Some people: Cats don't love you or miss you
My cats, every morning when I get up and open my bedroom door:
[Video ID: A short video of me opening my bedroom door to reveal a hallway. Two cats can be heard running down the hallway, then are seen skidding across the floor as they try to make the turn through the open door and fail to stop in time because of their momentum. They recover and jump onto the bed to get pets.]
I am enjoying a sherlock fic when along comes this line and makes me nearly spit out my cup of tea.
I have written before about tea in my britpicking series, but here comes another one. All tea comes from the same plant, camelia sinensis.
“Pekoe” is not a tea. It is a system of grading what is picked, irrespective of how it is dried, fermented, rolled etc.
Tea Leaf Grading is the process of valuing a tea leaf based on its condition, quality, and the number of leaves that are plucked below the bud.
It is a particular pick made into a wide variety of different teas. Technically speaking, pekoe means teas picked as 2 leaves and a bud. It’s the easiest to pick, the most common picking that happens in a tea plantation. So, it’s ORDINARY.
OP, or “Orange Pekoe”, is a full-leaf tea with no tip or buds. FOP, or Flowery Orange Pekoe, is a longer leaf than an OP and has some buds. Picking it takes more care.
What does this mean? You can have a LOT of different teas that are classified as P(ekoe), OP, or FOP. And then there are the souchongs and all the others.
In fact, there is a whole system of graded leaves:
BLACK TEA LEAF GRADES
P Pekoe smaller, shorter leave than OP
OP Orange Pekoe = long, thin, tightly rolled leaves
FOP Flowery Orange Pekoe= longer leaf than an OP but not as tightly rolled
GFOP Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe = FOP with some golden tips
TGFOP Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe= GFOP+ more golden tips
FTGFOP Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
BOP Broken Orange Pekoe=OP leaves that are broken
FBOP Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe = FOP leaves that are broken
The best of these is the FTGFOP because they are the hardest to pick and there are so few of them. They are also amongst the most expensive- and that’s before you actually factor in the TYPE of type.
The TYPES of tea, based on how the leaves are treated once they are picked: Black, Green, Oolong, White, and Pu-erh.
Now let’s factor in where the tea comes from- Indian (Darjeeling, Assam, Nilgiri, etc) Ceylon, Kenya, China (Keemun Black Tea, Lapsang Souchong. Yunnan Black Tea, Sichuan Black Tea, Fujian Black Tea, Hunan Black Tea, Yichang Black Tea, Formosa, etc). And then there are the particular tea plantations, eg Margaret’s Hope for Darjeeling, etc.
What I expect the fic author meant was that his character ordered an Assam tea, given that 50% of all tea from India comes from this particular region. Choosing a “pekoe” version of this is the cheapest type, as most Assam teas are marketed as “orange pekoe”. Most broken pekoe tea ends up in tea bags. Despite what the author was trying to convey, they’d inadvertently chosen an cheaper version of what is actually a very ordinary tea.
She was hiding under Mom's bed again, and ran into the media room when I moved the bed. So I followed and closed the door, she hid behind the armchairs and YOWLED in terror. I don't know how such a big sound comes from a chubby little cat
I pulled out the armchairs and scooped her up with one arm, and she peed
And peed. And peed. She must have been holding it all night just waiting for me. I'm just standing there awkwardly waiting for her to run dry
Luckily I 1. Hadn't gotten dressed yet and 2. Was holding her in such a way that she did not pee on me. Unluckily... she peed all over the floor. And I stepped in it, like a genius
Anyway. When she was empty, I put her on a blanket on one of the chairs and quickly administered her medicine. Then I had to gather cleaning products and do damage control before Mom's nice wood floors got ruined by Pekoe's Panic Piss
After all that, I washed my hands and such, got dressed, shoved a granola bar in my face and brushed my teeth, cuz the day has only just begun.
Sitting at the dentist office waiting now. I haven't been to the dentist in... I don't even know. A very long time. Mom had a minor dental emergency and was basically like "Well if you're coming with me anyway, you may as well get a checkup"
You play as Teacup, a shy and introverted young frog who loves drinking tea and reading. Before hosting a tea party, she realizes she is completely out of tea, and must venture into the woods around her to find the herbs she needs to restock her pantry.
Kabaret (Steam)
Welcome to the Kabaret - where monsters from Southeast Asian myths and folklores dwell. Perform tea ceremonies, play traditional games, and question your humanity in this dark fantasy folklore adventure game.
Pekoe (Steam)
Pekoe is a cute cat-filled tea-making simulation game about taking the time for self-care and connecting with the things that make you happy. As the newest resident and teahouse owner in town, you’ll learn everything there is to harvesting, preparing, and serving tea.
Cuisineer (Steam)
Cuisineer is a wholesome food-focused game where you play as Pom, a young adventurer turned restaurateur. One day, you return to your hometown only to find your parents’ restaurant closed for business and deep in debt. With boba and spatula in hand, you must dungeon-delve to collect ingredients and re-open your family's shop!
Mom and Duck haven't been able to medicate Pekoe, so I had to drag my ass upstairs to help.
She was under Mom's bed. So I moved the bed - she ran and hid under the guest room bed. Closing the door behind me, I pulled that bed out and reached under it and grabbed Pekoe by the scruff (I KNOW it's not great to do that but she needs her meds dangit) and then pulled her up onto the bed.
Pekoe is terrified of me, so she tends to reach a certain level of absolute horror and freeze up, at which point I was able to hold her still while Mom got the medicine into her
That cat already hated me but at this point she's definitely plotting my demise