Dear reader, Welcome back!! Now that we’ve had peace and quiet from neighbor drama, let’s talk about another neighbor of mine: A coffee shop. Last year, a coffee shop by my apartment. Now, you might be wondering, “What happened here?!” Well, I made a lot of close friends since working here, and some of the people from there actually came into my life with love and hope. However, for two other friends I made at this shop, it means something much different. It brought up abandonment and reminders of previous traumas. Here’s the tea, on working at the best place I’ve ever worked at…. This time last year, I was in need of a second job to help pay for a major car repair. After several months of no luck, the prospect of finding a second job was looking hopeless. After all, I still felt fortunate to have just one job. However, after a failed interview at a distillery, I walked back to my apartment to see an answered prayer: The vacant shop space at the base of my apartment got a new tenant. Just the week before, the space was empty. Now, there was construction going on in the space. A week later, a storefront sign went up, and the brand-new coffee shop opened. Perfect timing, right? Well, I went in to apply and two noticed that this was no ordinary coffee shop. This coffee shop in particular specializes in hiring teens and young adults with special needs and disabilities. They give a chance for these teens and young adults to build a resume, and give them a chance to meet and socialize with other people with special needs as well. Although the shop was not hiring any more help at the moment, they said they were looking for volunteers. The prospect of needing a second job quickly went out the window. I felt like this opportunity was more valuable. Over the next few months, I ended up volunteering at the coffee shop. I ended up learning how to make coffee, espresso, and a wide variety of coffee drinks. With this, I got to learn something more incredible and valuable: I got to learn about the people who make up the local special needs community. Seeing these young adults on a regular basis ended up healing something that was missing within me: I felt like I was slowly developing a family. I was befriending the young adults with special needs, their parents, the regular employees, and also the owners of the shop. Over time, I also befriended two of the regular full-time employees of the shop: Cosmo & Wanda. You see, Cosmo and Wanda are in their early 20’s, are from my town, and also involved in the local community… The local religious community. Cosmo and Wanda worked hand-in-hand and are inseparable. Based on how they interacted, you’d assume they were a couple. However, Cosmo grew up attending the church that Wanda worked at. Wanda actually met Cosmo’s church while on a church retreat, and ended up getting hired to work in the ministry. She moved across the country and moved here by herself. However, at the time of meeting them, the three of us began to hang out more regularly. Cosmo and I met up to go to dinner a few times, and he even took me rock climbing. Wanda and I also had a few outings of our own, and since I saw them on a semi-regular basis through volunteering, I didn’t think our friendship extended past the coffee shop. That is, until I talked to Cosmo at the coffee shop. “Wanda is dealing with something hard. I feel bad for her. Maybe you should check up on her?” Then, I pulled out my phone and called Wanda. “Hey, let’s meet up for ice cream! See you at 7?” Wanda was hesitant, but reluctantly gave in and met me for ice cream. Wanda and I sat in the window of the ice cream shop, and I noticed something was off with her. Given that she had a bubbly and upbeat personality, this felt very odd and strange. After sitting in silence, I said, “You don’t have to open up to me or anything, but I also know that when going through something rough, it’s not always good to sit at home and be inside your head.” She gave a faint smile and replied, “Well, thank you. I’ve just been struggling lately. Today is the anniversary of the death of a close family member. It was hard on all of us. It was hard on me. He was like a father figure to me.” I sat there in silence before replying, “I lost my father when I was 14. I know very well how it feels. The anniversary of his passing is hard. It doesn’t get easier with time; it just changes and looks different every year.” Then, Wanda and I got into a discussion about our past traumas and our families, and realized that we grew up very similarly. After an hour of wound-healing, Wanda and I left the ice cream shop. Before she went to her car, she gave me a hug and said, “I love you, friend.” I stopped. The world stopped. I haven’t had a friend tell me that they loved me in quite some time. In years, actually. I was taken by surprise, and all I could do was hug her back and say, “I love you too, friend.” That’s when I knew that Wanda wasn’t just a friend from the coffee shop; she was a friend who was now in my life, regardless. As time went on, we developed our friendships and continued to hang out outside of the coffee shop. Cosmo and Wanda eventually invited me to game night with other young adults in their church group, and after a while, Cosmo and Wanda began to feel like family. Cosmo and Wanda, along with the other people at the coffee shop, became a safe place that I could go to regardless of my issues. Eventually, I took my first ex, Tom, to the shop to meet Cosmo and Wanda. When Tom met Cosmo and Wanda, Tom and I were on the way to the gym together and went into the shop wearing tank-tops. When talking to Cosmo and Wanda, Cosmo kept looking back and forth at Tom and my biceps. I don’t know if it was intentional for him to be looking that long, but he didn’t try to hide it either. When Tom and I got to the car, Tom said, “I think Cosmo is into you. He was definitely checking you out.” I hesitantly replied, “Yeah, I mean, he was checking both of us out. But, I think he’s straight… Right?” Tom replied, “Straight?! That boy is gay.” However, after several months, Tom and I went to a game night hosted by Cosmo and Wanda. This was the first time that Tom got to actually hang out with the group, and as a green flag to the relationship, everyone liked him. As you know, Tom and I broke up. However, Wyatt and I began dating, and I even took Wyatt to the coffee shop to meet Cosmo and Wanda. Upon meeting them, Wanda pulled me aside and said, “We like Wyatt better. He’s much easier to get along with!” Then, after a few weeks, Wanda invited Wyatt and me to a game night where he got to interact with everyone. With a good night in the bag, Wyatt and I got back to the car as Wyatt said, “So, is Cosmo out yet?” I stared at him blankly and replied, “Interesting… you’re not the first person to ask me that.” A few weeks later, Cosmo and I went to dinner at In-N-Out. After Cosmo and Wanda’s relationship seemed so close-knit, I had to ask him about his feelings for her. “Wanda!? Why does everyone keep saying that Wanda and I are together?!” I chuckled as I replied, “Well, I mean, you two are like other halves! You are both the same person.” Then, Cosmo sighed as he said, “Well, to be honest, I’m not into Wanda romantically…” “WHOOMP, THERE IT IS,” I thought to myself as I awaited a closeted confession from Cosmo. I leaned in closer to Cosmo while awaiting his impending coming out as he continued, “…because Wanda reminds me too much of my mom.” “Damn it,” I thought to myself as I quickly leaned back in my booth. As you know, Wyatt broke up with me. After that breakup, the first people I saw and told about the breakup were Cosmo and Wanda. After the breakup, I walked down to the coffee shop in my pajamas, eyes bloodshot, with my hair looking like it had been blowing in the rain. “Cody, what’s wrong?” Wanda asked as she and Cosmo hurried over to me. I couldn’t speak. I was still in shock, and no matter how hard I tried to get the words out, I couldn’t. I opened my mouth, and as I did, I began to cry. Cosmo and Wanda held me as I cried in the shop. I was safe. However, this is when things started to take a different turn. This is when this story goes from a heartfelt tale of chosen family to a tale of triggering PTSD… Two weeks later, Cosmo and I made a plan to go out to dinner and catch up on life things. Since my breakup with Wyatt, I was feeling empty and needed friend time. I was still figuring out the process of how to find a therapist, and dealing with my neighbor's situation. However, we made plans for that Sunday. As Sunday rolled around, I got dressed and waited on the couch. An hour went by, and I eventually gave Cosmo a call. No answer. Another hour went by, and after a final phone call, I got undressed and went to bed early. A few days later, Cosmo eventually texted me back, “Oh, hey! So sorry about that. Family came in from out of town, and I totally forgot!” I ignored the text and decided to let it go. Then, I got a text from Wanda. “Hey, I’m sorry that I missed you and Cosmo the other day! I won’t be able to see you any time soon, though, as I’m going back home for the holidays. Maybe we can plan something when I get back?” “Sure! When do you get back?” I asked. Wanda replied, “Well, I’ll spend two weeks back home for Thanksgiving, then I’ll be back here for a week, before going back for a month for Christmas.” “Oh, will you have any free time in that week that you’re back?” I asked. She replied, “Well, no. I’m super busy. I’ve just got a lot of stuff planned between the church and everything else. I’m sorry!” Well, as the next few weeks went by, things with my neighbor began heating up. I had already started the process to file a restraining order against him, and I kept feeling smaller and smaller. Around the week of Christmas, I called Wanda, and without surprise, there was no answer. However, the next day, I was at the coffee shop when I watched another employee face-timing her. I then started to feel insecure. As December moved along, I didn’t hear much from Cosmo or Wanda. Except that Cosmo came up out of the blue and texted me. He invited me to go to his family’s Christmas church service on Christmas Eve. Surprised by the invite out of the blue, I accepted. When showing up to the Church service, I sat in his family’s section while gritting my teeth through this pastor’s service who, I shit you not, talked about how Herod the Great is someone to be appreciated because he at least believed in Jesus Christ when no one else did. Dear reader, let’s pause the fucking breaks on this one. According to ancient Syrian texts, Roman king Herod the Great massacred an estimated 144,000+ children/toddlers because he was so scared of the incarnation of God coming to take his power away from him; he believed that if he killed all young children, he’d eliminate God’s human child, thus further securing his place on the throne. The pastor was preaching that King Herod was to be praised, because even in the face of fear and murder, he still believed in Christ, and would enter the gates of Heaven because he at least believed in Jesus Christ. To conclude, we should all be like Kind Herod and have faith that Jesus Christ will come again, and we’d enter the gates of heaven. I’m not remotely making this up. This was the Christmas message. We finished by singing Hallelujah and some Kumbaya bullshit while holding hands. Merry Christmas. Anywho… As the service ended, Cosmo talked to his brother to hurry home and set up for game night, before turning to me and saying, “Thank you for coming, see you next time!” I drove home while confused as to why I was even there to begin with. Eventually, Wanda returned home after being gone for over a month, and after being unable to make plans for a bit, Wanda and Cosmo finally agreed to come to my blog’s 10-year anniversary party. However, they both showed up late to the event. While trying to grow patience for them, Cosmo and I made plans to hang out a few weeks later. We roped in Wanda and made a plan to hang out on the next Sunday night. However, as history would repeat itself, I showered, got dressed, and waited on the couch. As time went by, I heard nothing from either of them. I eventually texted Cosmo, and no reply. After an hour, I called Cosmo, and it went to voicemail. I texted Wanda, and no reply. Then, I sat alone in my apartment as I thought to myself, “The last time I got stood up on a regular basis like this was by a gay man.” Then, I instantly thought about what my ex said about Cosmo. “AH-HA, only a gay man would stand me up like this because Cosmo is gay!” Then, I got a feeling of anger spike as I thought about both of my exes. I also got to thinking about how both of them told me they loved me, and now they’re gone. With a spike of adrenaline, I quickly hyperventilated as I began to uncontrollably think about everyone in my life who said they’d be there for me, and couldn’t show up. My dad. My mom. My entire family. Anyone who has ever loved me. Most recently, Cosmo and Wanda. Then, in a fit of panic, I texted both Cosmo and Wanda and said, “Hey, I’ll need a break from these friendships. This is starting to hurt me more than it is helping me, and I need to take a break from this.” Then, Wanda almost immediately replied, “I’m so sorry for whatever I did. I’m not sure what happened, but I’ll pray for your forgiveness and ask God to show both of us the way.” However, I didn’t hear anything from Cosmo until two days later. “I’m sorry for not responding to my phone. I’ll pray to God to help me be a better person, so I’ll check my phone more often.” After reading Cosmo’s text, I typed, “You not checking your phone wasn’t the problem, standing me up is! Personal growth comes from YOU, not God. God can’t fix your stupidity and flakiness because only YOU are in charge of that!!” However, as I typed it, I looked at my phone and realized that sending this text wouldn’t change the outcome. It would’t do anything. I took a deep breath, deleted the text, and replied, “k, I forgive you.” I then deleted Cosmo and Wanda’s contacts from my phone, deleted my texts with them, and decided to move on from our friendships… Dear reader, I learned several things from this. First, I learned that you should never go back to a church that tells you to give praise to a child-murdering king. Second, I also learned that when people show you who they are the first time, you should believe them. If a friend stands you up or screens your calls, then you should’t expect them to do any different moving forward. Lastly, you are allowed to give people chances. Everyone deserves grace. However, how much grace is too much? That’s only for you to decide. However, before we go further, I need to tell you about something else that I went through when growing up. I need to tell you why I can’t gauge how much is too little, and how little it is too little. Until next week, have a cup of tea that will warm your soul and will bring you peace and tranquility. See you next week. With much love, ~Cody Aka The Oolong Drunk “Blissfully Tea Drunk”

