Tea Blog

Before we begin, let me caution you that the behavior described below is not at all what’s expected of a Tea Princess. For all of you Tea Princesses and Princes out there, all I can say is that I promise it won’t happen again. Well, not any time soon, at least. On with the story.

You’d think that in one’s adult years, throwing tantrums would be a faded thing of the past. After all, it’s one thing for a young child to lie on the floor kicking and screaming or to run in a circle yelling “I won’t! I won’t! I won’t!” However, extreme provocation can evoke such reactions in even the most refined and dignified Tea Princess. In my own defense, I would say that the provocation was extreme times a million. In a word: teabag!!!

Yes, someone had dared to serve me a cup of barely hot water with a string-and-tag teabag wallowing around in it like some fish in one of those glass bowls that people keep on a table to taunt their cat.

Now, when a waitress comes to your table in a restaurant and asks “What would you like to drink?” and you reply “Hot tea, please,” and if you are a Tea Princess, the expectation is probably that you will get something resembling … well … tea! Perhaps this seems a bit unreasonable to some of you, but the Tea Princesses and Princes out there will know exactly what I mean. We anticipate a selection of teas, hopefully at least a few without all the bits of fruits and flower petals and spices many have added in to them. We expect the teas to be infused, if not the ideal of loose in the teapot, at least in an infuser basket or even a T-sac or filter bag. We expect the water to be heated to the proper temperature for the tea we’ve selected (no boiling water for the greens and whites, please). We expect a decent teacup, preferably the kind that comes with a saucer so we have somewhere to put our teaspoon, and a choice of sweeteners and, if desired, real milk (not that powdered stuff).

Do we expect too much? Apparently yes, for most restaurants fall far short of these expectations. But a stale string-and-tag teabag … now really, that’s just too much! The words came pouring out of me of their own accord.

“Are you kidding me? You call this tea? This was tea about a century ago, but now it’s something my dust buster can suck up in a few seconds. Forget the tea. Just take all this stuff away somewhere and bring me a cup of warm water.”

Too harsh? Sigh! (I left the server an extra generous tip.)

Upon reflection, I have only myself to blame. After all, it was a restaurant, not my own cozy kitchen with my hubby dearest ready to meet my every Tea Princess tea wish.

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