If you could expand upon your preferences in the adventures of tea discovery, where do you find yourself now and where do you see yourself in the future?
Oh wow, what a great inquiry! Yeah it has been a long, strange journey.
Well right now I'm sipping on some hot (unsweetened, no lipids) mate. It's Guayaki brand which seems to be high quality for the kinds you'll see in grocery stores, but it's pretty expensive. Right now I'm poor. Like really poor. And while I have tons and tons of teas, they're all just regular store brands (Yogi, Tazo, Stash, etc.). I do have a basket of wonderful black tea that my stepmom purchased for me while she was in China. It's the kind that comes as like a compact little ring of tea wrapped prettily in light paper that expands as it's heated. In China they put one of those in a big teapot and just drink it with the bits of tea in it, but I prefer using one of those stainless steel "tea bag" things. I have some of those fancy ones that work similarly but bloom like a pretty flower that floats around at the top. Green tea and herbs and stuff, so delicious. That I drink some of the bits with because it's worth it to see the pretty stuff in your drink. My stepmom has some coca tea bags from Central America. All the writing on the box is Spanish and it has a really unique and good taste. I feel like the leaves were probably treated somehow to remove the coca, but I swear it gets me feeling up in a way very unlike caffeine. Could be placebo, but I won't touch the stuff when I'm working for fear of failing a drug test.
I guess I do drink a lot of hot tea, it's just that I'm trying to keep my fluids high and it's much easier to drink iced in large amounts. As I mentioned before, peppermint and chamomile are my favorites for iced tea. That and mate. Peppermint with some yerba mate is a winning combination!
In this future when I'm rich, I have plans of being a tea snob. Fragrant baskets of exotic leaves and stuff. And I'll be like, "Oh, this is fair trade jasmine white tea, from India. It was very expensive, but you know all of my friends are only worth the best!"
And I'll have the proper mate gourds and all, very fancy and expensive variations with fun designs.
I will always drink most of my tea unsweetened, maybe with a splash of coconut milk or what have you. If I do decide I feel like a sweet tea it's with expensive locally-sourced organic honey. Yep. That's me
