Fun and FlirTea

Hey-yo! Here I am, typing this post away from merry old England! It has been quite a ride so far, to say the least.

It’s been difficult to find the focus I need for this first post of my adventures. Part of it is that many of my adventures so far have been within pubs and restaurants, not in tea shops. In fact, there has not been a single day on my trip so far that does not feature me in a pub having a few drinks. Literally.

I was interested to find, when wandering about London, that tea shops are not nearly as common as I had hoped. There were quite a few coffee shops, but most of those simply had a selection of bagged Twinings behind the counter, and I’ve already had plenty enough of that to be satisfied. To be fair, I hadn’t exactly done advance research into tea shops around London, so I was wandering blind.

I did go to the British Museum and, in the Japan section, found a really neat set of old tea tools and a mock-up tea room. They were very cool! (more…)

Next to black tea, green tea is a more recognizable tea in Western society. A lot of this derives from the health benefits that are touted of green teas. In fact, most scientific studies into the health benefits of tea utilize green tea as the focus. As a result, green tea drinking in the Western world has really been on the rise in recent years.

Of course, green tea is one of the most commonly consumed teas in China and Japan. From my own observations in China, nearly everyone walking around town would be touting a bottle of some sort filled with green tea (with the leaves visible in the bottle, no less). And if I went to a restaurant or cafe and requested tea, it would almost exclusively be green tea unless I requested something else in particular.

I’m not going to lie, I haven’t been much of a fan of green tea over the years. I always had a hard time getting past the distinctive grassy, oceany, vegetal flavor that is so common in green teas. Recently, I’ve come to appreciate this kind of flavor more, but I’m still in the beginning stages of coming to terms with it, if you will. It’s the other flavor profiles found in various green teas that have begun to hook me – an occasional nuttiness, bright crispness, and fresh sweet flavors.

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