If you know me, you know I love tea … particularly Rooibos (pronounced ROY-Boss), keep that in mind as you progress through this rant. Last night, over a very kick ass glass of Earl Grey at Octane Coffee, a good friend was kind enough to give my life a whole new meaning. She is as well traveled as they come and our topic of choice turned to her time in China. Turns out, there is this thing called the Pee-Pee Boy. It is perhaps the greatest completely useless but totally cool invention known to mankind… AND IT GOES WITH TEA!!!! In reality, the Pee-Pee Boy is this mythically important part of Chinese culture (okay – not really) and it is used to tell you when your tea water is appropriately hot.
Okay, so here’s the deal: You take these little dolls and submerge them into cold water. The instructions tell me that you have to leave it there for 30-minutes. After that, you pour your tea water over the doll and watch it go to work. The hotter the water, the farther the … uh … stream.
Being the obsessively curious person that I am, I just had to see if I could locate one of these gems. Though I was sure I would have to pay at least $20 for a little bundle of joy, and perhaps a hefty shipping tag, I received quite a nice surprise. An intense internet search led me to the Bird Pick Tea & Herb and their quaint little website. Turns out, they sell not one, but two of these joyous little cherubs. Feast your eyes on the Yixing Pee-Pee Boy (linky) and the Yixing Pee-Pee Pig (linky):
Coming in at $3.00 a pop, you can bet yourself a pretty penny that I ordered these ASAP. In honor of her contributions to the bettering of all mankind, HK is most certainly getting one of these!!!! Hopefully, Bird Pick is legitimate. If so, I’ll be sure to post a video of these things to my newly available YouTube channel just as soon as I get my grubby little hands on them.
