Tea time?

What does tea mean to you?

Growing up, the only type of tea I had more often than not involved rice. I've started calling that meal 'dinner' to avoid confusion, even though 'dinner' meant lunch for my grandparents. 

I've realised lately that a quite a few things are called tea that don't necessarily involve tea! 

Tea = dinner

Morning/afternoon tea= snack foods 

High tea = fancy finger food, or traditionally a hearty meal eaten at a 'high' dining table at the end of the workday (as opposed to a coffee table, not tea table?!?)

Tea party = in my life this has only ever been an activity for children without any actual tea

Tea cake = butter/sponge cake (I once googled "coffee cake" wanting one with coffee in it, and failed miserably)

Tealight = small candle (originally used to heat tea!)

Tea towel = dish towel

Tea = gossip

Tea tree = unrelated tree (though apparently so named because James Cook noticed Indigenous Australians making herbal tea from it)

Which brings us to types of tea. 

Growing up, I'd ask my parents' friends if they wanted black tea or white tea, and I wasn't asking about how young the tea leaves were when they were picked! We only had black tea +/- milk.

Nowadays when someone offers me tea, the conversation usually goes something like this:

Friend: Would you like a cup of tea?

Me: Yes, please.

Friend: What type would you like?

Me: Umm (not wanting to ask for something they don't have, wondering if I really want them to list 20 options, waiting to see if they offer to show me what they have), just black tea please.

I actually really like chai tea. Which, if you look at the meaning of those words is actually a tautology (essentially saying the same thing twice in different words). In India chai just means tea. Masala chai means spiced tea. So I'm not sure how we got chai tea.

And then there's the world of bubble tea! Did you know that the 'bubbles' were originally the froth on top, not the chewy balls...