The wonders of Tealand

I always hated tea. If someone asked me what tea I would like, I would simply say, "Extra milk, no tea leaves, please." I preferred milk over tea and would drink it with honey and biscuits every morning. That was until the day I had to drink tea right before bedtime.

I was enjoying myself over at my mum’s house. We talked about how well I was doing at university and shared funny jokes. My mum was an excellent chef, who had for this occasion prepared some of her tasty biriyani.

Then we watched the sunset together. It was breathtakingly beautiful; streaks of pink and orange leaned across the sky. The wind whistled, creeped, flowed through the trees. The sun went down, so sleepy, so exhausted; it almost made me feel the same.

Of course, then the moment was ruined as Mum went and came back with two steaming pots of tea, one green and one black. “I’ll let you choose who gets which one. I like them both anyway.” Of all the teas, I thought black tea had to be the worst. It was so dark, so earthy. On the other hand, while the green tea didn’t taste too bad, its colour made me sick; a bright, vomit-coloured, strange green hue. Still, I couldn’t let this ruin our evening together. I picked up the green tea, closed my eyes and sipped it.

Then I put the cup down and looked up at the moon rising high. It was a special moon; a blue moon. Then my phone rang. “Yes,” I said on the phone. My roommate’s voice rang on the other side, “Cathy, come on home, it’s nearly bedtime, and you need to do the dishes today, remember?”

“Yes I remember. I’ll be there right away.”

“Good, I’ll be waiting for you.”

I ended the call. “I have to go now,” I explained while getting into my car, “see you next blue moon.”

I went home and did the dishes. Then I went to bed. While the evening with my mother had mentally replenished me, I was still physically exhausted. I needed to sleep tonight, not listen to my roommate’s jokes. “Tomorrow,” I waved her off.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a strange, magical world. There were tea rivers, and tea fountains, and tea clouds that probably poured tea rain. The sun shone its tea coloured light on me, and I found myself surrounded by magic teapots taking their little teacups to school. Even someone who wasn’t fond of tea could not deny the incredibility of this sight.

“The tea taster is here!” a teapot with a grand suit called out. The teapots gathered round excitedly. “Wait a minute; I’m not the tea taster! I just ended up here.” I began to explain.

“Of course you’re the tea taster you sipped the tea with the magic invitation in it,” He told me cheerfully.

“That was a one-off drink, I don’t even like...” I stopped myself, considering the potential dangers of saying I didn’t like tea in a tea filled world. Besides, they weren’t asking me to do anything too extraordinary.

They started presenting their tea one by one. There were black teas and green teas and oolong teas and even herbal teas. They had all different amounts of milk and sugar and I took a sip of them all. The more I drank the different teas, the less bad it tasted. I even liked some of them; but none more than that that one incredible beverage.

It took my eye the second it was placed on my table. A little cup with a beautiful orange drink in it, complete with a tiny mint leaf on the side. Orange was one of my two favourite colours alongside white. I asked in awe, “Is this actually tea?” The teapot nodded its head and told me it was called white tea. White by name and orange by colour; I knew it would be the tastiest tea ever. I was right. Mild and soothing, it was extraordinary. While there was still plenty of tea to change my mind, I knew this would be the winner.

At the end, when the tea tasting was complete, I whispered the winner in Mayor Teapot’s ear. He then announced, “Citizens of Tealand, I am delighted to present the winner of this year’s tea festival. Known for its soothingness and health benefits, our winner this year is white tea.”

The teapot came to the podium and everybody clapped. After that Mayor Teapot asked me, “What’s your name again?” I told him it was Catherine. “Catherine, as a thank you for being our tea taster this year would you like to enjoy the rest of the festival with us. We went around in a chariot. There were teapots with lovely gowns that everybody was staring at in awe. Even though I’d never seen them before, them walking up and shaking my hand made me feel like I was in the presence of Jennifer Lawrence.

I ate biscuits and drank white tea. Finally, when the ceremony was over and it was time to go home, they gave me a crystal clear teacup as a souvenir. “Thank you all for the ceremony, but how will I get home?” I asked.

Mayor Teapot smiled at me. “Wake up, of course!”

I woke up to see my roommate staring at me. “You’ve had a good dream,” she said, “come on, I’ve already made breakfast. I started to explain to her the amazing things I’d seen. I told her I was the tea taster for the tea festival at Tealand, and tried to convince her it had actually happened, but she insisted that I was only dreaming. Finally, I gave up and went to the bathroom.

As I came into the kitchen to eat breakfast, I noticed a tea cup on the table. It was crystal clear, and my roommate had filled it with milk. “When did you get this?” she asked.

“It’s a souvenir from that festival I was telling you about,” I answered. She clearly still did not believe it, and thought I’d been at a festival. She loved going to festivals, not listening to people talk about them. She looked at me grumpily.

When I went to the store, I got all the things I needed: bananas, pasta, pens and a bag of white tea.

I went home, put my things away, prepared the white tea and drank some in the lounge. It tasted just as good in real life as it did in my dream. I knew I would drink it every day.