Sometimes I buy tea (or coffee) for the story, rather than for the taste. For example, when I visited Ann Arbor again, I bought Miss Kim x Zingerman's Deli black tea.

Miss Kim stands out to me as one of the only no-tip (living wage) restaurants I've eaten at.¹ They actually belong to the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, started by Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig (who studied anarchism and Russian history at the University of Michigan) and originally famous for their deli's reuben sandwich. Today, you can see quotes on their wall from Obama, and more entertainingly, Oprah, who proclaimed “on a scale of 1 to 5…11”.

Given the businesses focus on products quite different from tea, I knew the tea wouldn't blow me away. In fact, it tastes like run-of-the-mill black tea. However, you bet I told every coworker who would and wouldn't lend me an ear the story of the tea.