"steeping" news and stories

When I first began to dabble in green tea, I absolutely hated it. It was bitter, drying to the mouth, wretched taste, and I was left for a long time feeling that green tea just wasn't for me. Many people I knew who drank black tea felt the same way, so I concluded that green tea was for the few who had the palette for it.

Of course, this was during a time when the only other tea drinkers I knew were buying Bigelow or Lipton bags and, like myself, just throwing them in some boiling hot water and coming back whenever we remembered to take the bag out, squeezing the bag thoroughly to get the last drops into the cup.

I shudder these days when I think about how badly I was scalding my first attempts at green tea, and I marvel that I enjoyed any tea at all, considering the way in which I was preparing it. This is a predicament many novice tea drinkers find themselves when it comes to anything other than black tea: you're scalding (and probably over-steeping it).

I am addicted to tea, but I don't drink it during the summer. I know, I know, there are many that will tell you - particularly in England, I bet - that drinking tea year round is not only the right way to do it, but really the only civilzed thing to do. I hear that, but it's just too hot and humid for me here in Massachusetts during the months of June, July, and August to drink anything hot. I also think it's a bit of defiance: I truly hate summer (no joke), and when fall rolls around I truly get a lot happier, so I think that I stop drinking tea not just because it's too hot to drink it in the summer, but also because I want to have something that, for me, marks the beginning of cooler temps.

And now that week has come! Starting September 1, I'm going to start drinking tea again. Sure, summer is not "officially" over yet, but Labor Day always marks the end of the summer for me. Besides, while it's not cold yet, there's been a definite shift in the temperature here. Not nearly as humid. You can feel it in the air. So, tea is back for me.

I know, this isn't exactly the type of news you'd see on the news crawl on CNN, but I thought I'd share.