A 2 Hour Adventure

Tonight was going to be great.
It was destiny.
Let me tell you a tale about joy, sorrow, anger, loss, and life.

To set the scene, you should know that tonight was a scheduled "Tea and Chocolate Tasting Event" hosted by TeaSmith and some fancy-dancy chocolatier from 6-8 and and another from 8-10. I have been looking forward to this unique event for the past few weeks. I've had the flier in my things and was more than happy to pay the £50 bill. These are some really great teas!
You should also know that drinking good tea is probably my single most favorite thing to do. This is no exagguration. Lastly, I should mention that my inner monologue is usually a very happy place. Let me begin...

I had a clarinet lesson (which went quite well, thanks for asking) from 4:30-5:30 which has little to do with the story other than it rules out the 6-8 session. There was no way I could get to the east end of town that quickly and not be super stressed out. I like giving myself 15 minutes of cushion time when going to events such as this. The next best thing was to have a quick bite to eat and leave for tea at five to 7. I think I was singing Chicago on my way to the tube station. It was a great thing.

I had picked up the free London Paper earlier and planned on reading it and doing Sudoku during the long underground ride so I pulled it out and read some movie reviews. Things were going smoothly, I looked up at the map and counted 8 more stops until Liverpool St. (right near TeaSmith) and checked my watch to see that it was 7:25. Good. Now to figure out where I can put some more 9s...

7:35. 5 more stations to go... Except... We haven't left this station for a few minutes. Something is up. The announcement that we are being held at a red signal (a regular occurrence) and will be on our way shortly was barely heard over the loud speaker. I went back to sudoku.

5 minutes later... Another announcement. This time, the thought occurs to me to get off the tube, go back a station, go up the Northern Line 3 stops, and then take the Central Line over 5 stops. Does it make sense to take 8 stops and change lines twice right now? No, as soon as I leave this train, it will start moving again. I decide to stay. I'm not humming anything anymore.

It's 7:45. The announcement is made that it is unlikely that the train will be moving for a while. Passengers should seek alternative routes to continue eastward. Looking around, I see only 5 or 6 others still in the car. I give in. I get off and leave the station thinking that there ought to be a bus that is headed to Liverpool St. I look over the bus map and schedule quickly. I need #11. Look around at the signs. Nothing of the sort. Greeeat... Think fast, what should I do? I go back down to get on the next westbound train to change the previous station... My plan B from 10 minutes ago...

So now it's 7:51, I'm on a Northern Line Train with 9 stops and one switch to be made until I get to tea. I am not going to be on time. Now, as I type this, it sounds ridiculous, but at 7:52 PM on Thursday, March 12th 2009, I was seething with anger. I couldn't think of a time when I was more angry. The high point of my day, my week even, and I would not be there on time to enjoy the first tea and chocolate pair. To top it off, I really had to use the loo and if things had worked out as planned, I would have arrived with 10 or 15 minutes to spare. RAAARH! In my period of blind rage (7:52 to about 8:17) I had several thoughts. One being- "I should just go home. There is no point in going to tea and being all angry and pouty there. I should just go back and wallow alone..."
Another was "I can't believe this. I simply cannot believe the one time I need the tube to be decent, it is all messed up."
I think another good one was "Well, I'll only be 10 minutes late..."

But no, I didn't go home. I realized that it would be the foolish choice. The smart choice was to continue on, and make the most of it. In fact, in a moment of clarity, I realized that the tea would be so amazingly incredible that it would make up for all of this nonsense. Oh- then I got on the Westbound train at Holborn and missed the Eastbound one at the platform, costing me another 3 1/2 minutes. The anger returned.

I remember walking quickly. I always walk quickly, but I have a feeling that this was even faster than usual. It was 8:15 when I was going up the escalator at Liverpool St. Station and I knew It would take about 5 minutes to get to the tea shop... Outside the station, I broke into a jog across the street and continued at that pace until the sign of the tea place was in view.
"Ahhh, tea at least." I knew things would only get better from here. I came around to the door and thought it odd that the lights were out.

...

I assumed that the event would be held downstairs, so I thought that maybe they had turned the upstairs lights off so that people knew that the Tea Bar wasn't open. Then I saw it. There was a door with a buzzer and what appeared to be a set of stairs behind some tinted glass (the light was on). It shared the number 6 with TeaSmith so I thought "Aha. This must be a seperate entrance to the basement where the tea event is happening." I pushed the buzzer.

