Bliss Tea

My love affair with tea began in China. Before I ventured to the land where tea was born, I thought of tea as a weak drink for old ladies, but China changed that and I realized that tea was a vestige of civility and calm. The first weekend I was in Suzhou, we wandered downtown and into a little tea shop that was filled with clear canisters of all sorts of tea. I still wasn’t sure I’d enjoy “real” tea so I hedged my bets and bought rose petal tea which when brewed was amazing. The sweet scent of roses reminded me of a beautiful spring day and the delicate taste wasn’t the weak and wimpy tea from teabags I remembered from my youth, but a taste of summer that made me want more.

Wandering the streets of Suzhou, I happened upon a store selling beautiful pottery tea pots and I bought a tea pot with a dragon head to remind me of the beautiful time I spent in Suzhou. Another store had a tea pot with a dragon swirling around it and it to had to come home with me.

One of my last nights in Suzhou, we were wandering downtown and I spied this beautiful delicate porcelain tea set that I knew I had to have. It was a beautiful and delicate blue with green swirls and a beautiful golden dragon swirled around it’s base. I had seem a similar one in purple that had been out of my price range so it was with bated breath that I asked the price of the blue tea set. The lady wouldn’t bargain with us at first and asked us instead to sit down and have a cup of tea with her and her family. She made us Chinese flower tea with a jasmine blossom that bloomed when hot water was poured over it. That was the moment I fell in love with tea as I realized the beauty and majesty that could surround it. That was the most delightful cup of tea I ever enjoyed as I sat at that little shop in Suzhou and drank tea with strangers and friends. I did end up buying the beautiful tea set and after the gracious hospitality, I didn’t have the heart to bargain much.

Amsterdam also taught me about tea as I found this beautiful little shop selling all sorts of herbal teas and tea accessories. I bought the most magickal tea in this little shop a blend of apples and rose hips that was pure magic to drink. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find anything similar in the states so until I make it back to Amsterdam, I won’t be able to enjoy that blissful tea again.

My current favorite tea is Caribbean Breeze by Teavana. It is a blend of strawberry and raspberry pieces with bits of kiwi passion fruit and citrus peel thrown in for good measure. This morning, I brewed a cup of Caribbean Breeze in my Chinese tea pot and sat outside enjoying the warm weather and the breeze. It was very blissful to sit under my magnolia tree, Maggie, and listen to the sounds of summer. I heard the birds chirping, the kids playing ball across the street, and someone mowing the yard a few houses down. The warm sun was tempered by a slight breeze and I felt like in this moment in time, I truly knew bliss.