Hello hello, dear friend! While my love life came to an end, something else in the background was arising as new beginnings were, well, beginning. What might that mean to me? My very first court appearance. As you may have seen on social media, I had to take a neighbor to court over stalking and harassment, and went through a restraining order process against my neighbor. However, this didn’t happen overnight; this was a process that led to a head injury, a burn, and to make it all better, several hundred dollars' worth of broken tableware. So what exactly happened for all of this to transpire? Here’s exactly what happened… First, we need to go back to 2023. This is when we meet Neighbor. My first introduction to Neighbor and his dog Cujo was one afternoon when I opened my front door to go to work. While holding a plate of food, a latte, and a backpack in my hand, I opened the door at the exact moment that Neighbor was walking Cujo by my unit. The moment I opened the door, Cujo turned and leaped on me, making me fall back in my apartment. As I fell back and dropped my latte and breakfast, I hit the back of my head on my bathroom door. As a knot began to swell on the back of my head, and laid there in bewilderment as to what exactly just happened. Quickly, I stood up and rushed back to my door and looked to the left, to see an elderly man with a medium-sized white dog standing at the door of a unit at the opposite end of the hall. I pulled out my phone, zoomed in, and snapped a photo of the man and texted my property manager. “Hey, I don’t know who this is, but this man’s dog jumped on me and caused me to fall back and hit my head. The man didn’t even stop to see if I was okay or not.” A few moments later, the property manager replied, “We know who this is; we’ll have a talk with him.” After that, you’d think that would be the end of it, right? It was, but only for a short period of time. Three months later, I was sitting on my couch watching TV as my cat Sunshine sat in the living room window. Then, suddenly, a loud boom erupted at my living room window. I jumped out of my skin as I quickly stood up, while Sunshine ran under the couch. The boom was so loud that it sounded like someone was going to break into my window. I quickly stood up and ran to my door, only to see the old man and Cujo walking towards the stairwell. I quickly rushed over there, snapped a photo of them, and texted my property manager. “Hey! Remember the old man and his dog? Well, I believe the dog jumped on my window. There are paw prints and dirt all over my window, and it sounded like someone was trying to break in.” The property manager replied the next day and said, “Oh, we’ll have a talk with him.” However, that didn’t do anything. Although Sunshine stopped sitting in my living room window after that incident, the dog would repeatedly jump on my window. Now, before I go further, I should explain the layout of my apartment. My apartment’s parking garage is connected to the South of the property. From there, you have to walk through a stairwell entrance, where you’ll find a door that leads to the complex. From there, when you enter, there’s a hall with units to the left. My unit is the first to the left when you enter the complex. From there, there are 6 units, and at the opposite end of the hall, there is another staircase next to a freight elevator. This is important to know, because this came into discussion a few months later when I was in the shower late at night… While in the shower, I hear a loud boom at my living room window again. I couldn’t make out any noise past that, but I heard a commotion at the window after. I quickly threw a towel on, ran to my bedroom, and froze in place. I wanted another few moments with 9-1-1 dialed and waiting to be called, and waited to hear anything else. I walked to my living room and looked out the window to find another fresh set of paw prints, accompanied by a few scratches on the window. While angry, I called the property manager and had a discussion with her the following Monday. She said, “We have been with that tenant to get his dog under control. We have video footage of the dog jumping on your window, and we’ll have another discussion with him. Unfortunately, you are not even the first neighbor to complain about this dog. You’re behind a long list of tenants.” I replied, “You know, it’s starting to feel intentional. You’ve talked to him before, and it didn’t stop it. If he’s going out to walk his dog, why isn’t he using the stairwell or the elevator that’s literally by his unit? The fact that he’s going out of his way to walk by my unit now feels intentional.” The property manager replied, “Well, he’s probably going that way because that’s where the parking garage is. Plus, I think the dog was jumping at the cats initially. You know how dogs are, if they see a cat, they’ll want to chase it.” I then angrily replied, “No, I don’t. We have other tenants walking their dogs past my window, and the other dogs don't jump at my window. Hell, I even had a dog growing up, and our dog never uncontrollably lunged at a neighborhood cat! Besides, the cats aren’t even in the window anymore.” The property manager hesitated before replying, “Understood. We’ll have a talk with him.” However, this was only a band-aid. A few months would go by of complete silence, and everything would be seemly fine. Then, out of the blue, the dog would leap at my window again. The dog would’t just do it once; the dog would leap and jump at it 3-4 days in a row. I would complain about the neighbor, the property managers would ‘have a talk with him’, and his dog would be on a tighter leash for 3-4 months, then it would start back up again. This cycle lasted for almost 2 years, until last year. At the beginning of 2025, our property managers released a newsletter stating that they’d be hosting a town-hall meeting for all of the residents of the property to discuss various maintenance updates, as well as any apartment community concerns. Later next week, I arrived at the town hall in the apartment’s meeting room, and sat and observed as around a dozen and a half of my neighbors filled the room. As the property managers went over planned agendas, they then opened the floor for tenant comments. Immediately, a neighbor stood up and proclaimed, “Yeah, I’d like to talk about the dog problem we have at the property.” Then, another neighbor interrupted and said, “Yes, I have a dog problem too!” Then, before I knew it, four neighbors were talking over each other about how they all had a dog problem, and started sharing separate incidents they had with dogs on the property. Then, once the dust settled, I stood up and interjected, “Wait, I think I see a commonality. Raise your hand if your dog problem is with a medium-sized dog who is owned by an older gentleman.” Then, everyone in the room raised their hand. “Yeah, we don’t have a dog problem. We just have a problem with that dog in particular.” The property manager then quickly interjected and said, “We are working closely with this person to get everything under control. Please report to us if you continue to have any further issues.” A few months later, I was sitting on the couch when I heard several dogs barking and a woman screaming to the top of her lungs. The next morning, I called the property manager and said, “So last night, it sounded like there was an incident. I heard a dog loudly barking and a woman scream to the top of her lungs.” The property manager replied, “Oh, we’re already aware of the incident, and we already talked to the older gentleman about his dog.” I hung up the phone and thought to myself, “I didn’t even complain about him, and she admitted it was him. Of course, it was him.” Everything seemed to quiet down until the cycle continued. One weekend, the dog jumped on my window three nights in a row. On the last night, I was pouring tea on the couch when the loud bang made me jump, as I spilled boiling water on my leg. I was mid-pour, and as a result, I burned my thigh. It’s safe to say, I was hotter than the water I boiled on myself. At that point, I had started looking at various apartments across my city, and to my disappointment, I couldn’t find anything affordable. Currently, my apartment is under my county, as I belong to a housing program. With the county’s housing program, my rent is around $500 cheaper per-month compared to the next-cheapest apartment in town. Even with my discounted rent, I still could barely afford it. Compared to other parts of the country, I know some of my friends pay less in their mortgages and house insurance. So how am I supposed to afford to move?! I reported it, and to my surprise, my property manager said, “We are moving forward with the next steps with this tenant. We are tired of dealing with this, and we also want it to be over with. If the man can’t handle his dog, then the dog has to go. Trust us, we can only imagine how you feel. Thank you for your patience.” That seemed to be the end of it, except, of course, it wasn’t. One night, I was sitting on the couch with my blinds closed while watching a movie. It was close to midnight when I heard a bang at my window. However, it didn’t end there. It sounded like someone was repeatedly punching at my window, and from there, it continued over to my living room door. My cat Sunshine jumped and ran across my counter, and when doing so, mowed over several pieces of teaware that were drying on my counter. I jumped up, dialed 9-1-1, and looked out of my peephole to see my neighbor and his dog at the door. I opened the door, and in the deepest-bravado scream I’ve ever produced, I screamed at the old man, “Leave me the fuck alone!!” Then, I slammed my door as 9-1-1 answered. The cops came out as I explained to them that it sounded like someone was trying to break into the apartment. I explained to them my broken property and some of the issues happening. They told me that this is a civil dispute between me and the property management, and ultimately, they can’t do anything… …unless I had an order of protection that the neighbor was breaking. After the cops came, I called my property manager and left her an angry voicemail. “First off, what are you guys doing that in the past two and a half years, this issue is still on-going? I can’t afford to live anywhere else. Hell, I can barely afford to live here! I reviewed the lease, and we had to sign an anti-violent clause in the lease. Did that apply to only me? You can tell me all damn day that you guys are working with him, but nothing has happened! Do you know how absurd this is? Why aren’t you doing your job?! Stop playing this game, and actually do something!!” To my surprise, the next morning, my property manager texted me and said, “The dog was supposed to be gone two months ago. What do you mean it’s still on the property?! We’re working to get this resolved.” However, the next day, the old man walked by my apartment again, and this time, his dog was gone. Instead, he looked in my window and yelled at me while I was in my unit, “Piece of shit!” And this happened again. And again. Over the course of the rest of the day, the old man walked by my unit and continued to yell curse words through the window. The next day, I propped my phone up in my window and even caught him calling me a ‘cunt’ through my window. And in those two days, anytime I went to or from my car, he would be afar watching me. He’d then follow me and watch for me as I was coming and going. On two occasions, he watched me pull up home in the parking garage from his car. He’d then follow me to my unit and would proceed to yell curse words at me through my door and window. I had enough. The next morning, I did two things. First, I went and filed a protective order against my neighbor. However, this proved rather difficult because I didn’t even know his name. I had to search through county voter records to obtain his first and last name, to be able to serve him the court paperwork needed to serve him with the protective order. Second, I found the head of my county’s housing services, and filed a complaint against my property managers. I had a twenty-minute phone call with the woman regarding how my property managers didn’t do their due diligence in follow-up with this issue, which inevitably led to this situation becoming violent due to their inaction. Third, I complained that I had been injured twice, had several hundred dollars worth of my property damaged because of this neighbor, and lately, I was no longer safe in my unit. A week later, the neighbor and I appeared in front of a judge in a preliminary hearing regarding the protective order. The judge asked him, “How do you respond to this complaint?” He said, “Judge, my integrity has been insulted by false accusations.” I then interrupted and said, “I have two separate videos of him calling me a ‘cunt’ and a ‘piece of shit’.” The judge then looked at Neighbor and said, “If what he is saying is true, and if he shows me these videos of what he claims, then it’s not going to look good for you. You could save us all of the trouble by having a hearing and just agreeing to the terms of the protective order now.” Neighbor just sat there in silence. After a moment, he finally gave up and said, “Well, since he has video…. I’ll agree to the terms of the protective order.” Then, the judge lowered her head and looked directly at him and said, “Do not go near his unit. Do not walk by it. Do not make any contact with Cody whatsoever. If you do, it will result in a fine and up to 90 days in jail. Do you understand? Leave him alone.” The neighbor then said, “Ok but I have to walk by his unit. It’s where the parking garage is. I’m moving after next month, and there is no other place for me to load the U-Haul.” I then looked at the judge and said, “Judge, if I may respond? Neighbor’s unit is directly across from the freight elevator. When I moved into to these apartments 4 years ago, I parked my Uhaul in the street, used the apartment’s front door, and used that very-same freight elevator for myself. It is completely unnecessary for him to go near my unit. It has been unnecessary this entire time.” The judge then looked at Neighbor and said, “Then it’s settled. You will not go near his unit, and you will leave Cody alone from this point forward. Wait outside for the bailiff to bring you the paperwork to sign.” The neighbor then abruptly stood up from his chair as he stormed out of the court — slamming the court doors open as he left. That was the last time I had contact with the old man. You see, dear friend, this chain of events happened for almost three whole years. There were many moments where I felt trapped and unsafe in my own home. While these moments came and went in waves, I can’t tell you how much of a weird feeling it will be to be able to go on without hearing a 45lb cannonball being lunged at my apartment. I wish I could make six figures and just up and move. If I had the means to, I would have moved to another apartment in town instantly. I don’t have a home to go back to. I don’t have family to move in with if I were to ultimately fail. In my mind, I had to make the concession: Stay here and be patient, or risk becoming homeless. Anyways, thank you for listening, dear friend. Thank you for always being here for me and making me feel like our connection is unconditional. Until next week, ~Cody Aka The Oolong Drunk “Blissfully Tea Drunk”

