There are two things I love about the camellia. For starters, the blossoms are my favorite on the planet.

I mean, really, how can you not love all these blossoms?  And the glossy green leaves on the shrubs.  Love, love, love.  Truthfully, the camellia plant is one of the main reasons I moved to Seattle.  It starts blooming here in late November and various shrubs of various varieties bloom through late spring.  Now that’s a plant I can really get behind.

But, even more importantly for my everyday existence, the leaves of this plant produce my favorite beverage.  I can’t live a day without this substance. What is it, you ask?  Well, here’s where it comes from and how you get it.

Of course, it is tea, the aromatic beverage commonly prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured leaves of the tea plant, Camellia Sinensis. Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world, just behind plain water. Camellia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They were originally found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are at least up to 250 described species. The genus was named by Linnaeus after the botanist Georg Joseph Kamel. This genus is famous throughout East Asia; camellias are known as cháhuā (茶花) in Chinese, “tea flower”, an apt designation, as tsubaki (椿) in Japanese, as dongbaek-kkot (동백꽃) in Korean and as hoa trà or hoa chè in Vietnamese.

I saw an episode of the Charlie Rose show recently in which Charlie was interviewing Howard Shultz.  It turns out that Starbucks is setting out to introduce the world the product of tea, just as they have already done with coffee.  Keep in mind that before Starbucks, the Chinese, for example, did not drink coffee.  They do now!

And another piece of trivia is that India has not permitted Starbucks (or Apple) to open any stores.  When I was in India last February, I looked everywhere for a Starbucks.  I saw McDonald’s (yuck), but no Starbucks.  When I flew into Dubai from Delhi, Starbucks was there: I almost fell on the ground in adoration!  Don’t get me wrong: I am not all about American commercialism spoiling all of the world.  It’s just that in India I needed some reminders of home.  I felt like I was on Mars.

Check it out: Starbucks at the Dubai airport.  Sign in English and Arabic.  What you don’t see in this picture are my tears of joy for seeing a company I recognized!  I am usually a strong, vital tourist.  India brought me to my knees and not in a good way!

And another piece of trivia is that India has excellent teas.  I loved the chai that was prepared even at truckstops!  I’d love a cup right now. Nameste.

Pretty blossoms and tea.  It just doesn’t get any better than that.

Arrivderci!  Go have a cuppa.