Damn you, expensive tea!

In honour of the fact that I had to dig my car out from what the news is saying was 11 cm of snow this morning -- and not a warm morning either -- today's pointless photo features apple blossoms.

I miss apple blossoms.

And I hate that my brain automatically decides on an Andrews Sisters earworm every time that I type apple blossoms...

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Ok, before I really get into this you should know that I'm not a coffee drinker. Never have been, never will be. I've never been to Starbucks, and I've never debated over the vast selection of K Cups that seem to be everywhere these days (incidentally, and not to be preachy, but people do realise that all those little plastic cups aren't biodegradable, right? My office mate was on a bit of a rant about them this morning). I've missed the fad, but I have a lot more money in my bank account because of it.

I am, however, a tea drinker.

Not in a several pots a day kind of way, but if I know I'm going to be at my desk all morning I'll have my insulated mug's worth of tea made. I guess that would equal about two standard cups of tea, but it's all I'll have for the day. Not that more would be a problem or anything. I'm just trying to give you an idea of the consumption here.

Now, I'll admit to being a semi tea snob. Semi in that I'll happily use bags if that's what's available and I'm not about to sit in a coffee bar ordering the fanciest, fussiest serving of perfect chai that anyone's ever heard of. Given my druthers, though, I'll use loose tea and not-quite-boiling water whenever possible.

Um, the boiling thing? Most teas, especially the cheaper teas in tea bags, don't do well with water that's too hot. It can make them more bitter.

The world of loose teas can be a dangerous thing, you know. Bigger range of flavours, actual identifiable tea leaves instead of the near dust in bags, and varieties that are hard to find in grocery stores. Like Darjeeling.

There's my downfall. I'm not a huge fan of Orange Pekoe or Earl Grey, but as an everyday tea I really like Darjeeling. There was a time when you could find Darjeeling in some of the grocery stores and I'd happily buy that (yes, even in bags), but it's a rarity nowadays. That means that a trip to the specialty store to satisfy my Darjeeling craving, and that, as I said before, is dangerous. For one thing, you never buy just the Darjeeling when you make the trip. It's Darjeeling and... well, maybe I should try a bit of this. Oh, and what have they made up to sample today? It's pretty good.. I'll just get a little of that, too.

And the Darjeeling?

There's a choice of Darjeelings. Darjeelings, plural. Yay Darjeelings. I should just get the standard stuff, but I wonder what makes this one so expensive? Do I want to smell it? Sure, why not?

Hmm.

Ok, I'll try that one this time. But just this time. Next time, it's back to the Darjeeling that costs half as much.



Yep. That's how I ended up with the stupidly expensive Darjeeling a while ago. I'm not even going to tell you what kind of Darjeeling, because if I do and you look it up and find out just how expensive it is you'll be saying you paid THAT MUCH for tea???

I did.

It's good.

It's better than good.

And I'm almost out.





Sigh.

Ah well. What with Christmas coming and all, I may -- just may -- be able to convince myself that I should use up some of my other tea before hearing the siren song of the stupidly expensive Darjeeling.

Maybe.

Just maybe.

Even if it's really good.



Dammit. It's not going to work, is it?

Sigh.