Dear reader, Hello there!! How was your week? Did you drink a good tea on my behalf? Or, did you drink a good tea on your behalf? Speaking of tea, I’m gonna need you to buckle in for this next one because there’s a lot more to be spilled today. However, before we get in the thick of it, I must ask you: Have you ever had a love that was explosive? A love that would ignite like dynamite? Well, this leads me to my final question: Have you ever been love-bombed? By definition, love-bombing is the act the action or practice of lavishing someone with attention or affection, especially in order to influence or manipulate them. Now, with that in mind, let me tell you about Wyatt, the man who would set off the next bomb in my love life; leaving me a detonated mess in the end… A month after my break-up with Tom, I decided to put myself back out there again. During the month of dating-celibacy, I took care of myself. I went to the gym on a regular basis, I spent time with more friends, and I kept volunteering. I truly believe I handled it the correct way: I cried at night, cussed his name during the day, and kept typing and deleting the same text over and over to him, until I began to cry over him. After a week of this cycle, I reached the stage of ‘acceptance’ and was ready to graduate from my ‘relationships anonymous’ support group. A month after my graduation, I decided to take another go at the world of dating, and to my surprise, I matched with a guy named Wyatt who lived two miles from me. He had brown hair, crystal-brown eyes, owned his own house at age 28, and a smile that inevitably made me smile. You see, this is rare. I live in a town that’s smaller than 100,000 people. There’s a total of 30-40 gay people in my town, and the ones on the dating apps are either couples in open relationships or closeted men who are secretly married to straight women. The other gay people in town are gay couples who met somewhere else and moved to my town, or they’re lesbian. For any chance of me meeting a potential partner, I either have to date someone thirty-miles away in Denver, or hope that a single gay man moves to my town. However, there was a single guy my age who was just two miles away. In my near 5-years of living here, this was a first. I messaged Wyatt with a simple hello, and quickly after, he replied. After a bit of small talk, Wyatt and I were launched into a discussion. For me (and as I’d later find out, for him), this conversation felt like talking to a long-lost friend. We had the same hobbies, lived a similar lifestyle, and almost wanted the same things, until he said, “Well, I’d love to hang out, except I’m not looking for a relationship quite yet. I just got out of a 6-year relationship, and I just want to settle and lurk on the dating apps for now.” “Damnit”, I said under my breath. While having another gay friend in close proximity would have been nice, I was also on dating apps, to, well, date. I told Wyatt that I enjoyed talking to him, except I didn’t want friendship. Instead, I told him, “Why don’t you save our chat, and when you’re ready to date again, just hit me up, and we can go on a date.” He agreed, as we both parted ways… That is, until a bit of time later, when I stumbled across him on a different app. Upon seeing his face, mine lit up. I couldn’t help but send him a message. “I thought you looked familiar,” I said with a smily-face emoji. Quickly, he replied, “I saw your profile and kept wondering if I should message you!” To which I responded, “And what would you have messaged me?” Wyatt said, “To take you up on that offer and officially go on that date together.” My face lit up as Wyatt and I exchanged phone numbers and set a plan to go out on one of the most romantic first dates you could take anyone on: Sample hunting at Costco. Wyatt and I met in the Costco parking lot. We both came from the gym, which felt fitting. It was as low-maintenance a date as you could have hoped for. We walked the aisles, got samples, and talked away as if we had known each other for months. After raiding all of the samples, we went back to our cars. However, before we parted, we both looked in each other’s eyes and leaned in for a kiss. It was the kiss. The sparks. The fireworks. The infighting of a fuse. It was a kiss I’ll never forget… Then, the words came out of his mouth, “Do you wanna grab dinner tonight?” I smiled and agreed. My face turned red, and I drove back home with all of the butterflies. Later that night, Wyatt showed up at my apartment, and showed up with a small bouquet of flowers and a stuffed animal. “I figured you might want something to think of me.” I blushed as I took it and held it. I looked up and leaned in for a kiss, and he kissed me back. Dear reader, I wouldn’t be able to really tell you anything more specific that happened, mostly because I was in a daze. The date went smoothly, we both talked all night, both had the same end-goal in a relationship (kids and marriage), and we left that date feeling a strong connection between us. However, that week, Wyatt had to leave town for work. He went out of state to a work conference, and while gone, we FaceTimed every night before bed. He said he enjoyed chatting with me and felt it was bad timing. He wanted to be back home with me and didn’t want to up and go while starting something new with someone. However, while he was gone, I slept with the stuffed animal he bought me and thought of him at night. After chatting for a few more nights, he didn’t feel like someone I was just dating; he started to feel like a true partner in crime. Later, when he arrived back home, we went on a date night. When seeing him, he gave me a massive hug, a hug that could melt away any stress in the world. We looked up at each other and kissed before he said, “I don’t know what this is, but I want you.” I replied and said, “I want you too. I don’t want you seeing anyone else.” He smiled and said, “That would make me very happy.” It seemed like everything was going according to plan. The stars were definitely in my favor. A few more weeks had gone by, and by this point, we had started calling each other ‘babe’. We had ‘the talk’ and agreed that we belonged to each other, and we were boyfriends. We went on more magical dates, had even more magical sleepovers, and got to meet each other's friends. While introducing him to my friends, my friends pulled me aside and would say, “Cody, he’s a huge improvement over the last one! He’s a keeper!” And as it turned out, his friends were saying the same thing about me. We also understood each other as well. His dad wasn’t in his life, and neither was mine. We grew up very similarly and wanted to create a family. Except, one major difference is that his mom and sister both lived in a house across the street from him. Despite that, he talked about wanting me to meet them eventually. In the meantime, we went to the gym together, ran errands together, and for the first time in my adult life, it felt like I truly had a life partner. I finally had the fulfillment I had always wanted. Everything started to feel like a Hallmark movie, that is, until it didn’t. A few nights later, I went over to Wyatt’s house and saw the contents of his garage. It looked like someone was moving, and out of curiosity , I asked, “Whose stuff is all of this?” Wyatt looked at me in shame and said, “Well, it's all of my exes' things. When we broke up, he went home to live with his parents. We actually lived here together for four years. However, I gave him three months to come by and pick up his stuff.” “Oh,” I said as I looked at another person's entire life packed way in this garage. “Do you think this could lead to issues? I mean, if you have a lot tied to him.” Wyatt looked at me in shame and said, “I’ll make sure you’ll never be put in the middle of anything. He’s in the past, not in my future. He cheated on me, and the relationship was toxic. I’ll never go back to a cheater… You’re my future. I never want you to ever feel anything other than important in my life.” I was hesitant, but believed him at his word. That night, we cuddled, watched PBS, and looked at the aurora borealis together. However, that’s when he brought out the bong. “I usually take a hit before bed. Is that alright?” He asked. “Well, I can’t smoke because of my asthma, but I don’t judge.” He smiled, took it outside, and came back in. Then, in a split second, I said, “Well, I haven’t in a while. Sure, I’ll take a hit!” I took the bong outside, took a hit, and almost instantly, I nearly fell over. “Jesus, how strong is that?” I asked in confusion. “It’s a stronger one from one of the new dispensaries in town,” he said apologetically. Then, I turned into his arms, closed my eyes, and said, “I can’t move. I can’t open my eyes. My head feels like it weighs a million pounds!” Wyatt stayed calm while he guided me towards his bedroom. “Let’s tuck you in and get you settled,” he said as he guided me to his bed. After climbing into the sheets, the room began spinning uncontrollably fast. “I need, I need…” I said as I tried to word-vomit without actually vomiting. “Medicine! Make the room stop moving!” I exclaimed as I grabbed tightly onto the bed and began to hyperventilate. While trying to stay calm, Wyatt quickly threw on his jacket, grabbed his keys, and said, “I’m out of pesto and Dramamine, I’ll run to the store and grab some real quick! Try to stay calm, I’ll be right back!” I closed my eyes with my head in my lap, and almost a second later, Wyatt returned home. “Here, take this,” he said as he force-fed me Dramamine and Pepto. “The world is moving! But the universe is also expanding. We’re moving twice! Like, the earth is moving on a fixed plane, but also, it’s the matter that’s around us that’s expanding! But, expanding into what?! More space?! But we already have space!” I exclaimed in confusion as he force-fed me Pepto and Dramamine. Twenty minutes later, the nausea and dizziness began to subside, and as it did, I lay down and quickly went back to sleep… The next morning, I woke up next to Wyatt, and he was staring right at me. “Hey, how are you feeling?” He asked gently. “I’m feeling better, actually,” I admitted. Wyatt started to tear up before saying, “I’m so sorry. You turned green. I had no idea you’d react that way, or else I’d never give it to you. All of the stores were closed, so I stopped at 6 gas stations to find everything. I was so nervous.” “I smiled and replied, “It’s okay, really. I thought it was really sweet how you went out and drove all over town to find me medicine to make me feel better. Like, that makes me feel really special that you’d take good care of me.” He looked me in the eye and said, “That’s because I love you.” Although I wanted the Earth to stop spinning all night, it finally did this morning. I smiled as I replied, “I love you too.” He then pulled me up on his chest as we cuddled all morning… Later in the week, Wyatt and I were eating dinner together as he said, “I'm starting to get overwhelmed. Since my mom and sister live across the street from me, I see them often. With my last relationship, my family felt like I spent too much time on my ex and not enough time with them. I’m rebuilding my trust with them and trying to repair that. My mom is also getting older, and my mom and my sister need me. I do so much for them; I don’t know what they’d do without me.” After listening to him, I put my arm around him and said, “Well, you don’t have to pick and choose. You don’t want to compartmentalize your mom and sister, and as for myself, I don’t want to be compartmentalized either… You realize you can have both, right? Why don’t you find a way to incorporate all of us, tougher? After all, we all have 1 person in common that we care for and love.” Wyatt stared at the wall while contemplating. He eventually replied, “Well, that’s true. It would be nice to have everyone together so I don’t feel like I’m neglecting anyone.” I then said, “Well, it would be cool to meet them. The holidays are coming up, and one thing that’s important for me to have in a relationship is someone I can spend the holidays with. I’ve spent many years celebrating holidays alone, and I don’t want to have to be alone again if I have a partner in my life.” Wyatt looked at me in the eye and said, “Then you won’t have to. I’ll find a way for you to meet my family, and then we’ll spend the holidays together.” A few days later, Wyatt came to me with a plan: That upcoming weekend, I’d be meeting his mom and sister. However, the day before, Wyatt called and said, “Hey, so mom, mom, and sister are being a little too cautious. They’re nervous meeting you, because they were really hurt by my last breakup.” I asked, “Wait, how were they hurt?” He hesitated before replying, “Well, my sister got really close with my ex, and when he cheated on me, it broke her trust. My mom was also blindsided by the breakup, because she thought things were fine. It really hurt both of them.” I started to get wary before replying, “Well, let's postpone it then. But, I’m also not your ex. I don’t want to be punished or projected upon based on what someone else did.” Wyatt became apologetic and said, “Well, yeah, that wouldn’t be fair to you… I’ll have a talk with them, and we’ll meet the weekend after.” The weekend after rolled around, and Wyatt came over. We were going to leave for dinner from my place, and from there, we would meet his mom and sister at the restaurant. Before too long, his mom and sister arrived. We stopped at a cafe, I made them tea as an ice-breaker, and we continued on to dinner. During dinner, his mom’s patience grew thin. Throughout the course of the meal, she barked at our waitress, talked over her, and other times, was insulting. His sister was quiet, and throughout the entirety of dinner, his sister hardly said two words to me. Wyatt and his mom excused themselves to go to the bathroom, and now was my perfect chance to clear the air with his sister. “Hey, so Wyatt was telling me that you were hurt pretty badly by his ex… I wanted to make my intentions known, that I have also been cheated on, and I really care about your brother. I’d never do anything to break his trust. I hope we can grow to be friends.” She gave me a blank look and replied, “Well, that’s good for you. But family is the most important to him. I don’t know what you want from me, but that’s not my problem.” I smiled and nodded and kept to myself before Wyatt and his mother returned. Later that night, Wyatt and I returned to my apartment. Upon walking in, he gave me a huge hug. “That went so much better than expected,” he said with a sigh of relief. I smiled, held him, and said, “I’m glad too. Thank you for including me in your life.” Then, I quickly moved over to my computer, put on “Your Love is King’ by SADE, and took Wyatt by the hand and started slow dancing with him. “This is to celebrate a wonderful night,” I said as we swayed back and forth. Wyatt then looked at me as tears began to roll down the side of his face. “What’s going on?” I asked calmly while holding his hand and waist. He stuttered as he said, “It’s just, no one’s wanted to dance with me before. No one has treated me this well before. I never thought I could have this, and I’m just so glad you’re in my life…. I love you.” I said ‘I love you too’ as I held him while facing in place… Two days later, Wyatt and I made plans to talk during my break at work. He said he’d call me when he woke up, and I'd take my break then. It was the week of Thanksgiving, and I was going to the grocery store during my lunch break to get food to help cook and prepare. Wyatt sent me a text and said, “Good morning!” “Good morning to you!! I’m ready to talk when you are.” I said. Ten minutes went by, and he didn’t text back. I then found a break at work, and went outside and gave him a call. No answer. He then quickly sent a text that said, “Hey, I’m on the phone with my mom, figuring out plans for my sister.” I replied, “Oh, well, you said we could talk when you wake up. I just took my break, wanted to check in with plans before going back in.” He then replied, “Well, that’s your problem. No one told you to take a break. I’m on the phone with family.” I replied, “Why are you being so combative? I’m only doing what you said to do.” To which he replied, “You can’t take me away from my family! Family comes first. I know you don’t have any, but that’s not my problem.” My blood started boiling. My heart rate went from 0 to 100 as I quickly replied, “Hey, that was combative... You’re replying to me like I’m attacking you. I’m not your ex. It’s me, I’m on your side here.” Then, as my break time ran up, I gave him a call one more time. He answered. “What?!” He barked at me as he picked up the phone. “Why are you being combative?! It’s been half an hour, and I took my break to talk to you. You said we could talk to figure out plans, and now you're being combative. Like, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not trying to take you away from your family. I was about to take my lunch to get stuff at the grocery store,” I said while trying to stay calm. He replied, “Yeah, I did say that, but that’s not my problem. I was on the phone because today is my sister’s birthday. You know, family comes first, and as far as Thanksgiving goes, I don’t think you should come anymore.” I started to breathe heavily as I said, “What the hell?! Where is this coming from?! I said I didn’t want to be compartmentalized, and now you’re pushing me out?! What is this all about?! He then said, “I’m overwhelmed, and I just got over my ex, and I don’t want to be in a relationship. I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t know you. I should have never dated you.” I then angrily replied, “So why are we dating!? What has all of this been then if you didn’t want to be with me?! You said you loved me! You cried when we danced and said you were glad I was in your life!! Why are you self-destructing?!” There was a pause on the phone before he concluded, “I wanted to see if I could actually love someone again after my ex. He left me broken. Now that I know I can have a future with someone, and now that I know that I can love someone, I want to take the time to take care of myself and be single again.” Without hesitation, I quickly spewed out, “So you used me?!” There was a hesitation on the phone before he concluded, “Well, at first, yeah. Then it got out of hand…” I hung up the phone, drove over to his house, and rolled down my window as he walked up to my car with a handful of my belongings. After we exchanged things, he kneeled down to my driver's side window and said, “Look, I’m sorry I manipulated you.” While looking forward, and without turning my head, I replied, “You love-bombed me. It’s bad enough that you used me, but you did it intentionally. You knew what you were doing.” He sighed and said, “Yeah, yeah, I did… I’m going to go back to be with my family, and you’ll go home to no one, because you don’t have anyone. But that’s not my problem anymore. I'm sorry for you.” I quietly rolled up my car window, reversed out of his driveway, and went on my way home. That was the last time I saw Wyatt. Dear reader, I learned several things throughout all of this. First, if you smoke weed without having any tolerance, you'd better start with the cheap shit. Second, don’t ever date someone if they say they’re freshly out of a relationship. No matter if they say they’ve moved on, you still run the risk of being projected upon by previous trauma. Lastly, if you click with someone so closely and so personally, that’s a great thing! However, if you do it too fast, you run the risk of being love-bombed. You run the risk of being the subject of someone else’s experiment, and you run the risk of being hurt in the end. However, when I pulled home that day, I went and grabbed the stuffed animal that Wyatt bought me, and sat on my couch and stared at a blank TV screen for the rest of the night. I didn’t cry. I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t move. I spend 3 days sitting on the couch, staring at a blank wall. I began to question: What’s the point of dating anymore? Why should I even attempt to have a life partner? I’ve wanted to get married and have kids since I was a kid myself, and yet, why is it this difficult? Why must I keep going through all of this, just to be hurt this bad? I hate to say it, but I started to build a deep hate and resentment towards gay men and dating altogether. In the meantime, I’ll be sipping on this unsmoked lapsing tea, which isn’t so bad, and will wait for the hot water to smooth these leaves of bitterness out of my soul. Until next week, ~Cody Aka The Oolong Drunk “Blissfully Tea Drunk”

