Food Muse - TEA!

I just bought me some Lapsang Souchong. My friend just smelled it last night and sort of reeled, coughing "it smells like campfire"..
yes it does my friend. yes it does. and that is the beauty of Lapsang. Smokey, slightly burnt-caramel oakey flavor, it's a heavy, meaty, gorgeous cup. and by meaty I mean totally not like meat. you know what I mean!
In general I love tea, and when I sat at Peet's coffee in Studio City for hours one day a little over a year ago, "feeling it out" to see if I wanted to maybe-possibly-consider-thinking-about working there, I browsed thier fabulous tea brochures. (They have one for coffee too, but keep focused!)
It was then and there, as I shifted the crunchy tan pages between my fingers, that I decided to have a "I fell in love with tea in that moment" moment.
I imagined myself becoming a connoiseur, breathing in the tea leaves and telling people at parties which hidden tea-tones went best with which tea cookie. Shocking my family and friends when I began to dreamily recount the history of tea production in India, or how exactly one determines orange pekoe to, say, broken orange pekoe. "That's it!"I thought. "I've found my 'it'!! TTTEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAA!!!!"
Needless to say this faded pretty quickly, as with most of my grand sweeping fantasies, (unless we're talking about guys, but that's another blog).

BUT I did get a job at Peets, my love for tea DID increase beyond the black tea, melting clotted cream sex-faint with warmly baked scone partnership, and now I'm sure that I dont' want to be a tea guru. I just want to love tea, try tea, and buy tea. And I suggest you do the same. It's really good for you, the flavors are amazing (I bought a caramel flavored tea in London... hellllloooo? seriously?? uucucucuch, drool) and, just as with wine or coffee, the tea plantations, roasting techniques and cultivation etc. all play a hand in a particular teas taste, even if it's the same type of tea. (Incidentally the same is happening with chocolate - it's a foodie revolution!! Let's all fly to Paris!!!!! EWAN MCGREGOR!!)
sorry...
Moulin Rouge, "children of the revolution" and all that... ahem.

Anyway, here are some great places to explore tea in LA:

CHADO TEA ROOM
8422 1/2 west 3rd street
Los Angeles Ca 90048
http://www.chadotea.com/

I think they have like, 200 teas or something, just amazing. The menu has little descriptions of all the teas and where they come from. buttery yummers mouth watering... just reading the menu will inspire you and inform you of teas you've never even heard before.

PEET'S COFFEE and TEA
http://www.peets.com/
Yes, they are going a little corporate, but they really do care about the quality of thier products and that really does set them apart from Starbutts, for example. and no I'm not biased.
Working there was great because you truly beleived in what you were selling. well, I did at least cos I'm a food snob! YAY!
They have lots of featured tea samples, and if you buy a tin of tea (or coffee) you get a free cup to try. And even though we're supposed to be experts, it's not always easy to remember the flavor characteristics of every tea and coffee, so ask for the tea wheel! it's really cool.
And I highly recommend the Studio City store (my Alma Mater). Good people.
Ok enough about tea!! I'm gonna go have some, I'm getting a caffeine headache.
Happy eating! (drinking)