November 9, 2012

Fridays of Intestinal Fortitude: Liquid Courage

Note: Fridays of Intestinal Fortitude is a weekly(ish) feature about food, food and more FOOD. No, I am not an expert, but I do enjoy talking about food prep, cooking food, eating food and making sweet love to food.  Okay, maybe not the "sweet love" part. After all, this is not meant to be an homage to 9 1/2 Weeks.

Recipe Index can be found here. 
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Remember the tea kettle - it is always up to its neck in hot water, yet it still sings!  
~Author Unknown


A teacup from my Great-Grandmother Courtney's set.

For years, I have drunk herbal teas.  Rooibos is my favorite and I am still clinging to the last bits of a vanilla, lemongrass and rooibos mix that I cannot replace since my regular tea shop went out of the business.  In the past, I have never encountered a hot cup of black tea that I liked.  Oh sure, I've been brewing black loose leaf tea for years, but that was for my Chai-Spiced Iced Tea or to make a milky, Indian chai..... not for hot "White People" tea.  My past experiences have been that hot, black tea was bitter and gross.  Of course, upon reflection, I am remembering the tea I had tried was in bags and came without milk or sugar.

Teacup and teapot, both from the Brits shop in Lawrence, KS.  
The other side of that cup says "It's like no cheese I've ever tasted"  which makes this the BEST CUP EVER. Obviously.

However, I had a weird epiphany yesterday.  Why not try hot black tea with the loose leaves?  So, as a quick experiment, I boiled some water in my water kettle and measured out 2 teaspoons of loose leaf for my 16oz pot.  When the kettle whistled, I poured it over the loose leaves and let it steep for 5 minutes.  Then, I splashed some milk and a bit of sugar in and....... WOW.  That was AWESOME.     Milky....smooth.  And most certainly, not bitter.

Of course, I immediately went out to Facebook to share this life-changing discovery.  My friends made recommendation and I now have a variety of other teas to try (I cannot WAIT for my next trip to Brits).  Also, hands down, the best response to my revelation came from the lovely, yet highly sarcastic Faiqa:
I'm a little taken aback by your update. It would be like reading, "So, I took a spoonful of peanut butter and then, you're not going to believe this, but then I put *jelly* on the bread and it was FANTASTIC."
Yes, I will still drink coffee and maybe, this will just be a short-time fad.  Except, I really don't think so.  In the meantime, I am going to try drinking only tea for the next week.  And the very best part of this tea thing is that unlike coffee, I can have tea in the afternoon, or even  in the evening.  

So.... I guess I am a tea drinker now.   Maybe.  Probably.

Huh.

Bonus Tea Quote: 
Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, doesn't try it on.  
~Billy Connolly

I will never again look at a tea cozy the same.

3 comments:

Melanie said...

I miss tea, though I have to admit I am not a herbal tea fan, I would love to try it the "proper" way and I wonder if now that I've lost weight and reflux is less of a issue, if perhaps tea won't bug me now?

Unknown said...

Welcome to the club! Black tea with cream and sugar is my go to morning drink of choice. I recently got to visit a Trader Joe's and I picked up three boxes of their Mango Black Tea. Irish Breakfast is another favorite.

D. said...

Welcome to the club! It's actually kind of nice to be a coffee AND a tea drinker. Options are good. :)

I have to admit, though, the thought of milk and sugar in black tea makes me cringe (I'm sorry! It's the Chinese in me!), but to each his own! If you get a chance, try some loose-leaf Chinese Oolong teas (without cream or sugar). They're really quite lovely!