...a way of seeing beyond inner and outer.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Tea in Tanzania

The house smells like the Zanzibar of exotic stories.  There is a small pot of water simmering on the stove with bits of  cardamom and cloves scatted into it for no other reason than it fills the house with fragrance and moisture like my mother did every dry winter of my childhood.  On my desk, a small candle burns in an indigo blue jar.  It burns amber and cedar smoke into the spice laden air.
     I'm drinking my perennially favorite tea, jasmine pearl.  The jasmine flowers rolled into the tea leaves add the scent of a post monsoonal evening..  This flower queen of the night releases its perfume when the only bees awake to trail their little hairy legs in its pollen are the ones who've read enough Anne Rice to use the moon to navigate from blossom to blossom and back to the hive.
     The last nose-color on my home's olfactory palate this Tuesday is chocolate from Tanzania.  It's a chocolate that leapt into my little red basket when I was restraining myself in the presence of all the other holiday treats being proffered and I'm fairly insistent about how it got there.  According to its makers it is ideally paired with jasmine tea.  What a marvelous coincidence that I had both.  A bit of it on a warm piece of toasted brioche is more than enough for anything you might think you need.
     What would I tell you over a cup and a bite?
     Nothing.
     I'd listen.
You already know everything you need to know.  If anything, I'd only remind you of your own Guide, your Given Wisdom and that:
"the earth is crammed with heaven."
so take off your shoes and let yourself swoon with the muchness of it all.

6 comments:

  1. That tea sounds so yummy! I think I know what I'll be getting at lunch now!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rochelle,
    It really is amazing stuff. Not cheap, but a little goes a very long way, not that you'd know it from how much I used in this cup. That cup was a pleasant accident and refilled with hot water about five times.
    t.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JASMINE PEARL TEA IS THE BEST! i'm on a peet's kick with their tea but man oh man it is pricey.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I do love it. I just pretend like it's a bottle of good wine that last a lot longer than a good bottle of wine ever does!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lovely post. Your tea and treat sound wonderfully evocative.

    ReplyDelete
  6. j, I have a good friend who marveled to me that there are people who only eat with one sense. I just loved that thought. That and the word evocative! *grin... I'm a sucker for a good word.

    ReplyDelete

I love to know what you think, "for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy"