I remember the first time I had a cup of tea. They say we never forget our first times and I hope to never forget about this one. I was in London at the time (where else could have I had my first cup of tea??), it was February of 2004, and I’d gone there to visit the city and attend a concert. As you can imagine, London was freezing cold at that time of the year, I got see some snow, luckily it never rained! Well, I stayed at this hostel located next to Notting Hill, most of the population there was of Arabic and/or Indian descent. Every day, I’d go to this cyber cafe to check my emails and I became friends with the pakistani guy that ran the place.

I was with a friend, who’d stay for over an hour chatting and since it only took me 5 minutes to check my email accounts, I had the rest of the time to chat with this guy. Every day, I’d ask for a cup of hot chocolate.

-It’s cold outside, eh?
-Freezing… I don’t think I’ve ever had this much hot chocolate in my life. To be honest, I’m getting sick of it.

And that’s when he suggested having a cup of tea instead.

-Tea?

Was he nuts?? Tea??????? I mean… My mom drank tea, but me? I was so sure that I was not going to like it that I hesitated.

-Try it, if you like it I’ll charge you, if you don’t… you can still have your cup of chocolate…

Sounded like a nice deal, so I had a tiny little sip. Hmmm, it was ok, not bad… I had another sip… it was good, it was really good… Of course, I paid the guy… and from that day on that’s all I had in London, tea.

Now, tea has become part of my regular diet. Not only because I love it, but because I hear it’s really good for your health. I have my first cup of tea (either earl grey or darjeeling) after showering, while having breakfast. I’ll have the second one before noon. In the afternoon/evening I’ll drink an infusion instead, just in case caffeine (teine) affects my sleeping.

I have a collection of different types of tea in the kitchen closet. And whenever I go to a cafeteria, I’ll try something different. I’ve had white tea, red tea, black tea, ginger green tea, green tea, kashmir tea, tchai tea (ginger, cinnamon and something else… spicy and ticklish!), darjeeling, caramel and vanilla flavored… all kinds of tea. Now, I have to try masala tea. I’ll see if I can find it somewhere.

Be tea, my friend. It’s good!