Everyday tea basics + holiday tea

Tea is a pretty serious business for me. I don't even know how much I drink - I think I average a 12 ounce mug every hour for the first half of the day and then every two hours after that.

{saturday afternoon tea}

For everyday, I drink plain black tea, bagged or loose leaf, depending on how convenient I need it to be. Start with fresh, boiling water. Steep for 4 - 5 minutes, until the tea is fairly dark. Absolutely no sugar, but I do take milk. Never, ever add the milk until the tea is completely finished brewing. If I'm going to drink my tea sans milk, I'll usually cut a little bit of time off the brewing, so it isn't quite so dark. Skimp too much and you'll think you're drinking ditch water - lightly colored and tasting vaguely of twigs.

I'm partial to the Lipton Yellow Label tea, which is very basic but strong. I get it from the local Indian grocery store, but you can also order it online. It isn't the same as the Lipton you see in most grocery stores, even though they both come in a yellow box. Confusing, I know. As a more expensive (but more readily available) back up, I like the Tazo Awake. Of course, I think that if you start with hot enough water and brew it properly, you can get a drinkable cup of tea out of an offbrand tea bag that expired years ago (desperate situations and all that).

For the holidays, I step it up a little ...

{harney and sons white christmas and holiday tea}

Holiday tea is a sort of sacred ritual for me. It's black tea with some spices and citrus and just the smell is enough to make me feel a little calmer. I make it even more indulgent by using real cream rather than my usual milk.

I like to pick up the custom holiday tea blend from the tea shop in my old college town (Bamboo Tea House in Claremont, for locals) but I didn't make it this year. Harney and Sons Holiday Tea is an excellent alternative - good black tea with spices. I fully admit that I also purchased the White Christmas tea solely because I loved the tin. I promise I'll actually try it out and report back.

I had a little bit of a meltdown on Saturday when I realized that one of my nemeses*, the FedEx ground delivery guy, hadn't bothered to buzz me to come down and sign for the package of tea, but had instead just decided to leave a note and redeliver on Tuesday. I was really, really looking forward to that tea. And now I'm finally enjoying it.

{writing thank you notes, holiday tea, previously}

* The plural makes it sound worse than it is - I really only have two nemeses. The FedEx ground delivery guy who consistently fails to deliver or misdelivers packages, and the senior checker at the Santa Monica Michael's, who sneakily manages to be unbelievably rude but never when anyone I know is around to witness it, thus doubling the offense by making me look crazy. I've only actually complained officially about the FedEx guy, because I figure I would probably also be rude if I worked somewhere as hellish as Michael's.