Dear reader, Hello there!! Wow, has it really been a year since we last talked? How have you been? Did you survive the winter storms this past winter? I can’t wait to hear all about how you’ve been! What have I been up to, you ask? Well, since we last talked, a lot has happened. While I catch you up on all that’s happened, I have a lot of tea to spill to you. Heat up your kettle and get your tea leaves ready, because I will be spilling the most tea I’ve ever spilled to you. First, I’ll be telling you about the story of four roommates. One roommate worked as an electrician, the other worked at a phone store who eventually moved in her boyfriend with her (the 4th roommate), and last but not least, we have the assistant manager of a fast-food restaurant named Tom. Tom and I met through Grindr. Tom was tall, had long hair, and was a few years younger than me. He had a degree, but due to mental health issues, he stopped working full-time after getting his degree and went into restaurant management (which, in my experience, creates mental health issues, but to each their own lol). We went on a dinner date, held hands all night, and got along pretty quickly. The spark was strong enough that by the second date, Tom and I were cuddling on the couch when he got nervous and asked, “Well, you know, I’m not seeing anyone else. I know you’re not seeing anyone else. What if we were just seeing each other? Maybe, what if we were boyfriends?” The way he asked it was so sweet and innocent and wholesome. He looked shy and was blushing. He made me feel safe, and I did enjoy his company. So what would it hurt to give him a chance? I told him yes, and that evening, we deleted our dating apps together. Over the next two weeks, Tom and I went on pretty romantic dates. Although he lived thirty miles away, he came to my apartment because he wanted to date a little bit more before meeting his roommates. According to him, his roommates were more than just roommates — they were his best friends. They were his chosen family. However, July 4th was coming up, and his roommates and he were planning a 4th of July Party at their house. He said this would be the perfect time to meet his roommates. July 4th came around, and Tom gave me a warning. “As a heads up, we were all parking in Dry June. Our last roommate situation was so toxic that we all began drinking heavily. We decided to take a month off drinking to see if we could accomplish it, and we did. However, this is the first time we will have all gotten to drink together, and we really just want to party.” I replied, “That’s cool, and I’ll have a drink with you guys! But I have a family history of alcoholism — specifically with my dad. It was one of the main contributing factors to his passing. It was a traumatic experience, and I don’t know if I want to really date someone who's a heavy drinker.” He said, “I can’t be a drinker. I’m starting training to switch careers to be an airline pilot, and you can’t drink or do drugs. I’m very serious about my career path, and I wouldn’t jeopardize it. I also wouldn’t jeopardize losing you as well.” He smiled and reassured me that he doesn’t have a problem with alcohol, and I had nothing to worry about. He said he’d be mindful about drinking heavily around me, and wanted to make sure I had a good time with him. The night before, I came over and spent the night at his house so I could wake up and already be there for July 4th. And when we woke up, I met his roommates. They were nice, kind, and were all likable. Tom and I left the house to get party supplies, and upon returning, the party had begun. By party, I mean the drinking. When we returned, they all took several shots together, and by noon, one of the roommates had her head in the toilet and was vomiting. She had already drunk too much. As the day turned to night, and as the night progressed, they kept drinking more. However, by the time Tom and I got to bed, it dawned on me that he had been binge drinking all day. He had over 14 beers and two shots, and despite this, he still had a sober demeanor. The next morning, I woke up and packed my bags to go home. However, Tom sensed there was an issue between us. “What’s wrong? Are we cool?” He asked. “Yeah, but I’m spooked. If you could drink so much in a given setting and just be buzzed, it really scares me about dating you.” He looked worried and said, “I hear you. I understand why you’d be spooked, especially with your history with your dad. This isn’t a regular instance, and I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable.” I decided to give him grace and forgive him. However, over the next month, we’d go on dates less and less and start spending time with his friends more and more. Each time we’d hang out with his roommates, drinking would be involved. At one point, I even started to question if he actually had an alcohol problem. After bringing up to him, he said, “There’s no way I have an alcohol problem. I drink because I’m young and wanna have fun with my friends while I can. When my career as a pilot begins, my life will change. I want to enjoy this phase of life while I can.” Then, later that week, I FaceTimed Tom. When I face-timed him, I noticed his eyes were closed over, and he was wobbling. “Tom, are you drunk?” I asked. “I'm not drunk, but I did have a few drinks with my friends.” “Dude, what’s going on?” I asked. He replied, “Well, after you asked me about being an alcoholic, it upset me so much that I drank until I blacked out.” My face turned red. I then pointed my FaceTime camera at my closet door and said, “Tom, do you know what’s in this closet? My dad. His ashes are in there because he couldn’t control his drinking, and it tanked his health. He died when I was 14, and I went through hell.” I then turned the camera back at me and said, “I’m not going through that again. You keep saying you want me, and your drinking won't be an issue, but it already is. I’m getting mixed signals from you, and I can’t take it. Tell me now — do you want to be my boyfriend? Or, do you want to keep drinking and be single?” He stared into the camera and without hesitation, he said, “Look, I want a life partner, and I love you. The drinking stops now. No more alcohol. After this, I’ll be 100% sober. End of story.” Several days later, I came over to his house to spend the weekend with him, and found three empty beer-canes on his nightstand. “So, oh, what the fuck?” I asked Tom. Tom replied, “Well, my roommates and I were taking, and we think it’s unreasonable for you to expect me to quit alcohol altogether.” “But, that was your idea,” I replied. “Yeah, but what if we came to a middle ground? It’s not reasonable for me to quit alcohol altogether, but what if I just had a beer or two and called it a day? Can we have some sort of compromise? Besides, I was drunk when I said it, and I shouldn’t have. You can’t expect to take the word of someone who is that impaired. It feels manipulative. I want this to work.” I took a deep breath and thought for a moment. I looked at him and saw a man in front of me trying hard to make it work with me. Although he said he wasn’t drunk when I FaceTimed him, he wasn’t in his right mind to make such a large decision. I then replied, “I’m fine with a compromise, but you lied to me. How am I supposed to believe you?” He looked me in the eyes and said, “Because I love you. I want this to work.” I caved. I felt guilty that I possibly manipulated him into quitting alcohol. Above all else, this is the best connection I had with a guy in over a decade, so why throw it away if he’s willing to put in the work? A month later, things had settled between us. We went on more dates, spent more time at my apartment, and I got to meet his family. I got to make tea for his grandmother, got to go to a quilting show with his mother, befriended his brother, and began to see more of a future with Tom. We did have one near-relationship-ending fight over spending too much time with his roommates, and after that, things started to even out again. We even went to see Aly & Aj in concert. At one point, AJ looked down at us and saw us holding hands, and looked up at us and smiled with approval. However, one Sunday after returning home, I was turning into a gas-station parking lot when an older couple ran a stop sign. After nearly t-boning them, I slammed on my brakes and turned my wheel. My car slid up to a curb, bringing it to an immediate halt. I hit my head on my side windshield, ricocheted my neck to the side, and slammed my head into the headrest. After avoiding the collision, I stopped and screamed. After a few people got out of their car and rushed to my aid, we were able to determine that there was no car damage to my vehicle (besides a bent rim). While several people called the cops on the elderly couple who ran the stop sign, I drove myself to the ER. While sitting in the ER, I couldn’t move my neck, and my back was on fire. I called Tom and said, “I’m in the ER. I almost had an accident, and I’m fine. However, I hit my head pretty hard, and my back is on fire. I’m pretty scared. Can you come up here?” While panicked, he said, “Oh god! How terrible! I just got off work, let me grab a change of clothes real quick at home, and I’ll meet you in the ER. Be right there.” Then, a nurse took me to do an X-Ray of my back and neck, and two hours later, they concluded that although I hit my head, I showed signs of a neck and back sprain, but nothing was broken. After another hour, they eventually sent me home. Upon arriving home, I pulled out my phone and called Tom. “Tom! Where are you! That was 3 hours ago. I’m home now!” Tom replied, “Well, we had spent all weekend together, and I figured you were okay in the ER. I wanted to say hey to my roommates since I have’t seen them 1 on 1 all week. But I’m almost there.” “Ok, Tom, answer me: Why are we boyfriends? Why do you have a boyfriend?! Why am I with you?! I called you because I was in the ER and I needed you! And you weren’t there!” He replied, “I canceled a concert tonight with a friend to be there for you! I am there for you. I’ve given up a lot because of you! I even slacked on getting my airline pilot’s license because of you! You keep insisting we spend more alone time together, especially without partying with my roommates, and I’m afraid that when I go to school for pilot school, you’ll take issue with it! It’s never enough!” I replied, “I only took issue with you spending so much time with your roommates because you keep drinking around them! Also, I’ve been more than supportive of you becoming a pilot! I even drove you to your physicals and to the flight academy!” He replied, “Well, I’m now pulling up to your place. I'm here to take care of you. So let’s focus on getting you better.” That night, things felt awkward between us. I felt like I was losing him, and somehow felt like it was all my fault. Had I really been preventing him from going after his career? Was I really controlling with his friend and drinking? Was I really a monster? Either way, we didn’t talk much for the rest of the night. He held me while I passed out on painkillers, and made sure I had food for the next few days. The next morning, he left to go to work… That night, I woke up after being asleep all day. My neck and back hurt and still burned, and after taking another painkiller, I looked at my phone to see that Tom had texted when he got off work. I had actually been asleep all day, and it was evening again. I then FaceTimed Tom, and upon answering, he said, “Hey, you feeling better?” I looked at him on FaceTime to see his eyes bloodshot and glazed over. “Are, are you drunk again?!” I asked in a defeated tone. “Yeah. I have a work party, and I’m bringing my roommate, and we’re pre-gaming.” Tom stated My blood began to boil as I replied, “Look, I have an issue. You keep drinking, and it’s too much of a problem for me. I also don’t like how you couldn’t show up yesterday when I was in the ER because you were drinking with your roommates! Then you drove to my apartment while drunk! In fact, in the 4 months I’ve known you, you haven’t gone 1 day since July 3rd without having a single drink. You also accused me of taking up all of your time and blamed me for not advancing on your pilot education, but maybe it’s because in your free time, you’re always drinking with your roommates! You have an alcohol problem, Tom!” Tom slurred his words before saying, “My roommates don’t think I have a drinking problem!” I snapped back and said, “Well, yeah! That’s because they’re enabling you! I don’t like them because of that! You spend every night with them. Have you not spent 1 single night alone, by yourself, in the past 4 months?” He replied and said, “No, I haven’t spent a night alone by myself in months. Why is that an issue? Why is it that I’m never enough?! And if you don’t like my roommates, then why are we together?” I then yelled into the phone, “Because I’m dating YOU, not your roommates! You keep saying that you’re ‘never enough’, but have you ever thought about not drinking?! It’s not that hard of a request! You kept blaming your drinking problem on your last roommate, but guess what? She’s been gone for months! You have no one else to blame for it but YOU!” There was a pause on the phone. Tom sighed and said, “I think you’re blaming your dad on me, and you have issues you have to sort out…I think we’re done here.” I stopped and started to tear up. Never would I have imagined that Tom would weaponize my dad’s passing against me. From this moment on, I knew I had to be done. I quickly replied, “Agreed, we’re over.” After hanging up the phone, I never spoke to Tom again… You see, dear friend, I learned several things from this. One, you can’t change anyone. You can’t make someone control their addictions, because that has to come from within. No matter how much you want it, they have to want it. Second, just because someone says they love you and wants to fix an issue that they’re more actively fixing, then that’s what we call ‘gaslighting’. Tom blamed me for him not wanting to excel in his career when in reality, he didn’t have a sober day in almost 4 months. Lastly, when people show you who they are for the first time, believe them. In reflection, when I saw Tom drink 16 drinks on the 4th of July, I should have never come back. Or, when I discovered that he had been lying to me about his drinking after he said he’d quit, I should have left him then. No matter how badly I wanted him to believe me, he already told me repeatedly that he wasn’t going to change. I should have believed him the first time. Or, at least, the second time. I also learned that by dating Tom, I had increased my alcohol intake and started to drink on a semi-regular basis as well. By dating Tom, I made the biggest mistake you can make while dating anyone: I stopped taking care of myself. After breaking up with Tom, I threw away all of the alcohol I had in my apartment and stopped drinking altogether. Although I didn’t have an alcohol problem, I got scared that I could easily develop one if I didn’t stop now. However, there’s still one unanswered question I have for myself: What’s wrong with me that I have to accept something that’s toxic for me? Am I so insecure, or lacking something so deep down, that I can’t draw a boundary for myself? Confronting Tom about his alcohol and creating mini-ultimatums did absolutely nothing but put stress on our relationship, so what’s broken within me that I can’t just leave? That, my dear friend, is a question I believe I have the answer for; I just don’t have the bravery to say it out loud yet… Anyhow, thank you for listening, dear fiend. There is SO much more tea to spill to you, and I’ll catch you up on more next week. Until then, drink a nice cup of oolong tea on my behalf. I’ll write to you next week. With love, ~Cody aka The Oolong Drunk “Blissfully Tea Drunk”

