LOL. When I was a preteen in the mid-seventies, I wanted to be part of
the Asian tea culture, thanks to the sixth grade social studies unit on
Japan and the "Kung Fu" TV series. No, I did not steal this from Mark
Salzman's autobiography "Lost in Place," although I was surprised to
find someone with such similar experiences.

Anyway, I knew I needed something more exotic than Lipton, so I made my
mom buy me a package of Swee Touch Nee, the "aristocrat of teas." When
I was growing up, tea meant instant tea, and tea in tea bags was a *big
deal.* I still wasn't old enough to boil water on my own so it didn't
go very far... At this same time, my homeroom teacher was a big time
tea fancier and had bags of Twinings in such varieties as Lapsang
Souchong, Oolong, and darjeeling. I would occasionally filch these and
use the water from her electric kettle. She must have known; I was the
only student bizarre enough to do it, and this stuff was expensive and
simply didn't appear in mainstream supermarkets. So I'd like to give
her a shout out...

I still buy Swee Touch Nee when it's on sale and nothing better is
available.


David M. Harris wrote:
> My father's family was from Russia, and he drank tea all the time. (Not
> just every morning, but all day long.) But he didn't much care what
> kind of tea it was, as long as it was hot and wet and brownish. (His
> tea of choice was Swee-Touch-Nee, with lemon.) I recognized it as an
> option, but not a favorite.
>
>