1403 Tasting Notes
I attended a small group writing workshop yesterday and one of the warm up exercises was to write a list called People who suffer. When we shared our pieces, the unanimous perspective was that all people suffer, though in various different ways. No one escapes.
There’s that Buddhist parable of the Second Arrow. The various types of pain that life brings are inescapable. It’s a fact that people get sick, suffer mild annoyances and big losses, and die. The second arrow is suffering we inflict on ourselves as we deal with the
hardships that life brings, so essentially we stab ourselves with various negative thoughts about ourselves and our situation as we try to cope. However, the fact of the particular hardship remains the same. The pain that life brings is a fact whereas the suffering we inflict around that is optional.
These are my early morning mullings after having been woken by baby next door at 3 and then 4 and then 6. And now as I write this, her older brother is racing like a dervish, his footsteps thudding and echoing through the walls and throughout the space.
I wonder whether my cursing this loud, noisy, and profoundly inconsiderate family—ongoing issues, not just the children— is the second arrow and what, aside from moving, I could be doing differently.
Somehow this was to segue seamlessly to the description of this fine cup of tea. The transition eludes me. This cup, however, is delicious.
The citrus is bright, both flesh and rind. The spices are subtle enough to not hijack the rest of the flavours. The base is a bit creamy.
Very true…no one escapes suffering. It’s unescapable yet essential to make us learn life
I was not familiar with that story. I shall have a look!
Suffering to learn life. Beautifully put.
That story is one of my favourites. Somehow it seems to have stuck with me.
Day 10 of the no caffeine after 3 project. We’ll see how it goes today. I still have 40 minutes to drink what I have steeped up of this.
I like the earthiness of the gunpowder used here plus the sunflower seeds. Today, two cherries landed in my spoon of leaf, but they are not coming through as clearly as I’d like: a mere suggestion, if that. Still a lovely cup of tea. But not quite reliably true to the name most of the time.
That said, I can see the difficulty in getting this right because given the size and weight of the cherries, you’d still want to have a good amount of tea leaf and additions in the blend.
I would still buy this again as it is an enjoyable cup. It has certainly given me more of an appreciation for gunpowder tea than I had before.
Haven’t quite put my finger on things here. There’s a vague vanilla aspect going on in addition to the dark red fruit. That’s all I’ve got so far.
Day 9 of attempting to stop drinking caffeine after three. Mostly failing at this. However, aiming at reducing the hours of caffeine consumption is propelling me towards caffeine free teas that have been neglected. So there’s that kind of progress.