Hello hello! Last year, I did an 6-part series titled 'Spilling MORE Tea' -- the follow up to my famed blog series 'Spilling The Tea'. This dramatic series gave an intropsective look at some of the drama that I have encountered, and how I leanred and grew from it. In preparation for the follow-up, 'Spilling The MOST Tea', here's a link to every post in last year's series! Part 1, My Blog is Ruining My Life Part 2, A Meme Ruined my Friendship Part 3, Dating a Drag Queen was a Disaster Part 4: Gay Sex Ruined Dating Part 5: I Ended my Friendship Over my Book Part 6, Series Finale: Straight People Ruin Everything Thank you everyone for supporting this series! Thank you for sticking with me as I gear up for 'Spilling The MOST Tea', coming soon! Much love, ~Cody Wade aka The Oolong Drunk "Blissfully Tea Drunk:

Hello hello! At the end of each year, I publish a 'best of' list for albums to drink tea to. However, now that we're almost at the halfway mark in the year, I wanted to share with you some of hte best albums of 2026 to drink tea to (so far). Like always, this list is entirely subjective. I've tried to cover the music spectrum and included musical genres such as rock, pop, jazz, alternative, electronic, shoegaze, etc... Each of the albums listed below might not be critical-hits, but they perfectly set the tone/mood for helping add aestheticism to your next tea session. Put on one of the records below, and enjoy the journey! Note: This mid-year list will be in alphabetical order for album name. The ranks, and write-ups, will be announced at the end of the year! 20nothing by Blessing Jolie Beautiful Madness by Agnes Big Disgrace by Haute & Freddy Big Sun by Happy Landing Blue Angel Sparkling Silver 2 by Quiet Light Can’t Take my Story Away by Elles Bailey Cruel World by Holly Humberstone Cynthia by Sydney Ross Mitchell Embraced for a Second as We Die by Amanda Bergman Feel by Oskar Med K In Search of a Revival by The Olympians It’s The Long Goodbye by The Twilight Sad Kehlani by Kehlani Middle of Nowhere by Kacey Musgraves Nothing’s About to Happen to Me by Mitski Ö by Fcukers Pareidolia by Erin LeCount Peaches! by The Black Keys Romanticize the Drive by Metric Side-Eye III by Pat Metheny Ricochet by Snail Mail Superbloom by Jessie Ware The Apple Tree Under The Sea by Hemlocke Springs The Great Divide by Noah Kahn This Music May Contain Hope by RAYE Tragic Magic by Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore Veils by Vanessa Carlton Victory Garden by Young The Giant Vila by Fabiano do Nascimento & Vittor Santos e Orquestra Wendy Eisenberg by Wendy Eisenberg Worst Girl in America by Slayyyter youbet by youbet Do YOU think I'm missing an album from the list above? Join the discussion HERE on instagram! ~Cody Wade aka The Oolong Drunk "Blissfully Tea Drunk"

Photo: Destruction in tea field, Jason McDonald, Facebook Late Wednesday night, multiple tornadoes struck the central and Western parts of Mississippi, where The Great Mississippi Tea Company was struck. Jason McDonald, who owns and operates one of the largest tea farms in the continental US, assessed the damage Thursday morning after the farm was directly hit. “All of our lawn mowers and other [tea harvesting] equipment around the farm was damage. The pump sheds are gone. Most of our trees are gone,” Jason said Thursday evening. One of the houses on the property was completely destroyed. Along with farm equipment, all roofs on the property will need to be replaced. It took crews hours to clear roadways of debris, with power and internet expected to be down for at least several weeks. Although the tea trees are still in tact, fallen oak trees on the farm have made the tea trees inaccessible for much of the farm. With expected delays to this spring’s harvest, there is a risk of a complete cancellation of the farm’s next harvest. “We don’t even have power,” Jason said in response to the delay of the upcoming harvest. A GoFundMe to help The Great Mississippi Tea Company will go live in the next few days. Please stay tuned for updates, and to find out how you can contribute to The Great Mississippi Tea Company, and how you can assist with recovery efforts. The Great Mississippi Tea Company was founded in 2012 by Jason McDonald and Timothy Gipson in Brookhaven, Mississippi. Photos: Jason McDonald, Facebook

In Spring of 2018, Starbucks closed all of it's 379 Teavana stores, almost little over 5 years after Starbucks purchased Teavana in an all-cash deal for $620 million -- with the acquisition officially closing on December 31, 2012. However, just over a year later, Starbucks re-launched the Teavana brand's storefront by re-purposing Teavana as a cafe at the grand-opening of it's 4-story roastry in Tokoyo, Japan on February 28th, 2019. With the success of the Teavana re-launch in Japan, a new concept store call The Starbucks Teavana cafe on July 1, 2020, located in Tokoyo. As of 2026, the Starbucks Teavana Cafe now has 26 locations across all of Japan, with the most recent cafe opening in Okinawa, Japan at the end of September 2025. Unfortunately, the only way to visit a Teavana Cafe is to go to Japan. While offering up to 15 Teavana-brand teas that we used to know and love, they are exclusive to the Japanese market. I reached out to Starbucks for any news of re-launching Teavana as a cafe brand in the US, and as of today, I have yet to hear back. While we have to wait and see if Starbucks will open a Teavana Cafe here in the US, below is a photo gallery on what to expect when visiting a Starbucks Teavana Cafe (photos courtesy of Kamila, @Karami_Chai on Instagram). ~ Cody aka The Oolong Drunk " Blussfully Tea Drunk "

Hello hello!! Welcome to my annual Blogiversary post!! This year’s post is even more special than before, because this year, my blog turns 10!! Yes, I’m officially a decade old! In the past, I’ve taken creative freedom in my Blogiversary posts by spilling tea in very melodramatic ways. With these posts, I sank on a ship and ended up on the ocean floor, escaped a runaway train , and even floated in outer space . For this year, and for the milestone achievement, I’ll be doing something I’ve never done before: I’ll be traveling back in time. (Photos by Zimirah Haefele of Eventide Glow Photography, Colorado) According to Einstein, time is relative. This means that the way we perceive time is a construct, because it’s all relative to the observer. Although time is linear to us on Earth, time runs in all directions in space. One of the simplest examples I saw of this is a thought experiment that goes like this: Light travels across the universe at 670 million MPH. Let’s say there’s a planet across the galaxy that had advanced lifeforms that were able to build a mega-telescope and point it at Earth. They could be looking through the telescope to see the Jurassic era, and watch as dinosaurs roam the Earth. But how could they be watching us, and see the Dinosaurs that roam the Earth? Well, the light that came from the Earth millions of years ago is currently reaching the outer edges of the universe, so to the observer of that light, Dinosaurs are roaming the Earth, although now humans roam the Earth. Both things are happening simultaneously to the observers because of where we're observing it, and yet, it’s happening differently for us because of when we’re observing it. So, how would this apply to me? First, I’d need to find a way to catch the light that was emitted when my tea journey started 10 years ago. All lot of the light has dimmed and passed since then, so to find the light, I need to travel to catch up to it. The light I had from that time seems to be long-gone, and the only way to get it back is to find where it went. In the meantime, instead of going out on some melodramatic theatrical bang, let’s start out small by answering the question I get asked the most: How did I get into tea? First, we need to go back 11 years to when I was 18. At the time, I had been working as a weight-loss counselor. Many moons ago, it was my career ambition to be a dietitian. While those plans derailed after coming out of the closet, I can pinpoint a day when a client of mine came into my office with a huge secret. She had been struggling to find a replacement for soda, and after several months, she finally cracked the code: Oolong. I remember this moment clear as day. She came into my office and said, “I’ve been drinking this stuff called Oolong tea, and it tastes sweet! Wanna know the crazy thing? It naturally tastes like that!! There’s no sugar or additives, it’s just hot water! Next time you go to Central Market, look for this stuff called Dong Ding oolong tea.” I stared at her blankly. You see, growing up in Texas, we drank tea all the time. We called it just normal, good old-fashioned sweet tea (or, Texas Sweet Tea to those outside of the South). We’d boil 3-4 family-sized Lipton tea bags in a pot for the afternoon, add a full cup of sugar, mix it in, pour it into a pitcher, and add water until it reached the 1-gallon mark. We’d set it in the fridge overnight, and the next morning, your gallon of diabetes was ready! However, the idea of drinking hot tea felt very foreign because in the south, you never drank tea hot. If you drank tea hot and without sugar, you were drinking a drink that was only halfway through the creation process. You don’t bake a cake and pull it out of the oven halfway through, right? So why would you drink tea hot? On my lunch break that day, I drove up the street to Central Market. I browsed the tea aisle and bought a $15 package of oolong tea. I also bought a box of empty tea bags, so I could build my own tea bag. Next door, I drove over to Starbucks and got a cup of hot water. I then went back to work and put my make-shift tea bag in my cup. Since I’d usually make sweet tea by leaving the tea bags in the pot for hours, I decided to set a timer for 30 minutes, walk away, and come back. Half an hour later, I checked on my tea, and it didn’t look nearly as dark as it would have when making sweet tea, but I was tired of waiting and was too eager to hold off any longer. With my lips pressed to the mug, and with a single sip of tea slithering down my throat, I cringed as I puckered my face in disgust. I spit out the kerosene-like liquid and frustratingly threw the rest of it away. “No way I just wasated $20, and no way that woman quit drinking soda for something so repulsively bitter,” I said to myself as I looked at my tea purchases with disappointment and irritation. Perplexed at what my client had been talking about, I decided to go to Google. An internet search later, I stumbled across the tea subreddit (which is a subsection of Reddit that was dedicated to tea). On the page, I read that oolong tea should only be brewed anywhere from 3-5 minutes, not 30. Whoops. I then walked back across the street to Starbucks, got another cup of hot water, and made a new tea bag that I brewed for only two minutes. Once the cup of water cooled down, I took a sip of the tea, and from that moment on, my trajectory in life was forever changed… While reflecting back on this moment, I had an idea. Maybe to find the light from 11 years ago, maybe I need to re-create that moment to find the light again. You know, as a refresher of sorts. So for the next few days, I dug through my entire tea collection and dug out every Dong Ding oolong that I owned. After pulling out four different oolongs, I made them back-to-back, and after sipping one after another, I couldn’t recreate the light that I once had when I initially tried tea. I closed my eyes and tried to mentally put myself back to the moment when I initially tried oolong tea, but couldn’t... Maybe I’m going back to the wrong place and time in my timeline. Maybe I need to go back to when I worked at Teavana? Or maybe go back to when I went to my first tea festival? Instead, I need to go back to the point in time when I created my blog. But how did I start my blog? What was the driving force behind it? (Photos by Zimirah Haefele of Eventide Glow Photography, Colorado) Around 6-8 months after initially trying oolong for the first time, I had already started ordering tea from various companies. During that time period, I had discovered puer tea and had made my very first puer tea purchase from Yunnan Sourcing. I had even made a larger purchase with White2Tea, and couldn’t get enough of my tea exploration. I was posting tea photos on Instagram, and had a hobby on the side. However, the idea of starting an actual blog website didn’t really start until the beginning of January of the following year (2016). While browsing tea companies on social media, I came across a relatively new tea company that had just recently launched. They had a cool aesthetic and had puer tea that looked affordable and tasty. However, while looking through their very first launch, I noticed they had a 100g cake that looked good and was around $60-ish USD. While intrigued, I wanted to buy this tea, but couldn’t afford it at the time. So what did I do? I emailed the company and asked them if they ran any discounts or had any sales coming up. They explained to me that because they were only several months old, they didn’t have the ability to host any sales. However, they did say that they needed some sort of media coverage, such as a blogger of sorts, to help spread the word on them. And if there was a blogger interested in them, they’d give them a wholesale discount on the tea cake. Less than 2 hours later, on January 8th, 2016, my blog website was born! I got the wholesale discount, I reviewed the tea, and my very first collaboration was complete. Even better, I now had a blog website and a blank slate to move forward with. In case you were wondering, yes, I really did launch my blog out of being cheap… (Photos by Zimirah Haefele of Eventide Glow Photography, Colorado) While thinking about this moment in reflection, I decided to go back and drink one of the very first teas I bought from this company. I also decided to go back and read some of my earlier blog posts, in hopes of finding the light. While re-reading some of my earlier posts, I didn’t find light, but I did manage to find a lot of cringeworthy writing. I also found irritation at my past-self, and wish I had gone about blogging with a more mature stance (that’s neither here nor there at this point). However, I couldn’t re-create the original light that I once held. Out of frustration, I started digging through some of my teaware tubs to see if I could find any of the original tea ware pieces I bought from 2016 to see if that could help me re-create the light. To my disappointment, I could not. After thinking of other various ways to find my original light, I started to have doubts and gave up my search. Maybe the problem wasn’t the fact that the light from this time period didn’t exist, because somewhere in the galaxy, the light is traveling to the unreachable borders of the universe. Instead, maybe I was the problem. While on this search, I started to realize that I couldn’t find the light I used to emit, not because I was looking in the wrong place, but because I stopped emitting