Saturday, January 14, 2012

The Real Meaning of Teabagging

For my mother's friends, teabagging has nothing to do with tea, A tea party, or THE tea party.  In fact, it is a very dirty expression.  One that I will not explain.  I will leave you to google to find out what teabagging means in this disgusting society in which we live in 2012.

This post, however, is about actual teabags from which I brew tea.

I like tea.  I have always liked tea.

Iced tea is great, but once I swore off powdered drinks in my teens, iced tea took on a new meaning.  Spending 4 years at Vanderbilt also hammered home just what iced tea really is and why they are so fond of sweet tea in the south (the kind with sugar as opposed to an iced tea which is cold tea with nothing).

For many years, I started my morning with just orange juice because I did not want to become addicted to coffee or tea.  I also did not like coffee and still often don't like it.

Tea, on the other hand, always pleased me.  But I did not drink it every morning.  I was really worried that it would stain my teeth.  I never want to be one of those old teachers with the brown stained teeth.  I don't want to use whitening formulas either.  Dont' get me started on the evils of teeth whitening.

So, I went tealess for most of my life.

And then my dentist laughed and assured me that tea would not stain my teeth.  WHAT?????  My tea ship had arrived.

So, I drink tea every morning.  Sometimes twice.  And often in the afternoon, if I am home. I am a tea purist, so I drink it with no sugar or milk.  I like the real taste of it.  And I'll leave the teabag in for the duration of my imbibing.

I also theorize that no one ever complains about tea breath.  Probably because tea drinkers usually don't use sugar or milk, both of which create mucus in the mouth which must be what adds to bad coffee breath.  I always think of tea as a way to break down bad smells in the mouth.

I became somewhat of a tea snob, when it comes to buying my own tea.  I have some favorite brands and types.  But, if I am at your house and you say you have tea, and then you open the cabinet and your brands are nothing like my brands, I will still find something to enjoy.  Unless it is vanilla flavored.  That's a deal breaker because, as I've mentioned before, fake vanilla smells like dirty feet.

I'm not picky about tea in anyone else's house.  Pretty much, if it looks like dried leaves, I'll brew it and see what I think.  In my sister a-ster's house, I put dried tea leaves in a strainer and put the strainer in my mug and pour the water over it.  The leaves still manage to escape a little, but I don't care.  Somehow I think it's really funny to make tea like that.  I should get her a tea ball.   I'm sure the British are rolling their eyes at the shenanigans I am describing as "drinking tea".

Anyway,  in my own house, here's the current collection of teas:







It would seem the Tazo family and the Republic of Tea reign supreme around here.  I like them all, though I usually start the day with Tazo Awake.

Despite the theories that the decaffeination process actually uses chemicals that will kill us and we'll wish we just drank it regular and stayed up all night, I did get some decaf because I was going for my physical and I thought having decaf that day might help keep my blood pressure where it should be.  (it must have worked) Plus, sometimes I like the taste of tea but it's too late at night to have real tea.

For a while, I tried buying loose tea and putting it in a cute teaball that had a cute lady bug hanging off of it.  But I just didn't love it.

Recently, someone brought me a cup of black tea from Dunkin Donuts.  It was probably good old Red Rose or Lipton tea.  And you know what?  That was one of the best teas I've had in I don't know how long.

Forget organic tea, tea tips, Irish tea, Scottish tea, English tea, sleeping tea, calming tea.  I just wanted the taste of crappy old Lipton tea.


So I had to go out and buy myself a box.  It was $1.19.  Far cheaper than any of the brands above.  Probably grown in China in a former meth lab and harvested by 3 year old child slave workers.  But it sure tasted good.

Believe me, if you think I'm hard to figure out, you're not alone. I spend a good portion of my days trying to explain myself to myself and I'll never figure me out, so just stop trying and enjoy my blog anyway!


1 comment:

  1. I have tea ball. And two infusers. I did live in Seattle for a decade or so ;)

    It's just that lately I make a big pot of tea and just use a strainer for my cup. I don't drink tea every day, but when I do it's an all afternoon deal. So I keep the loose tea and tea bags (I mix and match) in the pot of water where it's easy to reheat. Then I pour what I want through the strainer into my cup.

    If nothing else, this post makes it sound like the majority of our family has at least one issue with tea.

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