Roses Are Red

After focusing last month on the world of coffee, it is only fair to give tea equal time. Selecting your tea culture is important. Do you want to drink British style, or Asian? Do you want herbal? Something similar to an identity crisis is the tea culture affiliation. If you go British, as I have done, then you drink your tea with milk and sugar. If you choose the Asia side of the equation, you are not using milk or sugar but possibly a squeeze of lemon. This is important. A mature adult needs to know where to cast their tea drinking ballot in order to reap the benefits of their brew. And just how do you brew your tea? Do you use a tea pot? Some folks brew their tea bags in a china tea pot. Hmm …I know someone who does that.

            Last week a reader asked me, what tea do I drink. A response is necessary to avoid any false rumors. Are you sitting down? In addition to coffee, I do drink tea. Because I have a ‘no product endorsement’ policy, I will discreetly refer to the tea I drink as The Rose. If you aren’t familiar with The Rose and still have a grandparent living, this is probably the tea that they drink. The Rose is not gluten free. It is not organic. It is not environmentally friendly but, but ….it comes with a little china animal in every box. Each box includes a little friend to sit next to your cup while it brews. Over the years 300 million little china figurines have been given away. (Thank you google.)

 Sadly the free gift is now only available if you order The Rose online, but I can live with that. I asked a friend from England which tea she drinks and if she had switched to an American brand. You guessed it; she said that she likes The Rose because it is the most like British tea.

     Globalization has changed everything, and my guess is that countries that were founded on a bedrock of tea are probably now a part of the ‘Coffee Culture.’ That’s okay; beans, leaves, twigs, whatever it is that you brew –identity marketing has you covered. The big incentive for my choice of tea was the gift packed into each box. What other food products are willing to do this? Uh-oh, I am starting to think. What other food products should be doing this and what would their free gifts be? Unable to resist an opportunity to explore something meaningless, I accept the challenge. Here is a list of products paired with their potential gifts.

     1. Whole Wheat bread - little wagons carrying shafts of wheat in from the field.

     2. Almond Milk - a mini cow.

     3. Sticky Candy like the one that pulled the caps off two of my teeth - wind-up dentist.

     4. Fakin’ Bacon  - three wind up pigs that roll on the table, point at you and laugh.

     5. All brands of designer coffee -  a piece of gold jewelry.

 So, put the kettle on, line up your china figurines-it’s time to relax with a cup of tea.