light altogether. The light doesn’t exist. Somewhere along the way, I had stopped believing in the magic of tea exploration and stopped emitting light from my journey. In my 10 years of tea, I had a lot of hard knocks, and had a lot of experiences that eroded the hope and wander I used to have for the tea industry. I have been through hell and back, and while trying to keep my head above the water, I stopped living and started existing. I was kicked down from World Tea Expo, and on top of that, I even c reated a blog series that was inspired by needing to heal from some of the nightmare experiences I had in my tea career. So what do I do now? Suddenly, I had an idea. Light is comprised of sub-atomic particles called photons, and according to quantum physics, photons can transcend time and space by existing in every state at the same time. This means that photons don’t react to linear time in the same way that we do, because photons exist in spacetime. Photons exist in the medium in that they’re observed, meaning that we can only observe them as being linear because we can’t physically interact in time and space. So if the same photons that came from the light I emitted when I first got into tea, then maybe the same photons that exist within me now also exist from that moment on. The only thing I can think of is to write a letter to my past self, with hopes that the photons from the light that's emitted from the letter can transcend spacetime to deliver the message back to myself. If I write the letter and put it out in the universe, then through Einstein’s theory of relativity, it would have always existed. This means I can talk to my past self, and maybe he’ll eventually read it. So, here we go… (Photos by Zimirah Haefele of Eventide Glow Photography, Colorado) Dear Cody, Hello there! It’s me, you! Now, you’re probably wondering why I’m reaching back in the past to write to you. Something went wrong along your timeline, and I wanted to let you know what you should expect. You see, I’m in a predicament where I lost the joy I once had in being a tea blogger. However, if I give you enough preparation, maybe you can prevent us from losing that passion that you currently have. So here’s some advice that I think you should follow to change the course of our timeline. Now, first things first: You’re currently 19, just starting your blog, and not sure what your style is. I know it’s daunting and you’re currently not sure how to start out, but let me tell you what not to do. You’re going to launch your blogging career by putting on a performative persona of yourself. Just don’t. You’ll receive a bit of backlash for it, and the best way to circumnavigate that is to be your most authentic self. I know it’s scary, especially since you just went through being homeless due to coming out of the closet. While others have weaponized your identity against you, that doesn’t mean you should let them take your identity away from you. Second, there’ll come a point in time in your blogging career where you’ll be invited to attend various tea events. While that might not happen for several more years, you will quickly fall in love with the tea industry and will find a new purpose with it. However, at some point, you will go through a lot of hardship. You will be displaced from your home again and forced to relocate to Missouri. Your entire upbringing will be uprooted, and you will go through a life transition with yourself. Also, side note: There’ll also come a point where you get into a Discord argument during this transition, and just let it go. You’re going to pick a petty argument with Oolong Owl, and she would have had nothing to do with it, and you’ll lose that argument. So, just don't. When you start your entire life over again, you’ll think that your life is over. While your old life might be over, you have to remind yourself that your new life will just begin. Some of your core memories will happen during this time period, such as teaching a class at the Midwest Tea Festival in Kansas City. You’ll also quickly make friends in Missouri, as well as people you get to call your own. These people will be your chosen family. You’ll meet an older couple named Joe and Julie, and they’ll take you under their wing as if you were their own. In fact, one of your happiest memories of making tea will involve Joe and Julie. After your second year in Missouri, they’ll talk about holiday plans with their family and will tell you, “We're speinding Christmas with family, so when will you be here?” You will go over to their home and make tea for their entire family. And despite being lost in Missouri, this will be the very first time you will feel like you were truly found. Next, you’ll meet your ride-or-die named Danielle. While Danielle isn’t crazy about tea, she’ll become a sister to you. She’ll be in your life for at least the next decade. Now, you will make close friendships with other people, especially through tea, but don’t hold on to some of these people too closely. When some of these people are ready to exit your life, you’ll fight for those relationship tooth and nail. However, the longer you hold onto these people, the more you’ll get hurt in the end. When they're ready to leave, let them. Now, not everything will be bad. In your career, you’ll be invited to write several pieces on tea, including being a regular contributor for World Tea News!! You’ll get heavily invested in tea-education, and you’ll quickly fall in love with spreading the love and joy of tea. There will be several speed bumps in the road, including a global pandemic that will take place at the beginning of 2020. Now, I know that 2020 is still 4-5 years away from you, but whatever you do, start buying toilet paper now. You’ll thank me 1 month into the pandemic when you can’t find toilet paper and are forced to take a shower every time you need to use the restroom... However, during the pandemic, you’ll meet two of your soul-mates. You’ll meet Luke, and over time, you guys will have virtual tea over FaceTime. Eventually, Luke will propose to MacKenna, and you'll get to have virtual tea with MacKenna. Now, you’ll make it through the pandemic. You’ll come out of it with the realization that Missouri was only a yield sign for your journey, and you’ll eventually relocate to Colorado. You’ll get invited to speak at World Tea Expo, twice! You’ll also get to travel to Portland to teach a tea class, as well as teach another class at Penn State University. I know this is a spoiler, but after you move to Colorado, you'll get invited to serve tea at Luke and MacKenna’s wedding as a groomsman in Carmel by the Seal, California. You’ll get to watch your chosen brother get married to your chosen-sister, and it will be the happiest moment of your life. However, while there, you’ll get to meet MacKenna’s sister. Along with her, you’ll also get to meet their mom, Stacey. Now, unbeknownst to you, Stacey has cancer. Also unbeknownst to you, Stacy will be one of the most important people in your life because her legacy will change your life forever. Stacy will hug you at the wedding, she’ll say that she loves you as a mother would, and Stacy will periodically message you throughout the next three years to cheer you on and give you motherly support. You don’t know it now, but when you meet Stacy in California, please spend more time with her. Talk to her more. Most importantly, please hug her one more time. When Stacy loses her battle to cancer in 2025, it will be a turning point in your adulthood, and it will be one of the hardest times you’ve ever cried in your adult life. So please, go hug her one more time. Do it for you. Do it for me. While you spend time in Colorado, you’ll start to feel isolated. In fact, you’ll start to feel disconnected from people and struggle to make friends. You’ll spend nearly 2 full years without receiving a hug from anyone, and you’ll slip into a deep depression. You’ll actually feel so lonely that you’ll plan to go to the rooftop of your apartment's garage and plan to jump and end it all. However, don’t forget about Marika -- she’ll FaceTime you and she’ll talk you off the ledge. She’ll save your life. Another future friend you’ll make, named Neldon, who will also save your life by helping you find a thearpist. The loneliness will try and kill you, and no matter how bad it seems, please remember that it wont. Ok so, I know all of this looks bad, but there is a bright side to it all. You will go to therapy, and you will start to get better. It will take time, but you’ll eventually meet people who’ll love you for who you are. You’ll find a 2nd home at Trident Booksellers in Boulder, and you’ll find a mentor in Peter, who runs the shop. You’ll get to eventually meet with Danielle, Luke, MacKenna, Joe, and Julie again, and you’ll be reminded that you are loved by so many people. Eventually, there'll be a coffee shop that opens at the base of your apartments, and you'll get to meet a different Joe, and his wife Marla. The coffee shop employs speicial needs individuals, and you'll start volunteerting there. They'll take you in as one of their own and their love will ultimately give you a new purpose, and will help end your long reign of loneliness. Now, I know all of this is daunting. However, somewhere along the way, you’ll lose your passion for the tea industry. Although it started with the incident World Tea Expo , there will be other events that will lead to the dimming of your light. You will often find yourself sitting at home alone, having tea by yourself. You’ll be celebrating blog milestones by yourself. To make things worse, you’ll have absolutely no one to share your joy with for a lengthy stretch of time, which will make you jaded about tea and life in general. However, while your loneliness will start to define you, please keep the following in mind: Start therapy much sooner. I know you will feel like you don’t need it, but trust me, you do. Also, please force yourself to take a break from time to time for the blog and change up your routine. Above all else, please don’t forget to love and care for yourself. I know loving yourself is the biggest challenge that lies ahead of you, but you need to start practicing it now before it's almost too late. Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s still a lot of stuff you have to look forward to! You’ll get to look forward to launching your own tea-talk show where you raise money for charity and have tea with people from all over the world. You’ll also get to continue to write tea-educational articles that will be published! You’ll also get to teach tea classes at a place called Trident Booksellers, where more of your core memories will be created. You will get to release a tea-cake with Crimson Lotus Tea, as well as release a tea blend with a company named Steep Mountain Tea! Hell, you’ll even get to release your own tea cake production! Yes, you’ll source tea cakes to sell as a blog fundraiser and it will go better than expected! You’ll also write a novel while drinking tea at Trident! And funny enough, while writing this novel, Julia Roberts will sit next to you and ask you about the tea you’re drinking!!! Although none of the people you sent it to will have read your novel, please remember to be proud of yourself and to keep doing the things that make you happy. Above all else, please hold on to the joy you have for the tea community. You love tea, and you love your life. However, it’s up to you not to let the darkness overshadow the brightness. Keep reminding yourself why you should be here, instead of why you shouldn't. Hold on to that light the best that you can. ~Cody Wade ~ Now, there is no guarantee that he’ll get to read the letter. I already stated above that despite existing in spacetime, we humans can only perceive time as linear. So maybe it’s not possible for me to write a letter to myself in the past… However, there is one thing I can do to send myself a message while working around our linear perception of time. I’ll write a letter to my future self... ~ Dear Cody, It’s you, me. Now, you’ll read and revisit this blog post and this letter very quickly after posting them. When you do, I want you to remember one thing. You might not get to re-create the light you once had when you started this journey over a decade ago. However, you do have something else. You have a blank slate ahead of you, and you get to create a new light. With this new light, paint the sky with all of the colors you have within you. No one will be holding you back — not even me. You have a blank slate and it’s up to you to start over, but this time, start over with excitement. You have a LOT more to look forward to. Now, go make us proud. I believe in you. With love, ~Cody Wade ~ At the time of posting today’s blogiversary post, I can confidently tell you that I'm beginning to find a new light… … and I can’t wait to see how far in the universe it’ll go. ~Cody Wade Aka The Oolong Drunk “ Blissfully Tea Drunk ” Click the links below to read previous years blog anniversary posts 4 Year Anniversary (and Special Announcement) 5 Years in Tea: My Side of the Story 6 Year Blogiversary: SOS! The Sinking of the RMS Tea 7 Year Blogiversary - You Sold Out Your Culture 8 Year Blog Anniversary: Train-Wrecking my Career 9 Year Blog Anniversary: All The Stars that Glow (Photos by Zimirah Haefele of Eventide Glow Photography, Colorado)

Hello hello! Before celebrating my 10-year blog anniversary tomorrow, I wanted to share with you guys my very first tea review. I also wanted to react to it! With this, I had to go way back to find some of my very first few posts, which I archived back in 2020 due to wanting to pretend some of the first posts never happened (...yes, they were that bad. You're about to see). Well, since it's been so long, let's take a look at my very first review! For this, we have to go back to the end of Janurary 17th , 2016 where I uploaded my very first tea review. The tea was a small 100g tea cake from Yunnan Sourcing, and upon finding this in my archives, this is what I found... ....Jesus Christ. I JUST started this and I'm already dying. Was this really the first introduction to my blog? Really? And the Pokemon reference? "It's a tea session, but with more ass..." Oh good Lord. Shoot me. Oh my GOD . I don't know where to start. Why did I break the cake in half? And how did I create so much tea dust with it?! Even if I wanted to, I'm not sure I could even create so much tea dust if doing this now! Also, why did I call the tea cake a 'mofo'?! And 'Yo snoop, got any papers?' I'm literally cringing so hard I could vomit. Yeah, I'm also pissed off at you for wasting 8 grams of tea. Congrats, you managed to irritate future-you. Ok, I want to pause here and question, why I didn't write the entire review like this? There's something solid here with the way I described the tasing notes. I'm glad there's a glimpse of me taking this seriously, but why didn't I keep doing it that way? But also, why did I ever call a tea 'boring'?! I'd never do that. I mean, I did. But goodness... Well, we got Rosanne Barr and Harry Potter in one review... I'm just, Im at a loss for words. I went on a ramble about wathcing Roseanne, and saying I'm ' anal about chipolte '. I think around this time, there was an E-Coli outbreak at Chipolte and several of their restaruants had to shut down? Something to that regard? Don't quote me. Really, don't. This is all embarrassing. Make it stop. "Gurl are we on the RMS Titanic?" Yes because right now I've been sinking with embarrassment. Thank GOD that's the end because I literally can't read any more of this. Back when I posted this, I shared it on Reddit and the comment section was divided ( here's the link if you want to look ). The top comment said my style was insufferable, and you know, I completely agree. It's really interesting to see where I started, and how I grew into becoming the writer I am today. I really don't remember this review, or even remember why I went with this style. I did find my voice eventually, but I guess you could say I was learning in public. While I'll never do an exercise like this without pepto again, I'm glad that you guys stuck around with me for over 9 years. I would have never imagined continuing my blog to this point, and can't wait to see how I'll continue to evolve. With love, ~Cody aka The Oolong Drrnk " Blissfully Tea Drunk " Join the discussion HERE on Instagram!

