Learning to drink hot tea

            I think I’m addicted to hot tea. But after I get my tea "fix" in the morning, I'm okay for the rest of the day, so maybe my addiction is not too bad. The interesting part of this story is how I got here. I tried harder than anyone to learn to drink hot tea. People are constantly drinking hot tea in movies and on television and it looks so appealing.

            My first encounter with hot tea was the Russian Tea recipe that was making its rounds in our area. Actually this "tea" is an imposter. In reality it's made of instant tea, lemonade mix and sugar. I stirred up this concoction and tried to tell myself I liked it. Finally I had to admit it was terrible.

            Still fascinated with the idea of sipping hot tea, especially on a cold winter's day, through the years I bought various teas and tried them. How do people get such pleasure from drinking tea? I asked myself. None of these caught my fancy. Finally my sister, Bette, brought me a zip lock bag filled with tea bags she had collected. Obviously she had been on the same quest.

            My first impulse was to pass them on to someone else. But after noticing that she had flavors I had not tried, I thought, no, I'm going give hot tea one last try. One by one I started trying them and tossing them. Sometimes I could get a whole cup down; other times only a taste convinced me this was not for me. Finally I tried Earl Grey. I found that I absolutely loved Earl Grey tea! I have been hooked ever since.

            Since I want to keep these blogs short, next time I'll tell you how I finally learned to brew a good cup of tea.