I hope I don't insult anyone here. If I do, it's really not intended and I apologize in advance. The only thing in common between coffee and tea is both have caffeine. Although, some more than others. Other than that, please don't compare coffee with tea. One is a bean and the other is a leaf! Beans, you may freeze them, leaves, you don't. Think about it, would you freeze lettuce? Even if they've dried up? The moisture created in the freezer will ruin the tea. As for floral tea, if the flowers are not mixed in with the tea leaves, it is not tea and of course, do not contain caffeine. It's considered under tea in a sense that you'd add hot water to the dried flowers for serving. To preserve tea, as beanthere_dunthat mentioned, keep in a dry, cool and dark area (away from the sun). If you can, vacuum pack the tea in smaller quantity, it's the best way to preserve them longer. Then, place the tea packages in double-lid containers. Avoid clear glass containers which allow light going through. Ceramic or stainless steels are fine. As for how long they'd last? That depends on the type of tea. Remember, Pu-erh tea is priced as they aged. Similar to wine, the older they are, the more costly they are. As with any food, leaving the tea leaves in whole would preserve its flavour longer than chopped it or grind it down into small pieces. That's one of the reason that many of us serious tea drinkers prefer whole tea leaves vs. small chopped up tea leaves in tea bags. Although, I do drink various types. As for preparation, use spring water if you can or filtered drinking water. This would help to bring out the most flavor and aroma of the tea. Avoid using tea bags or stainelss steel strainers for these do not allow the tea leaves to expand enough in order to release the flavor. The temperature of the water depends on the type of tea. cloud_swift had mentioned it above. You can find more details from tea vendors website. Most would recommend you the water temperature for your choice of tea. Do a Google search and you'd find plenty of info. Most important thing to remember, when the oxygen content in the water is reduced, the tea will taste flat. This is the reason why you wouldn't want the water to boil too long. Black, Pu-erh and Oolong teas are washed in hot water (barely boiling if you don't use a thermometer) once or twice before serving to allow the dried leaves to open. Basically, pour hot water into the tea leaves for about 20 seconds, then, pour the water out. Once they've been infused once or twice, you'd be able to taste the true flavor better on the next infusion. The more they're infused, the more intense the flavor and aroma would be. Of course, there's a limit of how many infusions each tea can have before the flavor is used up. You wouldn't need to do this with Green tea. When infusing green tea, use barely boiling water, then let it sit for about 5 minutes to cool it down a little before adding the water into the tea. If you have an interest in tea, I'd recommend watching the history of "Tea" that was shown on Modern Marvels by the History Channel. You can purchase the DVD at the link below. Tea is a wonderful and mysterious drink. It inspired many famous poets in the Asian world. It warms you if you're cold; yet, it also cools you when you're hot. It releases all of your stress and relaxes you. It calms you down when you're overwhelmed. It satisfies you in ways that no other drinks can. Next thing to learn is which teapot to use with which tea =o) I have one for Osmanthus Oolong tea, one for jasmine green tea and one for other flavor teas. Ok, that would be another thread. In the mean time, take time for Tea Time and Enjoy! =) Here is a link that might be useful: http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=77087

We used to have (I think it was Red Rose) orange pekoe tea at home - Grandma was about the only one that drank it. We used to tease her, for she'd put about four grains into the bottom of a cup and pour hot water over it. After a couple of minutes, we could still see the number of grains in the bottom, and we used to ask Grandma whether she could tell any difference from straight hot water ... and didn't she think that adding one more grain might make it taste better? I don't know whether she really preferred stronger and that was a frugal measure, or whether she preferred it like that. ole joyful

Too many varieties to list them all. Today there is a lot of decent wine available. In general, lower-priced wine will not be vineyard specific (in other words, it can come from grapes grown in a number of different areas), it will not have been aged, it will not have been put in new oak barrels (expensive), it may be a blend of different varietals. None of those things are bad or mean that the wine is not good. White wine is typically made by pressing the grapes and fermenting the juice. Red wine is made by letting the skins soak in the juice for a while. This provides color and flavor. If you do not let the skins soak, you end up with a white or pink wine - "blush" or "white" zinfandel is an example. This wine is actually a rose, but was renamed for marketing purposes. Sometimes the winemaker wants to concentrate the juice, so he bleeds off some juice. This