entirely. Stronger, richer and deeper than herbals Rooibos is, well... full, round, complete. It takes only a few sips to taste what I mean."

AN AMERICAN

invention born of necessity from a misunderstood British tax imposed on imported tea in 1773. At that time, importing from the British was the only way to get tea in the American colonies. So, these delightful non-caffeinated potions were developed as a result of the same thinking that lead to the Boston Tea Party. And, they also became instrumental in the emancipation of American women.

"Because Americans saw the as unreasonable, they refused to drink the imported tea; they even threw 10,000 pounds worth into the Boston harbor in protest.  But the hot, comforting drink and the ceremony surrounding it had become so important (to women especially) that even though they had effectively cut off their only supply, they could not go without. Tea was at the centre of a ritual that allowed women to commune, to ponder and to plan action, something they had not experienced in the past.

"First they tried to grow their own tea plantations but weather, geography and labour issues were too formidable. Then, perhaps looking at what Natives had done, they gathered flowers  and grasses, bushes and berries and brewed them up to replace tea. But the concoctions were so tea-like, they immediately became a perfectly acceptable version of tea. So, women again had a reason to meet and organize; and so popular did it become that tea salons sprung up throughout the colonies. It was in these salons that women planned and eventually claimed the right to vote in 1921."