Tea is sublime

I am not a daily tea-drinker, but I truly enjoy a cuppa now and then. A couple years ago, I discovered white tea, which contains leaves picked in their early fuzzy-white stage (see pic). One hot cup of that type of tea has enough mellow flavour and aroma to fill my entire morning with pleasure; and not caffeinated pleasure, since white tea contains less than one-quarter the caffeine of black coffee. I tell everyone I know who drinks tea that they must try white tea, and not just for its sublime flavour, but it may have cold-fighting properties too: it's full of antioxidants and anti-viral chemicals.
When I was growing up, all we drank in Nova Scotia was Red Rose Tea, which is perfectly fine for an orange pekoe (a grade of tea, which I only discovered while surfing a little in order to write this blog), and it's a Maritime company, so that was good too, supporting local businesses and all. Oh, and we drank many herbal teas, which I don't really favour. I drank the occasional cup of tea to be sociable at functions and gatherings, but I was far from a tea-lover. Not until I moved to another province did I learn that black tea was available in various flavours and configurations; after trying my first cup of Earl Grey, I was hooked. The scent and flavour of bergamot raise tea to a whole new level. Another bergamot tea is Lady Grey, a kinder, gentler version of Earl Grey and a trademark of Twinings, which is completely worth the extra money to buy a brand-name tea. Lady Grey is downright impressive at an afternoon sandwich luncheon ... Red Rose who?
And to my surprise, different teas at different times of the day do make for a nice change: try English Breakfast or my favourite early-morning brew, Irish Breakfast, upon awakening. Irish Breakfast blend normally uses Indian tea, instead of Chinese tea, which is a distinction in the major region of the world the tea originated and also in the size of the leaves, even though they both come from the same basic tree. People describe Irish Breakfast tea as having "malty" flavours, and I agree that it is a substantial drink with which to start your day, a wake-me-up tea, like a strong cup of coffee.
I usually drink my tea black, but sometimes with a bit of sugar, or a squeeze of lemon juice, or occasionally a dollop of honey; never milk for me, since I'm not a big milk-drinker. White tea never needs sugar or honey because its delicate flavour profile holds a natural sweetness.
Bagged teas are perfectly fine for my palate and my budget; if I had all the time in the world and an inclination to wash many accoutrements, I would indulge in the complete tea-ceremony with the loose leaves and the steeper and the warmed pot, etc., etc., on a regular basis. Loose tea brewed with care actually does taste so much better than bagged tea that it's really hard to describe, but I'm a tea-lover, not a tea-snob, so I enjoy them all. Except, I find green tea too astringent and prefer not to drink it, unless it is flavoured with ginger or some other strong-aroma ingredient.
I only recently tried chai tea, which is very spicy and rather FUN, all caps. I will likely savour that type of tea rarely, since I enjoy the actual flavour of the black tea leaves so much on their own.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention jasmine tea: the world would definitely be a sad, empty place without jasmine tea.
I've managed to fill an entire blog entry about tea; I hope that my enthusiasm for this drink has come through in this writing. One quick mention about tea as a commodity, though: while it's not currently on my list of socially responsible shopping choices, fair trade tea should probably make it on there in the near future. The list is long, that guilt-list subscribed to by all the people who want commerce to be fair in this globalized world. Imagine that! I'll have to look into it a little more, and I'll let you know when I do decide to put tea on my personal list, because then I'll have some actual tea brands to recommend, not just tea types.