It has been my experience that drinking tea is not a major part of American culture in comparison to most. I first realized this when I moved to Russia in 2005 and was served tea several times a day. The variations on tea worldwide are limitless and I’ve found some I love and drink regularly and others that required me to put on my best poker face and choke it down.
Princess Java is by far my favorite tea overall. I am sure part of my love for it is mental and emotional since it was the first tea I really tried and/or enjoyed but it is also just really delicious! One of my friends from Russia ended up moving to Vegas a couple years ago and since Vegas is only a 6 hour drive I had to visit. She was kind enough to bring me some tea back since my stock had run out a few months before.
My least favorite tea was while I was visiting one of my student’s homes. Every once in a while we would make home visits with the students and they’re family which turned out to be so much fun! On this particular visit a fellow teacher and I were given a new kind of tea which neither of us had tried before. This particular family went to the nearby forest to gather the ingredients which is considered an honor and a way for them to show us how much our visit meant to them. I can confidently say I was taught well by my mother the ways of proper manners so I made sure to be polite and not let on that I thought this particular tea tasted very similar to rotten dirt.
I learned a valuable lesson that day… in my attempt to lessen the impact of the flavor I had what I thought was a smart idea, to chug the tea. Bad idea! What is the proper response to a guest’s empty glass? To fill it right back up again so not only did I chug down a glass of hot rotten dirt but then also had to sip down a second!
Lesson learned? drink unwanted tea slowly as to not give the wrong impression that you want more!
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