"Rufus T. Firefly" > wrote in message
m...
> How did everyone get interested in tea? Many of you have lived in
> Asia, but are not from Asia. Did your interest develop after you went
> to Asia? Why tea when the world is interested in coffee? (I,
> personally, have never liked coffee, but I envy those who do.) How do
> those around you view your fascination with tea (for those fascinated
> with tea)? Do they see it as eccentric? It is obviously not very
> eccentric when you're caught up in it, but I fear most people cannot
> understand this interest, regardless of where in the world one might
> be.
>
> Excitedly awaiting your stories,
>
> Rufus T. Firefly
> Tokyo

Funny you asked. I was thinking about just that a few days ago.

My mom was a coffee drinker and I never acquired the taste. Dad was the
Lipton-in-restaurants tea drinker. Both drank green tea in the
Chinese/Japanese/Korean restaurants that we frequented in Honolulu. I tried
the Lipton thing plain and with various combinations of milk, sugar, and
lemon. Bleah. A girl in my second grade class shared my birthday so I was
invited to her house for a party. They served Lipton iced tea - bleah. The
only tea I managed to enjoy while underage were the green teas served in the
various Asian restaurants.

When I was 19, an older female friend said that regular tea was too harsh
and recommended herbal teas, specifically catnip tea. That was fun. Later, I
got into chamomile but a co-worker said she hated looking at my cup because
she thought it looked like pee. A buddy's mom suggested Constant Comment and
that convinced me that black teas are drinkable. Although I don't
particularly favor it, CC prompted me to discover what's out there and I
have found that I enjoy Darjeeling, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Prince of
Wales, and Russian Caravan among the black teas as well as various green
teas.

Do others view my fascination with tea as eccentric? Considering that I
write with fountain pens, my drinking tea is simply par for the course.

--
~~Bluesea~~
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