diplomatic license at Tea Embassy

The Tea Embassy

Wanted to write about this fantastic tea shop in downtown Austin, but was waiting until I had a reason. Now I have a reason. Recently served tea to a friend. Many times I've said that drinking tea with milk and/or sugar is one way to get into tea, but if you want to really taste the tea you have to drink it black. I still drink tea of questionable quality with a bit of cream, but that's because I'm masking the taste.

So my friend normally drinks her tea with milk and sugar. Despite all of my protests. Oh well. But I still take every opportunity to foist unadulterated tea on her. Normally to no avail.

But this time was different. I'd never heard of Jaimisi black, but I tend to focus my attention on black teas. Am always looking for teas from exotic locales such as Kenya or Indonesia or wherever. But here's a sort of Indian black tea that I didn't know existed.

It's a simple black tea. I'd even say it's a nice daily tea. But the best part? It tastes fantastic without adding anything. Anything at all. I handed her the mug, she sniffed it and said it smelled good. But she wasn't planning on drinking that dark unsweetened liquor until I prodded her and said, 'Come on. It's good enough as it is.'

Hesitantly, she sipped at it and then drank a bit more. 'Wow, that's ok. That's really quite good.' And what about me. I started to worry she was going to finish all of it. It was all I had left.