leaves 100% of the skins with maybe 85% of the juice. The red wine will be more concentrated and the "bleed wine" can be a very good rose. Drink it early and enjoy. Extraction is different from concentration - it refers to the amount of flavor that is leached from the skins. Think of a tea bag - if you leave it in the cup for a long time and squeeze it hard, your tea will be stronger. Will also be bitter - that bitterness is tannin, also in grape skins. So you get a lot of flavor, some that you don't want, and you also get a lot of tannin if you soak for a long time and then really squeeze the skins. Thus, some winemakers are really gentle, so that they don't get off-flavors in their wine. The stereotype of "new world wine" (US, Australia, S. America) is that they are fruitier, less tannic, more alcoholic, cleaner. The stereotype of old world is that they are leaner, less "fruit forward", sometimes funky. And some of that is true. But not 100%. Clean for example - literally cleaning the winery can reduce the amount of brettomyces (a kind of mold) that makes the wines stink. A little may be interesting, a lot is awful. And not everyone in the US wants to make big fruit bombs. But after all, wine is from fruit and you should taste some, no? A couple of other things - there is wine made from lots of stuff, but I am only talking about wine from grapes. And those grapes are vinifera grapes - the native American grapes tend not to make good wine, although there is a hybrid called Norton that is used in Missouri that can make a palatable wine. As far as descriptors - don't take them literally. If I describe wine as having notes of chocolate - they are really just hints. I only had one wine that REALLY tasted like chocolate - it was from Portugal and I loved it. Finally, most of the stuff in supermarkets is not really that great. I lived in Indiana for a while - not really wine country. But you can order on-line and I heartily recommend it. Grapes grow around 45 degrees latitude north and south of the equator. Closer to the equator you get tropics so you make rum. Farther away it is too cold so you grow grain and make beer and vodka. White grapes tend to come from cooler areas like Germany, or higher in the hills. That means that in general, they will have more acidity. Grapes like chenin blanc are grown in the Loire - in France they are called by the location, not the grape, so you will see Vouvray or Sancerre. These are really acidic, so drink with steamed mussels or trout or light seafood. Chardonnay is the only white grape allowed in Burgundy, so if you see something called Chablis, you know it is chardonnay. They tend to be more acidic and what wine people call "minerally" than many chardonnays from California, although that is changing. In the US, Kendal Jackson put the chardonnay in oak, starting a trend for oaky chardonnay that is now subsiding. Not bad, but very different. They will feel heavier on your tongue and taste nutty with some vanilla notes. Widely available - California - Chateau Souverain, Chateau St Jean, Martin Ray. Riesling is the great grape of Germany - rarely put in barrels and often making great wine. Germany has elaborate conventions for naming, so I will not get into them here. But look for QBA or Kabinett bottlings - they will be dry (not sweet) and inexpensive (defined by me as under $25, sometimes as little as $12). Columbia Crest is a winery in Washington, part of a large group that also owns Chateau St Michelle in Washington. For an illustration of the different grape varieties (varietals), any of their bottlings are good. Inexpensive and decent wines, especially the whites. Incidentally, CC makes merlot and cabs that they put into barrels. How do they do it cheaply? Re-use - they scrape the insides of the barrels, exposing new wood and therefore do not need to buy new ones each year. If you want to spring for them, the Columbia Crest Reserve series - Walter Clore, Cab Sauv Reserve, or Syrah, are around $20 - $30 but they drink like wines that cost much much more. Australia is another great source of value. Avoid things like Yellow Tail, Penguin, etc. Too many to list, but there is something called shiraz, which is the same grape as syrah, which comes from France (NOT Iran, although people will spread that misinformation around because there is a city w the same name). Australia is huge so one cannot generalize fairly, but the most commone wines over here are from Barossa Valley - very hot place, producing very ripe grapes, meaning they will have more sugar, meaning more alcohol in the wine. These are broad generalizations, but most Barossa wines are towards the fruitier, riper end of things. So look for bottlings by Peter Lehman - always good and very typical. He has a number that is usually under $20 - Clancy's Blend, etc. Australia also makes very great dry rieslings in McClaren Vale - Leasingham has one for $12 and their shiraz is great too. France is going to be expensive if you go for the names, so stick to the south - Rousillon, Languedoc, Corbieres, Cotes du Rhone, even Chateauneuf du Pape. This area is hot and they grow grapes like syrah, grenache, mourvedre, and others. Not usually cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, and