In a previous article (You Know You’re a Spoiled “Tea Princess” When…), I showed how you can evolve into a person who has to have that tea just so and therefore carries a “tea kit” with you. There is another level of spoiled tea drinker, though, one that can be just as persnickety and exacting but not as “regal.” That level is identified by the symptoms below.

The Level of Detail Needed Increases

Where you used to need only know if a tea was black or green, etc., you now have to know which tea garden the leaves were harvested from, which tea master processed them, when they were harvested, what the weather was like that growing season, etc.

The Types of Tea on Your List Expands

While you used to drink either black tea or green tea, you now know there is oolong, white tea, yellow tea, purple tea, and pu-erh tea types. Then, you learn that there are hundreds of more specific versions of each type.

Your Flavored Tea Choices Become More Selective

You go from liking any vanilla tea, to vanilla tea made with real vanilla, to vanilla tea made only with the best Madagascar vanilla. Your taste for fruit tea goes from that dust stuff in a bag to the whole leaf kind in a sachet with real fruit pieces. You take a similar approach to other flavored teas.

Every Aspect of the Tea Becomes an Issue

The package material becomes of utmost importance, with teas in those horrid plastic baggies being at the bottom of the list. Teabags become an anathema. You start using terms like “beeng” and “pan firing” in everyday conversation.

Your Tea Steeping Takes on Chief Chemist Dimensions

You have to have the water amount measured out just so and heated to the exact temperature, the tea leaves weighed out to the right amount of grams, the teacups and other paraphernalia set out and ready, etc. Then, the steeping is timed to the second, the pour is done in a precise manner, and the tasting begins. You slurp it in, letting it fill your mouth and spread around for full effect.

Yes, indeed, you are now officially and totally spoiled. No longer will that bagged stuff available in most restaurants, travel centers, and office lunchrooms be allowed anywhere near your teacup. There is no turning back. There is only forward into a brighter tea tomorrow!

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