A minute later, an older man appears (in his 70s I'd say) and greets me with a smile. I think that he must be the chocolate master or a friend of the owner come to let me in.
"Is this the tea thing?" I pant.
"Pardon?" He says. I realized I wasn't being coherent.
"Is this the tea shop?" I revised.
"Oh no, they are next door." He said as he stepped out to turn and show me. "Oh, it seems they are closed."
I explained that there was a tea event going on tonight and that I thought his door was another entrance and apologized for the misunderstanding and thanked him for his time. He was a real gentleman.

Well, to try to understand what was going on with the world at this particular moment, I went around to the entrance from inside the market. Still dark and even worse, I could see that there were no lights on in the basement either. What on earth could have happened? How could I have messed this up? Well, for the time being, it shall remain a mystery- I have no idea what happened or where they are having tea and chocolate at this very moment... without me. When I learn the meaning of this, I will let you know...

So, I went to the loo, thank goodness, and walked (quite slowly) around the block once just to see if I spotted any of the familiar TeaSmith faces in a nearby building laughing, singing, drinking tea, and eating chocolate-covered happiness but nothing... I walked back to Liverpool St. Station trying to think of the saddest song I know that I could hum on the train ride home. Nothing seemed sad enough. In the station, I spotted a kiosk with a man selling mix and match gummy candies and other such things. This is what I needed to keep my hour and a half long journey from reducing me to tears. I counted up the change in my pocket, £2.25, and picked out what I thought was a conservative amount of gummies to buy. I was only up to 1.17- I took the bag again to add to it. Thanks to the chewy nuts (some kind of ungodly hard nuts covered with caramel and chocolate) gummy pig heads (yep, they look exactly like what you;d think), I weighed in at precisely £2.23. This fact alone was enough to brighten my night a good 14%. I ate the bag as I walked back to the underground and took the piccadilly line home.

It took some time, some walking-off, and £2 worth of gummy candies to calm me down, but what I finally realized on the ride home was simple. Between the line breaking down, and the lights being off, I should have realized sooner. I was simply not meant to go to tea tonight.
It was destiny.

TeaSmith

Since I didn't travel at all this weekend, I figured I should contribute something to the blog...

This is probably the coolest tea shop I've been to. Now, for someone who likes tea so much, I admit that I haven't been to many tea shops. Hopefully, once I am in Evanston, that'll change. But right - the reason it is great is because it is a local shop owned by a tea enthusiast. Now, the shop looks very sleek and nice, it looks like it could be a big franchise or something. But anyways, what sets this place apart:

* Very friendly and knowledgeable staff. The owner, John, is really great and will tell you anything you want to know about the tea that you are drinking. All the employees know how to correctly make each kind of tea (water temperature, infusion time, which pot to use, set-up, etc.) and can tell you about the teas as well.

* High quality teas. Goes without saying - this is a crucial factor! John has been to China and Japan quite a bit (his wife is Japanese so they visit family a lot) and he personally selects the teas from the harvests that he wants to sell and has them shipped back to London.

* The tea bar. In addition to being able to go into this little shop and buying various quantities of dozens of varieties of loose leaf tea, there is a "tea bar" which is basically that. You sit on a stool and order from a menu of various teas. Then, they make the tea in front of you (so it's an educational experience too because each tea requires different preparations) and serve it. Depending on the tea, the leaves get re-infused several times, usually 3-5 times. I had an oolong infused 6 or 7 times a few weeks ago!

This tea bar is really one of my favorite things ever. It is the perfect place to try different high quality teas that are prepared just right. For instance, I don't think I ever made Gyokuro correctly- you are supposed to use twice as much leaf and half as much water as you would a typical Japanese green tea. The Gyokuro John gave me at TeaSmith was enlightening. After several infusions, he gave me the leaves on a plate with a fork and I ate them. It sounded bizarre to me too, don't worry- but it was really swell. After a few infusions, the gykuro leaves are a good texture and slightly sweet to the taste. Talk about getting my money's worth! For £10, you don't want anything less.

Prices for the teas at the tea bar range from £3.50 to £5, £10, £15, and even more for some of the really rare oolongs and pu-erh teas that were hand selected from the last season. I highly recommend trying any, if not all of their teas. I am slowly trying as many as I can. I go there on Sunday afternoons to chat it up with the employees and just enjoy as much tea as I can handle.

This is my cup and plate of infused gyokuro leaves after I finished drinking the tea.

Check out the TeaSmith website. You can even order online.