/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>have a tea shop at a local mall
>go in one time just to check it out
>95% of the store is herbal tea with names like "Organic Grapefruit Cloud Stroll" or something similar
>no pure black teas, everything is some kind of blend at best, most of them have fruit in them.
>even the rooibos only comes in blends with other stuff in it
>one tieguanyin over in the corner
>well at least I'll look at the teaware to see if there's anything that looks nice. I need a new gaiwan anyways
>don't see any
>ask if they have any gaiwans
>employee behind the counter asks me what that is
I don't understand, how exactly did American tea culture get like this? Was it Starbucks? Who's buying this stuff? This is like if you were to walk into a wine specialty store and everything was artificially flavored.