Hello hello!!  Over the past decade, I’ve had many incredible experiences in the tea industry. While I could narrow down the ‘worst’ moment I’ve had in my career, I couldn’t really narrow down a singular moment that really defined my journey. Truth be told, the good definitely outweighed the bad so much that I struggled heavily with writing this post. However, given that I can’t be decisive, I decided to go with my first core memory in tea — the core memory that changed the course of my journey forever… (Photo: Me, teaching my very first class at the 2018 Houston Tea Expo. Photo by Jordan, aka Tea_Tohraphy) Back in January 2018, Houston held its second-annual tea festival! While the festival is no longer in operation (and whileI think this was the final one), a friend named Jordan and I drove down to Houston. At the time, Jordan was a rising star in tea and was also known as Tea_tography, and at the time, we both had never been to a tea festival before. However, for the festival, I was slated to give my very first presentation at a tea event. My class was about the introduction to puer tea. Although at this point in my career, I only primarily reviewed tea. I wasn’t sure where I was going, and for the first time ever, my fun hobby turned into something more.  On the drive down, Jordan and I listened to Taylor Swift’s new album ‘Reputation’ (and the drive that made me a Taylor fan), stopped at a Buc-ee’s, and sat in Houston traffic. While the road trip wasn’t necessarily the most glamorous, Jordan and I eventually made it to Houston.  For both of us, we had both made this trip too many times to count. Jordan’s mom lived in Houston, and for me, my parents had family/friends in Houston, and we’d drive down at least several times a year. Although Houston is another world away from Dallas, it still felt like home. So now I get to drink tea with a new tea friend, at a tea festival at my home-away-from-home?  What more could I ask for? We both arrived in Houston later in the day, and pulled over at Tin Yin Tea and Herbs — a Houston tea shop in Houston’s Asia Town. We both had gong-fu tea, took tea photos, then went our separate ways until the next morning at the start of the festival.  The next morning, I woke up and headed down to the tea festival. Jordan met me at the conference hall, and we toured the entire festival in thirty minutes. It's safe to say, it was relatively small. We also went to one of the other showrooms to vote on a chai for a chai competition. I remember voting for a blue chai, and remember thinking that I could actually become a fan of chai teas due to this competition.  After meandering around, we then stopped to see a lecture from an ex-Starbucks employee who gave a presentation on how Starbucks is slowly taking down the tea industry. This was the most-talked about and most anticipated presentation for the entire conference. So Jordan and I made our way to the classroom to find it filled to the brim, and although we were just a few minutes late, we somehow managed to find a place other than standing at the very back of the room. Jordan and I watched as the presenter sat in a chair at the front of the room. While anticipating some sort of truth bomb about Starbucks, his rambles continued on as he said, “Starbucks just sucks. Working there was toxic, and it just sucks. Believe me, it sucks.”  After listening to a disgruntled ex-part-time employee nonsensically vent about Starbucks, Jordan, and I realized that the big ‘truth bomb’ was never going to come. In fact, we quickly realized that this gentleman was the problem as to why his working environment was so toxic. We both cringed as we quietly got up and left the bitch-fest.  Jordan and I did the entire expo. It was early in the morning, and I didn’t start my class until 4:00 pm that day. If I remember correctly, I was the last teacher to present my lesson. So what were we to do for 7 hours?  The hotel where the convention was being held was actually across the street from NASA. So Jordan and I left the convention, drove across the street, and did a tour of the Houston NASA facility.  About 6 hours later, and after getting to touch moon rocks, Jordan and I stopped at a Jimmy John's and headed back to the convention. I went to my classroom, set up my presentation, and waited. Only 4 people showed up to my presentation. Despite my lack of audience size, I was still very happy with the four who showed up. A part of me wondered if no one stuck around and ditched the classes due to being afraid of sitting through another bitch-fest.  After breezing through my hour-long presentation in twenty minutes, I asked if there were any audience questions. I quietly and awkwardly made eye contact with all four people, who all blankly stared back at me. I faked a smile before dismissing the class. Jordan and I hugged as we parted ways for the remainder of the trip.  The next morning, before driving back home, I decided to browse the expo hall one last time. While touring the expo hall, I stopped at several more booths to taste a few teas I had missed the day before. Then, something caught my eye.  Yaupon tea. Yes.  Growing up in Texas, we grew Yaupon bushes as a hedge line between us and the neighbours. They grew beautiful cherry-red berries and stayed green all year. However, this was the very first time in my adult life that I learned that you could drink Yaupon tea, or that the leaves were safe for human consumption.  While sipping one of the samples, a black man and his girl came up to the booth to try the tea as well. The gentleman had baggy blue jean shorts, a big tattered football jersey, a massive gold chain with silver teeth, and face tattoos. He was asking the booth vendor, who was Hispanic, questions about the tea. Then, this conversation caught the attention of a white woman who looked like she had come shopping from the Beverley Center. She had lip fillers, a handbag that was worth more than my yearly income, and talked with a Topanga Valley accent. She asked the gentleman for a sample and drank it with us. Then there I was, an overweight gay kid from Dallas. I then looked around at the four of us trying this tea, and talking about this tea with each other, and had the realization that changed my career forever: There is nowhere else in the world where the four of us with our vastly different ethnic, minority, and financial backgrounds could ever come together to have a conversation with each other as if we were one. It was over a cup of tea.  That afternoon, when driving back to Fort Worth from Houston, I couldn’t stop thinking about how all of us at this convention, whether a vendor, a lecturer, or a guest, all live life very differently from each other. Somehow, we all came together to form this community over something as simple as hot-leaf water.   On that drive home, I changed my mind about what I wanted for my tea blog and where I wanted to go.  Before this point, my tea blog was just a fun hobby. But now? Now, after seeing how it can bring people together?  I knew from that moment on that I was to take my blog more seriously, partake in more tea events, and have tea with as many people as possible.  That’s the day that my career in tea launched, and in that moment, I knew I had a lot to look forward to (except for world tea expo… I kid, sort of. Ok but as a gay man I can tell you that we LOVE our grudges. We collect them, polish them, and display them like nicknacks in a curio). With much love and respect to the greater tea community, ~Cody  aka The Oolong Drunk  “Blissfully Tea Drunk” Join the discussion HERE on Instagram!

Hello hello! Over the past decade, I’ve had an incredible tea journey. While that journey is filled with love and joy, it’s also filled with experiences that weren’t so lovely and joyful. Although I don’t like harping on the negative (contrary to my blog’s history), it wouldn’t be honest to say that these things didn’t happen. These things did happen, and despite that I wish they didn’t, I can’t deny that they were apart of my journey. So, this is by far the most horrific experience I've had in the tea industry. Before you ask, no, this is not a re-telling of my experience at World Tea Expo (although I wanted to go with that, I've beaten that dead horse so much that it started to turn to glue). There’s good, but this is the bad and the ugly… Earlier in my blogging career, I was more focused on reviewing teas and blogging about the tea experience. After a few years in my blogging experience, I started to take the blog more seriously. With this, I began wiring articles, including a breaking editorial about how we’ve all been lied to about white tea. After my new found success with writing a serious piece, I got an email from a fellow tea drinker who told me to get into contact with Emily (fake name for the sake of the story). Emily was a tea vendor who was traveling to different tea farms, and while on her travels, ran into a horrific event. The story goes like this: Emily traveled to a tea farm to make a deal to purchase a lot of tea. Many tea farms have multiple lots of tea, and depending on what the customer wants, they’ll reserve one of their lots of tea to be processed into whichever tea type the customer wants (black, green, etc.). With this, Emily went to the farm to secure a contract to purchase the next few years' worth of tea from this farmer. Or, they’ll also sign contracts of exclusivity, meaning that a specific tea farm can’t sell tea to anyone else for the duration of a contract.  However, as Emily was posting her adventure on social media, something else was happening. Unbeknownst to Emily, Elon was watching. Elon (fake name for the sake of the story), who owns and runs a massive tea company, was watching Emily explore the tea farm where Elon's tea company had sourced tea from. While Elon sourced black tea from this farm, they were threatened by the idea that Emily was there to source green tea.  However, Elon didn’t have a contract with this tea farm. Elon only bought tea from this farm, harvest-to-harvest. At the time, it was rumored that Elon wasn’t even buying any more tea from this farm (although rumored, couldn’t verify/confirm).  At this point in the story, you may be asking yourself: Why doesn’t a tea company this large have any contracts with one of their tea farmers, especially a contract of exclusivity? Isn’t that suspicious? According to Emily, after spending several days on the farm, she was about to secure a deal with the tea farm. That was, until the tea farmer received an unexpected text from Elon.  According to the tea farmer, Elon started sending various threatening messages to them. Elon allegedly texted them, stating that if they sold tea to anyone else, they would pull all of their money from the tea farm and blacklist the tea farmer from the entire tea industry — promising that no one would ever buy tea from the farm ever again.  To make it worse, when Elon stopped doing business with these farms, the farmers had no other customers lined up to buy from them because they had turned away all of their potential clientele. The farmers had no way of avoiding this. The tea farmers then got scared, explained everything to Emily, and sent Emily home. Emily wasted hundreds of dollars on this trip and went home empty-handed. After interviewing Emily, Emily agreed to help gather the text evidence from the tea farmers. On my end, I launched an investigative report on this tea company and its business practices. I began the painstaking process of researching this company, researching where they sourced tea from, and conducting over twenty interviews with various tea-industry professionals.  After several months of collecting interviews, I was running into an issue: Everyone whom I interviewed — all the way from individuals to larger businesses, involved in the tea industry, was too scared to speak ‘on the record’. I pleaded with various interviewees to speak anonymously, but they were too scared of Elon. Every single person I spoke with said that Elon could ruin them. Although I had collected a dozen damning stories of mobster-like behavior from this company, I couldn’t use any of it. Although it was a recurring theme that this company would purposefully refuse to sign contracts with tea farms so they could blackmail their way to acquiring whatever tea they wanted, I had nothing to run off of. While interviewing multiple people, it had been claimed by various people that Elon had done this to nearly every farm they had worked with.  Then, after another month of searching for people who’d give a testimony, I received a message from Emily.  I got my ‘smoking gun’ evidence.  Emily had acquired text messages from the tea farmer she had worked with, and messages that claimed how this farm was terrified of being ruined by Elon. One text specifically claimed the evidence that I had been searching for.  I was elated.  I had been working on this project for months at this point, and dozens of stories I couldn’t use, but now? Now I had the biggest piece of evidence I needed to be able to run this story.  However, almost a day after obtaining this piece of evidence from Emily, I opened my Instagram to see that I had been followed by Elon.  Given my investigation and the timing of acquiring the evidence, I’m being truthful when I say that it made my skin crawl.  As time went by, and after eight months of work, I had my first draft of my report. As I was getting prepared to sell the report to several larger publications, I got a notification from Emily.  She said that the tea farmers were too scared for their safety and livelihood, and wanted to retract the evidence they gave, and no longer wanted to be a part of the report. Safe to say, the investigation was now dead in its tracks.  By this point, I had gathered dozens of stories with bombshell evidence to back them up, and yet, I couldn’t use any of it. I went into my bedroom, buried my face in my pillow, and screamed as loud as I could. Not only did these tea farmers have no protection, but there was also no way to protect future farms from being Elon's next target. Besides that, there was no way to protect anyone else, even small business owners, from a company as large as Elon's.  For the next few months, any time I went out, I started asking various restaurants where they sourced their tea from. When they mentioned this company’s name, I’d switch my order. Eventually, it got to the point that I couldn’t avoid ordering tea from this company, no matter how hard I tried. I went to a high-society event that served tea, and although I wanted to ask them where they sourced their tea from, I couldn’t. I looked at my cup of hot tea, noticed it was from this company, and drank it anyway. I willingly looked the other way and drank their tea, and thought if I went with blissful ignorance, it wouldn’t matter. But it still did. That was the lie I told myself.  That night, I laid awake in bed and couldn’t go to sleep. That was the moment I realized that as a consumer, I’m a part of the problem. While I’m not okay with everything that went on, I also had to realize that I was just one person. Without the backing of anyone who had these issues and without evidence, I couldn’t do anything on my own. That was also the day I realized that although I have a voice, my voice was powerless, and I couldn’t make real change — even if I wanted to. The system is too big, and I am just 1 person…  ~Cody  Aka The Oolong Drunk “ Blissfully Tea Drunk ” Join the discussion HERE on Instagram.

