all those pretty cans of tea

Whenever I find something in the paper about tea, I feel like the stars are shining down on me. Has absolutely nothing to do with me, but I still feel like I'm being somehow rewarded. It also makes me wonder if there are more tea articles, or if I'm just more aware of them. And finally, I'm curious if it's a German thing or if tea is more in fashion than it was even a short time before. That's where my thoughts are today.

So if I read an interesting article in the German press, I try to mention it here. Sometimes the article is boring. No new ground is covered. In those situations, I don't bother saying anything. There's plenty going on in the world of tea, otherwise.

But today was one of those fortunate days. And the article in Die Welt am Sonntag (The World on Sunday) was in the finance section. It was about investing in tea and, on a related note, how expensive some specialty teas can be.

Investing in tea? Gold certainly. Even some collectibles might be more advisable.

To be fair, neither the journalist nor the people interviewed actually suggested substituting tea for your investment portfolio. The thrust of the article was that Pu-erh tea improves in taste and value as it ages. The very crucial point was also made that there's often no way to verify the origin or the age of the tea that you've bought.

The other thing that was reported earlier in the article was that Germans are drinking more and more tea. Here's how it was phrased, 'The German coffee-drinking nation is discovering more and more the health benefits of this beverage made from dried leaves.'

Granted, some are simply buying the decorative tea cannisters from Mariage Freres at Galeries Lafayette. Simply displaying the tea indicates that you have a cosmopolitan kitchen. I like to think if you were such a person, that eventually you might actually make a cup of tea from the leaves in those pretty cans.