Ok, so you know you’re a Tea Princess or a Tea Prince, or you are well on your way to being one. You want your tea just so and will no longer settle for that “stuff” they call tea when you dine out or eat in. But are you a serious lover of tea, too? Take this quiz to find out.
1 You have an extra $5 in your pocket, so you:
a. Buy a box of tea bags at the local store
b. Go to one of those coffee places and get a humongo-jumbo tea latté beverage
c. Buy a box of donuts – hey, what’s tea time without donuts?
d. Add that fiver to the special savings account you opened at the bank so you can afford to buy some of that special aged pu-erh later on
2 Your birthday is coming up, so you:
a. Hint to family and friends that you really like tea (actually, they will probably know this already, but it doesn’t hurt to remind them)
b. Print out photos off of web sites of teawares and teas you’d like as gifts and leave them strategically placed where gift givers would find them
c. Select the person you can count on to spread the word to others, then drag that person to the local tea shop and make sure he/she sees you mooning over certain teapots and/or teas, maybe even casually suggest that he/she take notes
d. Make reservations at the best tea place in your area and plan to go there, by yourself if necessary (you’re your own person)
3 An antique Yixing teapot pops up for sale on one of those auction web sites, so you:
a. Yawn and click over to a news site
b. Tweet the link to your Twitter buddies to see if one of them wants it
c. Follow the bidding to see how high it goes (you’re just curious)
d. Bid…bid…bid! until that beauty is all yours!
4 A famous tea expert is in town giving a demonstration of a particularly tricky steeping technique, but it happens to be on the same day as your daughter’s wedding, so you:
a. Say to yourself “I’m the mother/father of the bride, so I have to be at the wedding” and you do your part
b. Attend the wedding, but ask a friend to go to the demo and report back to you
c. Ask your friend to stand in for you at the wedding and to wear a face mask that looks like you for all the photos
d. Reschedule the wedding — hey, you have your priorities!
5 You signed up for a tour of the tea gardens of the Darjeeling area of India but just heard that monsoon rains were extra heavy, washing out some mountain roads, and the tour is cancelled, so you:
a. Shrug, pocket the refund, and think that the trip to Disney World is now on
b. Go buy a book about the tea gardens of Darjeeling and read it with a pot of Darjeeling tea
c. Steep up some of your most special Darjeeling tea, put on some Indian music, and pretend you’re there
d. Decide to go there on your own and hike from one garden to the next as best you can (you bring along your mountain climbing gear just in case)
Well, how did you do? If you answered anything but “d” to all of the above, then it’s time to get more serious about tea!
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