Tea Time for the Soul

[princeinexile]

It was goddamned bloody cold when Zuko came to the Bar; he didn't miss the weather of the poles one bit, and while the outskirts of Milliways wasn't nearly so cold, it was still miserable. He headed over to the bar to get something to put in his mouth, and instead gets a napkin.

"You want me to do what?"

Another napkin.

"I don't know anything about serving liquor. I don't even drink!"

Yet another napkin, and another.

Zuko looks at them for a long moment, heaves a sigh, and then heads into the back where he finds a suspiciously familiar apron. He takes his crown from his hair, takes off his over mantle and goes from Imposing Firelord to Tea Shop Waiter pretty quickly. He writes the following on the menu:

SORRY NO LIQUOR I DON'T EVEN DRINK

TEA SHOP BARTENDING INSTEAD

NONE OF THESE ARE FROM EARTH, SORRY

Then he puts up his menu, starts managing the leaves he's collected, and and waits for people to come in.

MENU:

Earth Kingdom Common Tea
Green Tea; Herby, Bright. Forest green cup.

Lychee Tea
Black tea; Lychee and Smoke. Very strong.

Earth King's Libation
Pu-erh; Chestnut, little bit musty and earth. Excellent for the body.

Spiced Fire Nation tea
Heavily spiced black tea. Cinnamon, ginger, anise, cardamom.

Blessed Chrysanthemum
Oolong with chrysanthemum. Complex and fancy.

White Peony
White tea; Floral and velvety.

Icicle Tea
Silver tip; Faint apple flavor, long aftertaste.

Air Nomad's Flight
Purple leaf; floral, clean. Making a come back post 100 Year War!

Waterbender's Delight
Butterfly Pea; Blue and floral, actually has nothing to do with waterbenders.

Hot Honeybush
Herbal Tea; Fire Nation favorite: apple, cinnamon, orange flavors. Very full bodied. Kind of like a cider!

Comments

[yinyangwizard]

Abe no Seimei, bundled in a grayish winter kimono with a honeycomb pattern, drifts up to the Bar and glances at the menu. He bows to Zuko. “Good evening, Zuko-san.”

Zuko, he observes, does not seem happy to be behind the Bar.

[princeinexile]

Zuko? Not happy? You don't say.

It's a frustrated sort of glumness because he's not suited to this sort of thing -- he wasn't suited to it in the Earth Kingdom, and here he is in a bar unable to serve... bar things. So, tea it is.

"Hey. What can I get for you?" Zuko asks, unable to muster customer service voice. (He's never even had a customer service voice.)

[yinyangwizard]

“You have quite an interesting variety on offer! I think I will try the Waterbender’s Delight, please.”

[princeinexile]

"Okay," Zuko says, giving a little nod as he grabbed both pot and ea. "My uncle really liked it, but he's more partial to floral stuff."

It's like a ritual exercise -- not the full ceremony that would accompany a great occasion, but Zuko's hands know the work of separating, filling, and pouring. However, the heating with a firebender has a whole new element: they control the heat precisely through bending and breathing, so the kettle is heated with the movement with his hands, and flame streaming from his fingers as he worked it to the appropriate boil.

Once it's perfect, only then does he pour over infuser and into the pot, and his hands heat the outside of the pot itself. He waits, and he waits for the right number of minutes-- and then he pours.

It's bright blue.

"Would you like lemon? It'll turn purple, and I think it adds the best flavor to counter the softness of the floral flavors."

....he really doesn't care for floral teas, okay.

[yinyangwizard]

“Yes please. You know this tea well, and I trust your judgement.”

Seimei does not believe in adulterating tea with milk and sugar, but a little citrus is no problem.

[alongfallfromgrace]

Wei Ying does not know any of these teas, though most sound very good.

(White Peony is being discarded out of hand, sorry. Not sorry. Wei Ying is miffed at the Jins right now.)

Thus there is an overly lean young man studying the tea board, trying to decide what sounds best.

[princeinexile]

"Hey," says Zuko, giving him a smile. "Don't think I've met you before. I'm Zuko."

Eyes like gold coins -- brighter than even the pale gold of Lan Zhan's eyes -- Zuko looks him over again. No, he's pretty sure he's never seen this guy before.

[alongfallfromgrace]

Wei Ying returns the smile with a polite bow, sunshine bright. He flicks his hair back over his shoulder as he straightens with fingers he's still getting used to.

