It's tea time

Just recently, I decided to start drinking green tea, daily. 1-2 cups a day. I mean why not... It's supposed to be so healthy right? It's all over the place here. I've seen the Lipton green tea bags back home, but haven't tried it. And now I am here and I am going to drink the real stuff. Maybe it'll tack on a few years. It's supposed to be up there in anti-oxidants with the berries and walnuts and dark chocolate etc...and now I hear that 'white' tea is now the new green tea. Supposed to be milder, but can't find it yet. So anyway, I asked a few people about the green, but nobody really knew what to recommend and I never got any good answers so I just decided to go buy a bag.

So I went to the grocery, found the tea aisle, (there is nearly an entire aisle devoted to tea) and found about 87 different bags of green tea. I was lost, as you can imagine, quickly scanning every bag to find maybe just 1 word in English. Nothing. So I just kind of resorted to looking at the images on the bags and decided to buy whichever one had the most pleasing composition, or nicest pictures. What else could I go by? Then I thought, this is ridiculous, I will ask the stocker, this woman who happened to be right there. Now, I know the word for tea, and I know the word for 'best' and delicious...and I know how to put it into a question form.... simple. So I ask her.

Well, I am not joking here, this woman looked at me like I just asked her if I could plow my mini-van through the front store window. Did I somehow get that wrong? So I repeated...just 2 words! "tea? best?" "tea? good?" (with a smile, and pointing to different bags) I really don't know what happened, but she got totally flustered and nervous and sort of looked at the teas and back at me and then basically said in Japanese, I don't know, I am sorry, excuse me, thank-you. Followed by a bow. And another bow. The only thing I can think of is that maybe she had never talked to a foreigner before and it just put her into shock! Or maybe she just wasn't a green tea drinker *and* she never talked with a foreigner. She was kind of young, but not that young--maybe 20's. Ok, so I bowed and thanked too, she then quickly left the aisle. I hate it when I do that to people!

So here I am on my own again. My eye finally catches some roman letters. Yes! That's all I need, there's my tea. A mid-price range, $7.00. Already bought the tea ball from the 100 yen store.

I went home all excited about my tea and my new healthy habit I was about to begin.
note to self: double check the word for tea.

So I get home, open the bag and take a big whiff. Um..not so nice. But ok, it's healthy. And the bag says that the taste is wonderful. I make my 1st cup. I take my 1st sip. Hmm, it's not horrible. But it...sort...of... tastes like.....grass clippings, that's it.

I really don't have too much of a problem drinking grass clippings flavored tea, I love the smell of fresh clipped grass, but the more I sipped this tea, I decided that it is not fresh grass clippings, it is really stale clippings, like the kind that got left and forgotten about in the mower bag for 2 weeks...in the rain. Not so good after all. Especially the last 1/4 cup. Downright horrible! I actually made one of those faces, that you have no control over making when it's so bad.

But because my genetic material is of Steve Szyszkowski, I am going to finish the bag. I just have to remember to chuck the last 1/4 cup. (which is probably the really healthy stuff). I may just need to acquire a taste for this pure type stuff, or maybe it was just a cheapie bag. I don't know, but before I buy my next bag, further investigation will be needed on the tea matter.


Oh my gosh the comments I am reading from this blog are hysterical. Ira and I were holding our guts laughing so hard the other night.
And no Ben, I didn't get my toes into that sharp and crunchy sand. I didn't want to have to try and visit a doctor way out there after stepping on a rusted can. Plus I was just fascinated with all that weird stuff I was finding on the beach. I really wanted to walk on and on to see what else there might be but we really had to get the kids out.
'night all...