Hello hello!! Over the past decade, I've seen many tea companies come and go. Some of these tea companies start out strong and slowly fizzle out over time. Or, sometimes, these companies never really had a strong start to begin with and fought the good fight before closing up shop. However, over the years, there have been some tea companies that have made such a strong impression that I believe they deserve another chance to shine. Below are my top 7 closed tea companies that should make a comeback! Teavana Teavanna was a staple for many tea drinkers in North America. In many cases, Teavana was the reason why so many people got into tea. However, Starbucks infamously acquired Teavana on December 31, 2012. The acquisition was an all-cash transaction for $620 million. In 2017, Starbucks announced it would close all Teavana locations by 2018. While you can buy some Teavana blends online through Starbucks, this is one tea company that needs to make a comeback, and quickly. Dachi Tea Company Dachi Tea Company was a US-based tea company that launched around the end of 2014, and shortly after, launched a Kickstarter. Their Kickstarter was so successful that they managed to be picked up by the local news with a lot of media coverage, including being featured by Kickstarter itself. They specialized in Taiwanese teas, and to date, I'd argue they have the best product photography out of any tea company in existence. Despite my bold claim, Dachi managed to build itself up to be the premier tea company. However, in 2020, they quietly went offline and haven't given an update since. Whatever happened to them will be a mystery to me. Satanic Tea Company The 2020 Global Pandemic brought down many long-standing tea companies. However, because of the pandemic, we also got many new tea companies in return. One of the most creative tea companies to come out of 2020 is the Satanic Tea Company. While taking aim at the goth/metal audience, the Satanic Tea Company's marketing was almost satirical. This fun and innovative tea company stopped operation, and now tours as a metal band under the same name. Grand Crew Grand Crew began as a small passion project around 2020 and originated in Taiwan. This small tea company sourced some of the best Taiwanese teas I've ever had, and had incredible packaging and marketing. They even made a debut at World Tea Expo in 2022. So, why did this company fail? Personally, I believe this tea company needed better marketing and press. While the name and social media still exist for this company, they desperately need to come back for a round 2 and stick around permanently. Steeped Tea App Steeped Tea successfully launched their app and gained a lot of press. 3 German guys worked for over a year to develop an app, and after launching, found a lot of newfound success. They even launched a tea subscription service, which served a wide variety of teas. Despite hitting everything out of the park, front-runner Tristan backed away from the project, and the app and monthly subscription slowly faded away. Totealy Tea Totealy Teas launched in 2018, and slowly started to build an audience. They primarily sold Chinese tea, including releasing various puer tea-cake pressings. However, after gaining traction, they cleared their social media and left a single vague description in their bio: [on pause]. Despite the vagueness, one can only hope that their pause will end sooner rather than later. Just not for eternity... Story of my Tea Story of my Tea is a Houston tea company that launched in 2016 and started out strong. They had memorable marketing and even gained a larger audience for their 'blind' tea tasting samplers. These blind tastings were the best loose-leaf blind tasting sets I've ever partaken in. After gaining a loyal following, they stopped posting in mid-2019 and have disappeared since. Whatever their reason is, they need to come back. ~ Did you recognize any of the companies above? Join the discussion HERE on Instagram and let me know who YOU think should make a comeback! ~ Cody aka The Oolong Drunk "Blissfully Tea Drunk..."

Hello hello! Over the past decade, I've tried a wide variety of teas that are fun, classic, and sometimes -- outright disgusting. However, during my tea exploration, there are a few teas that stick out as pinpoints in my journey that helped me understand tea better than I did before. Rather, if it was something completely unique, or something that opened my eyes as to the wide array of incredible things tea can be turned into, I believe that these teas should be tried by every tea drinker at least once in their tea journey. Let's dive in! Aged White Tea Did you know that white tea can be aged? Long before getting into tea, I didn't even know what white tea was, much less the ability to age it. However, since white tea is only mildly processed, the enzymes that react to light and oxygen are still active in the leaf -- thus causing it to slowly oxidize over time. Aged white tea is a relatively new sub-market in the tea industry, and only really became popular around 2010. Despite its newness, aged white tea is a true delight that every tea drinker should experience just once in their tea-drinking journey. Huang Pian Shou Puer First, you may be wondering: What is shou? What is huang pian? And lastly, what is puer?! While this requires a more complex answer, I'll give the bare-bones basic descriptions. Huang Pian is the large-leaf material at the base of a tea tree's branch, which is often not plucked for production. It's often used as a 'poor man's tea (so to speak). Shou puer is a type of dry-fermented tea that's dark in color and oxidized. Huang Pian shou puer is one of my favorite shou puer teas I've ever had, and it gives a lot of depth while being enjoyable. Every tea drinker should drink this tea because it's an expansive way to see how vast the world of shou puer is, while still being enjoyable. Kyobancha Kyobancha is a relatively unknown Japanese tea for most tea drinkers. Kyobancha is a type of roasted green tea from Kyoto, Japan, made from the larger, older leaves and stems that are harvested later in the season. But why is this on the list? I added this tea to the list because it's a wonderful example of how diverse Japanese teas can be -- outside of the classic staples. A Very Expensive Sheng Now, let me start by saying the term 'expensive' is very subjective. In my mind, a cake of sheng puer that's over $20 is considered expensive (or maybe I'm just poor? That too lol). However, when I say expensive, I mean somewhere in the $2-$4 a gram range. Why is this so important? This is important because some of the best teas in the world are sheng puer teas, and oftentimes, the really pricy ones can really elevate that experience. Award-Winning Tie Guan Yin Tie Guan Yin is one of China's most famous and well-known oolongs. However, because tie guan yin is so popular, there are many 'bad' ones out there. While the definition of 'bad' is entirely subjective to the beholder, I will say, I've seen many people say they dislike this Chinese staple because they have only tried a poorly-made version of it. While trying the award-winning Tie Guan Yin, you'll see how special this tea really is, and see where it originally garnered popularity. Tea-Stuffed Fruit Tea-stuffed fruit? I mean, I am stuffed with tea all of the time... Jokes aside, tea-stuffed fruits are not entirely common, but have slowly gained popularity over the past decade. More commonly, tea is stuffed in bitter oranges, and can easily be found across many tea shops. So why is a citrus-cented tea so important to one's tea journey? I'd argue it's important for any and all tea drinkers to experience this because not only is it an older Chinese tradition, it's a way to see how malleable and delicious naturally-scented teas can actually be. Tea-Stuffed Bamboo Tea-stuffed bamboo, you say? Yes, absolutely! Over the past 5 years, many smaller tea companies have begun producing tea-stuffed bamboo. In this process, many vendors have commissioned tea-stuff bamboo with white tea, sheng puer, and shou puer teas. The tea is roasted in the bamboo shoot, thus naturally scenting the tea with a bamboo aroma. But why is this important for tea drinkers to experience? Bamboo-stuffed teas are an oddity that also shows how malleable tea can be, and can help expand your knowledge of what tea is, and what it can do. High Mountain Taiwanese Oolong Tea Fun fact: High mountain Taiwanese oolongs are the exact reason why I'm named 'the oolong drunk'!! Specifically, AliShan Taiwanese Oolong was the tea that made me fall head-first for oolong teas. During my oolong exploration, I quickly became a tea-nerd, and became forever obsessed with tea and tea culture. Taiwanese high-mountain oolongs can be pricy, but they're some of the best teas in the world and are completely worth it. Tea from America Did you know tea can actually be grown in all 6 continents -- Europe being the 7th that can't grow it... Okay, sarcasm aside, tea can be grown in any warm and humid environment. Tea can be finicky to grow in many climates, and America doesn't have many geological areas that could sustain large-volume tea production. However, there are some small-scale farms in America that have successfully managed to grow tea in America. While some tea plantations can be found in Oregon, North Carolina, and Florida. However, where can you find the best American-grown tea? Arguably, I think Mississippi and Hawaii have the best American-grown teas that you can find. I think it's important for any tea drinker to try tea from Mississippi and Hawaii, to see how great American-grown tea can actually be. Tea from New Zealand Last but certainly not least, New Zealand tea! In New Zealand, there's a tea estate called Zealong, and they grow incredible tea, including oolong tea, white tea, and black tea. However, due to New Zealand's soil and climate, New Zealand teas are a wonderful treat for anyone who tries them. While it might be pricy, especially with shipping, I'd argue that New Zealand teas are more than worth the cost and provide an excellent tea drinking experience. ~ Did you see anyhting on my list that you agree with? Is there something missing that should be here? Join the conversation HERE on instagram! ~ Cody aka The Oolong Drunk "Blissfully Tea Drunk..."

Hello hello! Over the past decade, I've learned a LOT about tea. When starting out, I didn't know anything about tea outside of making Texas sweet tea. When learning that there's a universe of tea outside of a cup of sugar per gallon of sun-brewed tea, I came across many fascinating things that I never knew about tea. For my blog turning 10, I'll share with you my top 10 favorite tea facts that I've learned along the way! Let's dive in!! Matcha tea originated in China. It wasn't introduced into Japan until the 12th century, when matcha tea was brought to Japan in the year 1191, and originated from the Song Dynasty. It was initially consumed by Zen Buddhist monks and the nobility, but its use became more widespread over centuries due to its role in ceremonies and its health benefits. Afternoon tea originated from Catherine of Braganza in the mid-1600s. Catherine of Braganza was from Portugal and married King Charles of England, and brought tea to England with her. She threw parties and served tea with finger foods, and due to her popularity, commoners copied her. This became what we know as 'afternoon tea' today! The world's largest heist, and the world's largest act of espionage, was tea! Also known as The Great British Tea Heist, an English tradesman Robert Fortune worked as an undercover spy and travelled to China in the mid-1800s to learn the tea trade. Over the course of several years, he collected thousands of tea seeds and tea plants, and smuggled them back to British-controlled India. Before this point, China was the only country in the world that produced tea and kept the production of tea so secret that no one else could replicate it. Before, many considered tea as one of the natural wonders of the world. White tea has caffeine. Surprisingly, I've seen many people over the past decade claim that white tea has no caffeine content. However, white tea can have as much tea as any other tea type. Matcha isn’t the only tea powder out there. Tea powder can be made from all types of tea! Lately, 'tea powders' are increasing in popularity. Iced tea was popularised in St Louis, Missouri. Although iced tea wasn't a new idea, and goes back to the 1800s. However, it became popular when food vendor Richard Blechynden served it at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. The weather was so hot that he threw a vat of ice into his tea and started selling it cold. The longest consecutive high tea in America is from Wenham Tea House in Wenham, MA, founded in 1912. The second-longest consecutive high tea in America is the Brown Palace High Tea in Denver, Colorado and began service in 1915. The popularity of the 'tea bag' was an accident. Around 1908, New York City tea merchant Thomas Sullivan would deliver tea samples in small mesh bags. However, to his surprise, customers were putting the entire bag into their mugs -- which gave birth to the innovative idea. Herbal tea is not tea; it’s called a ‘tisane’. It can only be classified as tea if it has Camellia Senses leaves. Puer tea was illegal in the US for 99 years until the Tea Importation Act of 1897 was abolished in April of 1996. It was originally enacted to help prevent the importation of tea that contained  fluoride, heavy metals, oxalate, and pesticides. However, the need for the act quickly faded when the United States enacted the FDA, Food and Drug Administration in 1938. The Board of Tea Appeals was a United States federal agency under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration. From its establishment in 1897 until its abolishment in 1996, it adjudicated the claims of tea importers whose products were denied entry into the United States by federal tea-tasters. ~ What is YOUR favoriet fun fact about tea? Continue the conversation HERE on instagram!! ~ Cody aka The Oolong Drunk "Blissfully Tea Drunk"