Me, Dr. Who, and Arthur Dent...

What do the three people in the title have in common?

Well, OK, YOU may have thought of something weirder, but what I was going for was the not-infrequent cravings for a lovely cup of tea. I've been a tea-fancier in general since I was kid, starting my coffee habit much later.

Lately, I've been aided and abetted shamelessly in feeding my tea addiction by the most adorable little shop down the block from me, Distinctly Tea. Their URL is http://www.distinctlytea.com, share it around, I want their upcoming online launch to succeed so I can get more cool tea stuff close to home.

Distinctly Tea carries several hundred varieties of teas, all of which can be purchased loose in varying quantities. They can stock you up on all kinds of tea brewing paraphernalia, and the staff are walking encyclopediae of tea lore.

In the past year or so I've learned:

That you should never boil water for green, white, or oolong teas - use hot water but below the boil (80-90 degrees C).

That one of my favourite teas, Lapsang Souchong, comes from ONE mountain in China.

"Chai" means "tea" in Hindi and other middle-eastern languages. "Masala Chai" is the proper term for the spiced teas marketed as "chai" in North America

Rooibos is not a tea, per se - it is its own thing, the leaf of a bush from South Africa (as "tea" is the leaf of a bush from the orient).

Longer brewing is not the right way to make stronger tea. Use more tea, infuse for a short time.

That tea in a tea bag from a store shelf is almost intolerably poor quality.

Yes, that's it - I'll admit it, I'm now a tea snob, and I'd probably give the Doctor or Arthur Dent a good run in brewing the perfect cup nowadays.

Check out Distinctly Tea, though. If you'd like any, let me know.