An Attractive Straight Man

Folks who know me also know that I have few passions in life. Tea drinking is one of them. My interest in tea is not a cultural one as I grew up in and around homes where and when folks drank something called 'instant coffee'. I haven't seen the drink since the invention of the Mr Coffee coffee maker. Tea came into my world when I was a teenager and I was curious as to why everyone owned a teapot but why no one used it.
During the pandemic I decided it was time for me to branch out and look at other teas besides my black ones. Don't get me wrong, black is beautiful and it is the main stock of my assortment/collection. It is also what I decant into a THERMOS and drink throughout the day.
I knew that green tea was not going to cut it for me and I tried looking into tea drinking practices of the Middle East (with major focus on Israel). To my surprise, Arabic tea seemed to resonate more with me than anything that came from Israel. Arabic tea is black and strong and served in clear glass and is sometimes accompanied by dried fruit. The Arab tea-drinking world is also not unfamiliar with the practice of concocting or infusing herbs in hot water for a tisane (an infusion of dried or fresh leaves or flowers, as chamomile). I do not refer to these as teas and do not use the compound/phrase herbal tea since tea's very definition is:

"Camellia sinensis is a species of evergreen shrubs or small trees in the flowering plant family Theaceae. Its leaves and leaf buds are used to produce tea. Common names include "tea plant", "tea shrub", and "tea tree".

I decided to opt for oolong as a tea that is somewhere between black and green. I knew nothing about it and found that I didn't much care for it when I had prepared it many years ago in the same fashion of preparing black tea. Big mistake!
Since I was unfamiliar with the making of this brew, I turned to YouTube and found a tea master who had a passion of teas from China. I found his videos riveting and I would watch them repeatedly. Seldom do I encounter people whose lives have a balance of science and aesthetics; he knows what happens in the vessel when hot water hits the tea leaves. He can discuss tea grades, the way in which tea is prepared, cut, stored, packaged, transported, aged, served... the knowledge is endless.
One concept that I gleaned from his lectures is the difference between drinking tea and tasting tea. For him, tea consumption is not a matter of fulfilling a requirement body re-hydration or for consuming something hot on a cold day (hot tea is consumed regardless of ambient temperatures). Tasting tea is an art and practice and it requires an open mind and developed olfactories. Sadly for me, my sense of smell is limited and wet tea leaves might remind of a frog pond or bog.
I like the sound of the man's voice and I get a sense that he really loves his product and wants to share the knowledge that he has developed over the years.
As for me, well, it's after 2:00am on a 3-day weekend. I'm doing laundry and sipping/tasting oolong between the loads. My dog is nearby because he likes being around me when I'm awake. He also knows that he can sleep whenever the heck he feels like it.