I’m out of Oolong!!!

I went to make Tea on Saturday and realized – I’m out of Oolong!

And Darjeeling, and Russian Caravan, Nilgiri Blue, Snow Monkey Plum – – and my stock of Lapsang Souchong is dangerously low. I had to suck down some Lady Grey just to keep from getting the shakes.

Thank heaven the Northwest Tea Festival is coming up, October 6th & 7th, at the Seattle Center in the Fisher Plaza (obvious plug).

I use it to not only stock up for the Winter, but to find new teas and tea blends, hang out with tea drinking people, buy tea cups, and in general have myself a tea-sippin’ good time. It becons the start of Fall for me now, to have the Tea Festival, load up for the coming Winter months. They always have some lovely blends that bring the holiday/chilly season into mind. Autumn blend, various Christmas blends, Thanksgiving-inspired teas that smell wonderfully of cinnamon, pumpkin and spices. My sister likes the blends the best, and some of the really fruity herbals.

There’s one, Raspberry Hybiscus, that I have to admit I really like. It turns your tea water blood-red and tastes light and sweet. Me, I prefer the blacks – teas that will put hair on your chest, except that I’m a girl and that metaphor is really silly.

I love Lapsang, Darjeeling, Russian Caravan … anything deep and dark and smokey. And no, I don’t add milk to my tea. Whaddaya think I am, a wuss?

One thing I don’t care for is Pur-eh. True Pur-eh is horse shit. Literally. It’s tea leaves that are fermented in a pile of horse manure. It even looks like horse shit, compacted, like the stuff you dig out of your horse’s hoof with a pick. Then it’s bricked, sold at ridiculously high prices, and if you know what you’re doing and can afford it, that one brick will last you for years and years. Mostly because it’s a tea that tastes like horse shit, but also because you paid a few thousand for one brick and you’re not going to just serve it up to anyone.

There are “fake” Pur-eh’s out there. Loads of folk think Pur-eh is just tea-talk for herbal tea, or even green tea. Those people aren’t tea drinkers.

I think I might be a tea snob.

Granted, I mock those who drink green tea, because it isn’t tea. And I quietly question the people who drink ONLY herbals, but if they’re avoiding caffiene for medical reasons, well then it’s rude of me. I don’t believe tea drinkers are superior to coffee drinkers, because I’m a coffee snob, too.

I’m just a grumpy snob today. Yesterday, I caught a neighborhood kid tossing a piece of trash into my yard. Saw him do it. I managed to run outside, grab the brat, shoved the trash back into his hands and told him to stop throwing trash into other people’s yards. I must have startled him, because he took the trash, said “okay” and walked up the block with it.

I gotta say, I fumed about that for an hour. Damn snot. See, the little shits get off the school bus right in front of my house every day, and sometimes they have nothing better to do than draw on my mailbox with their crayons. I’d march them straight to their parents if I could ever catch one doing it, but I work during the day.

Besides, any parent who would raise a kid with that lack of respect isn’t going to be much better themselves.

Why, in MY day ….. kids showed respect …. elders were called Sir and Ma’am ….. uphill in the snow … barefoot …. both ways …. and grateful for it !

Wait, this was about Tea …

Oh yeah, I’m all out of Oolong. Ooh, but I do still have a quarter tin of loose leaf Hojicha !