It’s usually the last week of each month that I start to panic about my bookish recipe of the month. Here it is, March 25th as I keep on – keeping on – with reading, The Moonstone. The first good news is there are many great cultural influences within the book to savor in my recipe. Second, I am sensing a BBQing method in the works, but nevertheless I am still panicked. I think it’s because of my over active brain, or over active imagination, or over active love of excuse making that lures me away from my books and into other projects. I do love a good project and when I say project I mean spring cleaning, listening to records, or a good YouTube eyeshadow tutorial. You know…projects.
One project in particular stands out to me tonight. It is what I like to call my Tea Project and it has made me rethink my traditional coffee ways and embark on new tea pathways. When I first began this post I had a huge déjà vu that I had already written about tea, but then I realized it was a past post on wine. They really are similar, but yet so very different.
Let me explain:
The tea world is very similar to the wine world in that they both: take an insane amount of farming knowledge, are both beverages known ’round the world, have antioxidants, require climate-sensitive areas for growth, and are varietal.
However, where wine has a tendency to turn a touch too snooty, a tad too expensive, and a smidgen too…um…drunken sea captain from the Viking era eating smoked sausage from his knife, tea takes on the characteristic of reverence, introspection, and, well…Buddhist monk banging on a 1,000 year old bell at first dawning sunrise.
Need more explanation?
Wine = a staggering crow trying unsuccessfully to pick up a nut that keeps falling out of his beak while trying to fly away and who tips his head from side to side to give that nut a perplexed, one-eyed, head-tilted stare.
Tea = A beautiful white swan landing on a peaceful lake while the music of Swan Lake is playing somewhere in the background.
Wine and tea are so similar, yet the differences stand firm. There are numerous ideologies, practices, and traditions that accompany tea. It’s its own world in which I couldn’t even begin to crack into, but as I try new teas I will keep an open mind in order to grasp the deeper meaning of tea.
I remain of the opinion that coffee isn’t king and tea isn’t queen because for me they are now projects to read about, taste, and enjoy (not to mention great for getting me up in the morning).
Namaste to all ye Salty Sailors,
-m
