A few days ago, as I was waiting for the time to go to sleep after a round of jogging and a dash of shower, I decided to do something that I had not done for a while: sipping a cup of tea. Drinking tea is usually my favorite company when I am rushing work in the middle of the night; it is as if my inner being can find solace when that warm liquid flows into my mouth cavity, throat and my stomach…… hmm… Moreover, what’s good about tea is that it has no calories;) and does not leave your mouth feeling dehydrated. Finishing some work targetted for the day and setting my mood to retire to bed, I rummaged my stash of teabags and found Gryphon Tea Company tea bags that were given as teachers’ day souvenir last year.
This year’s teachers’ day was around the corner, so I was amazed for a split of second that it had been one year since I received them (how time flies!). And for a moment I was wondering if they were still drinkable, then I remembered that tea leaves lasted very long. So I decided to get the ‘Hanami’ one.
You see, it is quite rare for me to drink such a fancy tea. Usually my daily choices revolve around ice tea without sugar, black tea, oolong tea, Chinese tea, ocha… But what on earth is ‘Hanami’? Apparently, as the packet suggests, it is ‘Japanese sencha (not even sure what ‘sencha’ is) with cherry blossoms…’. I started imagining how it tasted like. I was just hoping that it did not taste strong and ‘spicesy’ (because I can’t really take chai tea). Then I flipped the packaging and read some more…
Created by our master blenders, this green tea blend celebrates the coming of Spring and the beauty of Japanese Cherry Blossoms.
I was impressed with the sentence. It made me want to try this tea more. How would a tea that ‘celebrates the coming of Spring and the beauty of Japanese Cherry Blossoms’ taste like? And it was created by their ‘master blenders’ ! I imagined a group of taste artisans being involved in the process of mixing tea leaves to get a perfect, unique combination… which now was in my hand.
The taste should not go so wrong, I thought. So I took my chance.
My cup of Hanami tea… with some specks of dust trapped
As I was enjoying my tea, I marvelled at the text on the tea packaging.
Character: Medium bodied. Soft floral notes with a hint of umami on finish.
I didn’t even know what it meant by ‘umami’, but when I swallowed the liquid, it seemed I could instantly understand what it meant. The description was so convincing. Medium bodied… soft… floral smell… umami… I could literally taste all the words in the tea.
I imagined being the copywriter of the sentence, tasting the tea and trying to come up with a description of the taste. I would have probably come up with something far more boring like, “ocha with a tinge of flower smell”. People who wrote these things are really gifted in their area, I thought as I drained my tea.
The package even came with some cakes that are perfect to go along with Hanami tea:
Tea pairing suggestions: perfect with strawberry shortcake, white chocolate desserts, panna cotta.
Too bad I did not have any of those. But then again, if I had, I would have ingested more calories:P
A cup of tea, a blanket and a comic book
christy kabul 