I believe there are some here present who find the ritual of a well-crafted pot of tea very pleasurable

I have no ritual anymore, and I FUCKIN' LOVE IT.

Sorry. I know it's an overpriced piece of frippery, but I want to sexually gratify my teamaker. I already liked tea. Now I want a committed relationship with it.

ita ! It's good to see you posting again. I was thinking of you the other day because your interpretation of events on Persons of Interest was right, and I was wrong.

your interpretation of events on Persons of Interest was right, and I was wrong

Oh, really? (Hi!) I've lapsed watching the show because I have two other things recording in the same slot--has the arc been moving along much? Where do they stand with the lady cop right now?

I hold it's not frippery if it does the job better and makes you happy.

H used to smoke a pipe. He quit when he realized he didn't really *like* the way pipe tobacco tasted, he just liked all the little tools and rituals. I'm sort of that way about tea. I'm fond of tea, but it's the tools and rituals that make me happy.

The finale is this week. We have some more of the main characters back stories, but it is mostly a villain of the week show. The lady cop is working with them but doesn't approve of their methods or know about the machine. She also doesn't know the other cop is also working with them, and other cop doesn't know she is working with them either.

I found chrysanthemum tea! I was looking for it and failing to find it, which is nutty given how not-fancy it is, but finally found a tea stand that sold loose tea. Little flowers floating in my tea pot, I love it!

She also doesn't know the other cop is also working with them, and other cop doesn't know she is working with them either.

You know, I did not realise this. It didn't even occur to me. Doh.

finally found a tea stand that sold loose tea

Previous day I managed to make it into the office I was waylaid by a tea purist, who spent about 20 minutes talking about *nothing* but tea. He highly recommended the store in Century City mall that's not Teavana. And he talked about a whole lot of tea stuff I'd never even heard of.

This is the tea site link I always recommend for ordering online, but they don't sell chrysanthemum tea.

David's Tea is my new favorite: [link]

Many of my co-workers at the new job are amused by my silver tea pot and fancy tea cup.

Scola always pitches that same place too.

Ah--the other place in the mall near me (apparently two tea specialty stores is perfectly reasonable in a mall that doesn't even have a bookstore?) is Lupicia. All I know about them for sure is that I didn't think their equivalent to Teavana's dragon jasmine pearl tea was as good (I think that about Upton too), but looking at their site, they have more options than I'd realised.

Magic of the tea machine is that *all* my tea tastes better, so I feel more comfortable trying other flavours as well as other stores. The rooibos blend I got from Upton was very good.