First, an apology to anyone who reads my musings (no, hecklers, not for their quality). I had a lengthy bout of congestion and other such complaints this winter, and didn’t want to post tea reviews that would be equivalent to movie critiques by someone watching a heavily occluded drive-in screen from a block away and making up their own dialogue. I wouldn’t class my reviews as being from someone who fully understands or appreciates the teas in full before putting electrons to “paper”, but I at least require one legitimate session before offering an opinion, even though I needn’t fear that I hold any notable sway over public opinion.
So, on to this tea. It was a rather humbling experience trying to suss out the correct way to describe it. This is due to a phenomenon everyone I know seems to exhibit, although whether it is an American trait or more universal to human nature I do not know.
The trouble I have with this tea is, it’s perfectly fine. It’s thoroughly acceptable. It’s quite all right.
But this is damning it with faint praise, is it not? I know if I asked someone whose opinion I trusted to describe the food at a new restaurant and they described it as “all right”, I wouldn’t go. If a movie is “fine”, I don’t need to see it. I only want the amazing, the truly noteworthy. I was sipping steep 16 of this, a plant someone grew almost a decade ago nearly half a world away, and it was enjoyable, but all I could think of was thicker liquor, longer lasting flavor, and evoking deeper feelings.
I have no more of this, and perhaps for the sake of the tea, that is best. May you find yourself in a more salubrious situation next time, leaves, and not with someone who views your merits as if through the haze of your namesakes. I hope I will become a more attentive drinker from this experience, and then I will look back on you more fondly than your otherwise limited charms may have merited.
Welcome back, O Word Wizard!