First things first...

Before anyone is all "I'm so not stupid here.", let me just say that to really enjoy of cup of tea, you have to know how to make one. Apparently, who knew, there is a little bit of an art to it. Here I am thinking: hot water into cup with teabag. Really not hard. True but not true at the same time. I found the chart at the bottom on www.2basnob.com. I was wrong. Now I know. Now you also know.

Good to know.

Tea	Water Temperature	Steep Time
Green Tea	160 degrees F	1 - 3 minutes
White Tea	180 degrees F	4 - 8 minutes
Oolong Tea	190 degrees F	1 - 8 minutes
Black Tea	Rolling Boil	3 - 5 minutes
Herbal (tisanes)	Rolling Boil	5 - 8 minutes

Quote of the Day:

Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary. ~Chinese Proverb

They say...

(and by they I mean the history people of www.wtea.com and www.2basnob.com, amongst others) that tea was discovered by the Chinese Emperor, Shan Nong, in 2737 B.C. Legend has it that this Emperor liked to set the example for his people, so he only drank boiled water. (Probably a very good idea back in the day.) One night while boiling water, some tea leaves blew into the pot and created an alluring aroma. Shan Nong tried it the new drink and found it refreshing and energizing. He commanded that tea bushes were to planted in the palace gardens, and the custom of brewing fresh tea leaves in hot water began.

So according to legend, tea was discovered by happenstance. I like that so many of the very cool things of today were discovered in the same way. Medicine, cold cereal, even gravity all found by happen stance. I love the quirkiness of life although it doesn't always bring the good. Whether the legend of Shan Nong's tea is true or not, it's still cool.

Tea fact from www.thecoloroftea.com: There are four main types of tea which are, white, green, oolong, and black, all which are born from the same species of plant.

My tea fact: Twinning's coconut tea is my favorite tea to date. I'll let you know if that changes.

Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. ~T'ien Yiheng

How about a cuppa?

One of my very favorite college roommates, Hill-Billy, used to ask this every now and then. I ask this to myself everyday now. The truth is I really enjoy tea. I really wanted to know more about tea. Not really sure why. Maybe it was the words of my Father in law: a person is expert when they know more about a certain thing than you do. Hmmm... I find myself wanting to become an expert on the beverage that often saves the lives of my children by calming my nerves. It's weird that though you carry the little dears around inside your actual person and then bear them, but nail polish on the couch can make you want to end them. That's were tea comes in handy.

I want to share the cool stuff I want to learn with anyone else who finds that being an expert on something like tea, well, cool. I'm not really sure where this is all going to go, but why not? Write what you know, right? So, how about a cuppa?