merlot. Grenache can smell and taste like strawberries. Doesn't have a lot of those bitter tannins and it is one of the most delightful wines to drink. Traditionally it is blended with the others I mentioned to make GSM. Australia makes great GSM - Lucky Country, if you can find it, is under $15 and wonderful. Spain has a grape called Tempranillo but again, they name the wine by place, not grape. They also have an aging system. Rioja was the best, at least traditionally, so it is what most people know. Young wines are called joven and can be great values. Next up is crianza, which requires at least 6 months in oak barrels (1 yr in Rioja and Ribera del Duero.) Next up is Reserva, next is Gran Reserva. For great examples of traditional style, look for Marques de Murrieta, Marques de Caceres, and Marques de Riscal. The latter especially makes millions of bottles so it should be easy to find. Not too tannic, kind of funky smelling (old leather) tasting of red cherries and tobacco - some of these wines will last for many years. Just do NOT buy the 2002 vintage. There are many wines made for the American market that are less than $10. Finally Italy. They have so many grape varietals, it is impossible to keep up. Again, remember that part of Italy, most of France, and good chunks of Europe were under water in 2002. So there is some good wine, but if you don't know, just avoid the vintage. 2003 was super hot, but some of the wines are fantastic, especially in cooler areas that generally don't ripen as much. People know the Tuscan wines - Chianti, Brunello, etc. Some are buys - Gabbiano, Felsina, Castello d'Abola all make good wine for less than $15. They are made with a grape called Sangiovese - a little more acidic than cabs with a red-fruit profile. Monte Antico is another worth looking at. But you can do something else. There is a grape called nebbiolo - grown in Piedmont and used in Barolo and Barbaresco. Well, some producers are just bottling nebbiolo as well. Mauro Molino, Vietti, and others are making wines called Nebbiolo d'Alba (or wherever they are from). These can be less than $15 and they are wonderful wines - not as tannic or harsh as the barolos and meant to be drunk young. Italy also makes white grapes - pinot grigio (kind of pointless IMO) and malvasia - which can be very nice. Other white grapes to look for - viognier - smells of flowers and peaches, sauvignon blanc - smells like grass, grapefruit, or sometimes cat pee, semillion - smells like tart apples. Other red grapes to look for - pinot noir (the red grape of Burgundy)- can smell like bright berries or Welch's Grape juice, or sometimes like mushrooms and forest and earth, some are good, some are awful. Gallo has a couple of lines - Anapamu, Gallo of Sonoma, that produce respectable stuff. Zinfandel - America's grape, although it is really from Italy where it is called primitivo. Lower end bottlings that are good come from Cline, Ravenswood (Vinter's Blend), and again Gallo - the Rancho Zabaco series. Also Malbec - originally from France but it has reached perfection in Argentina. Bodegas Norton makes a reserve for around $12 that is fantastic - plummy, rich, delicious. Catena Zapata, Terrazes de los Andes, Gascon and Dona Paula are others to look for. Chile has a lot of stuff over here but I find many of their wines vegetal and green and would not recommend them as somewhere to learn. Not fair, but we are talking gross generalizations. Don't know what you want to spend, but it was much easier to spend less than $10 a few years ago. Now you really need to look. Check out Jancis Robinson's Purple Pages - she is an English wine critic who just re-edited the Oxford Dictionary of Wine. Has a great dictionary on her site. Check out Robert Parker's board - he is probably the most influential critic of anything. And check out Decanter - a wine mag from England. And Wine Spectator - the largest circulation US wine mag. And look at the websites that some stores put up. They have a surprising amount of info. PJWine in NYC has a great site with lots of well-written tutorials. Wine Library in NJ has exhuberant blurbs, but some decent info as well. Near you, Sams Warehouse has an excellent site. E-mail me for more specific info.

I wonder if I can buy stock in Harney & Sons! Just kidding. It's a family owned company, from what I understand. But, I've always enjoyed tea, and I really got more "into" tea when I was at UCLA for my recent surgery, Since returning home, I bought a bunch of Stash tea as well as a lot of tea from Harney & Sons. The Harney & Sons company impresses me a great deal, not only for the great tea, but for their customer service. Orders are received very quickly, and samples are always included. My first order included two individually packaged tea bags but ever since then, all of my orders have included individually wrapped tea sachets. Since the tea sachets hold loose tea, I think they're great. Anyway, I do recommend that folks click on the link on the Harney site to "request a catalog." When you do that, you are taken to a page where you can view a PDF of their catalog. I am still stunned at how many different teas this company offers. Lynn and Jakkom - please let me know how you like the tea when you get it.