Doomed to a new addiction

[jducoeur]

The latest addition to the Burlington Mall is looking to cost me a fair amount of money. They've just added Teavana, an expensive, fairly upscale tea chain.

I've never been a serious tea connoisseur, but this may well suck me in -- while the place isn't any better than Tealuxe and such, it's now far too convenient to ignore. So far, we're gotten two varieties, and they're both big wins. For my workday mornings, I picked up a tin of a delightful Lapsang Suchong: just the kind of dark smoky flavor that I so love, and strong enough that it should be enjoyed straight. Meanwhile, msmemory picked up a 50/50 blend of Mate Vana and Rooibos Chai that they pushed at us. It's a perfect cold-weekend starter: with the right amount of good sugar, it's almost like a highly-caffeinated cup of cocoa, with just the right blend of flavor, sweet and strength.

Given my fondness for novelty, the success of our first two experiments, and the fact that they sell something like eighty varieties of tea there, I can hear my doom calling. But I expect to enjoy every moment of it -- especially given that coffee really isn't good for my stomach any more, a tea habit is probably worth encouraging...

Comments

[be-well-lowell.livejournal.com]

If they're expensive enough to hurt your wallet, they're pretty expensive for tea. The most expensive teas I know of are still only around $100 per pound, and a connoisseur can be pretty happy at $20 per pound. And a pound is a lot of tea.

[jducoeur]

If they're expensive enough to hurt your wallet, they're pretty expensive for tea.

Well, they're quite a bit more expensive than that, since they're selling retail to impulse buyers like myself. Their minimum purchase is 2oz, and their high end is *way* high -- $25 for that 2oz. (For the fanciest of their Oolongs.)

But mostly they run $5-10 for the 2oz: still very expensive, but really not all that much to my wallet. This is mostly sticker shock at the concept of spending $10 for 2oz of *anything*. Intellectually, I'm coming to understand that 2oz is quite a bit of tea (indeed, *vastly* cheaper per drink than even cheap bottled iced tea), but I haven't quite internalized that yet...

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

I feel very puerile for what my first thought was when I read your complaint about paying $10 for 2oz.

(And now I have "Gin & Juice" stuck in my head, great...)