"I am Wei Wuxian. I'm afraid I haven't heard any of these before, but they do sound very good."

[princeinexile]

"That's because you're probably from Earth, and I'm not," Zuko says, pointing to the sign. "These are all teas of my world. My uncle loves them, and they're all I know how to make that'd be suitable here, so..."

He was not cut out for bartending, okay.

[alongfallfromgrace]

"Ah! You need snacks." Wei Wuxian learned this the first (and only) time he served bar, so he's willing to spread on what he has learned. "Lotus chips should go well. Here, I'll see if there's some roots in the kitchen."

And thus, Wei Ying invites himself to Help.

[hat_and_dimples]

"I really have to try the White Peony tea," says Jin Guangyao, approaching the bar with a cheerful smile and a swirl of golden robes emblazoned with peonies.

[princeinexile]

Ah, the man who freaked out when he found out he was a ruler of men. At least he's calmed down about that!

"I bet you do," Zuko said, as he starts to gather up his tools. "Have you been doing well since I saw you last?"

It was a while ago. Before the snow came.

[hat_and_dimples]

"Oh yes, very well, in fact, thank you for asking," Jin Guangyao says. Being the lord of Jinlintai, its considerable riches, and the lands around it (to say nothing of the title of xiandu), he is much less likely to be overawed by lords and kings these days.

He smiles.

"Doing well takes a lot of work, but I suppose you know that," he adds.

[princeinexile]

"I do," Zuko says as he portions out the tea. He goes through the preperation, including heating and maintaining the kettle with firebending, and then keeping the temperature just right for the tea pot.

There's more ritual when it's fully ceremonial, but for this, well -- Zuko just brews a really good pot of tea.

[hat_and_dimples]

Jin Guangyao inhales deeply, with a smile, when he catches the first whiff of the tea leaves.

[electro_kinetic]

"That is a lot of tea," Noriko says, moderately impressed. Sure, variations and all can easily make numbers add up, but dang.

"I'll go for the lychee. I could use the caffeine."

[princeinexile]

"Sure thing," Zuko says, as he starts his prep, tea in the infuser, ready over the pot. The kettle he heats with his own firebending, keeping the temperature as precise as possible to get it to to the right place to steep for this particular tea.

When he pours it into the pot, he keeps the outside matching the interior temperature with the same power. In a few minutes, there's a good cup of tea with it's fruity fragrance wafting up in front of Noriko.

[electro_kinetic]

One eyebrow slowly lifts at his display. "Well. That's impressive. Pyrokinesis?" she asks, having watched his trick with the teapot.

She really should invest in a cast iron one.

[princeinexile]

"I mean, that's what your world calls it probably. We call it firebending," Zuko says, as he takes his hands back. "We generate flame with our breath, our qi, and we control it."

The scar advertises that they're not immune to it thought.

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko's eyebrows lift at that, but to her credit she only blinks at the explanation once. "Gotcha. Pyrokinesis and -manipulation, then." Nope, nope, not getting into the technicalities today, absolutely not.

"That..." she gestures in a loose circle around her own eye as a substitute for trying to figure out whether that's a burn scar, or some kind of birthmark, "Happen before or after you figured out you could do the fire thing?"

[phantasmal_resplendent]

Lup is at a table full of notes, when she notices Zuko behind the bar.

"Hey, Z-man!" She waves as she approaches the bar, glancing at the sign.

"Tea, huh? What do you recommend?"

[princeinexile]

Oh hey, vivacious elf lady!

Zuko breaks into a grind and says, "Well, being Fire Nation, either our Spiced Tea or Hot Honeybush. Both are great, but neither are really 'true' teas. My Uncle would be sure to tell you some other important things, but... if you really want the King of Teas, then I'll have to get out a special reserve."

There's a little tin with his nation's crest on it hidden in the kitchen, and it's for him alone. (The 'Zuko's, hands off' note gets the message across.)

[phantasmal_resplendent]

"The King of Teas, huh?" Lup grins, raising an eyebrow. "Well, how can I say no to that?"

[princeinexile]

"You can't," Zuko says with a chipper smile. "Just wait here."

Vanishing into the backroom for the tin again, he brings it out -- it's smaller, with delicate white leaves inside. "White Dragon Tea. My uncle considers it the best, and he knows tea better than anyone else."

[phantasmal_resplendent]

Lup inhales deeply, taking in the aroma.

"Your uncle has good taste. It smells amazing."