Tea Tidbits

My sister, Kathleen, gave me a great little 2010 desk calendar with a tea theme. Everyday I learn something new about the history, science, poetry, or mythology relating to tea.

For example, did you know that:
1. Even as long ago as A.D. 780 a Chinese scholar wrote that there were already "a thousand and ten thousand teas."

2. You can give a boost to your acid-loving plants by adding wet tea leaves to the soil or by pouring some tea onto the soil.

3. There are really only 3 main kinds of tea -- black teas (from robust, fermented tea leaves), green teas (from steamed tea leaves), oolong teas (from partially fermented leaves). All come from the dark, glossy leaves of the evergreen, Camellia sinensis, which can grow over 30 feet tall but is usually pruned to bush size so that the leaves can be easily harvested! (NOTE: herbal "tea" is not tea ... but some of it still is tasty, I know!)

4. A cup of tea
A quiet nook
A cookie and
A picture book
A lump of sugar
On my spoon
Now that's a
Perfect afternoon
Eileen Spinelli

5. Britain's love of tea blossomed when Josiah Wedgwood introduced cream-colored earthenware in the 1760s. At that time, the majority of British porcelain would crack on contact with hot water.

6. But the all-time-most-interesting of all of the days' pages thus far ---
"If you are a black tea drinker, you're a forward-looking, intense person. Your thoughts are always directed toward the future. You have a fertile and active mind that is always churning."
Now, I don't know where they got this information. Maybe it's like a horoscope or something?? Maybe it is the result of drinking too much black tea and not a correlation of black tea with tea drinkers ...
Whatever, it's certainly true for me! When Jim read it, he was amazed!