A blog entry to escape the world of today for a few minutes, I hope of pleasure.
“Tea … is a religion of the art of life.”
― The Book of Te
An recent article in the New York Times caught my eye; https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/books/breakfast-in-literature.html.
The author researched breakfast foods mentioned in books, films and on stage, Thus, another entry in my frequent blogs about books. The article thoroughly covered breakfasts and referenced many books found on my “books I have read” list. Foods are a frequent player in the chapters of a book. Mystery writer Nero Wolfe, of a bygone era, is the father of culinary crime and his recipes leave your mouth watering as you try to identify who the culprit must be.
As a devoted tea drinker and enthusiast, I have enjoyed many books that reference tea as a necessary daily item, offering preferred methods and arguments about the best way to prepare tea: offering tea as medicine, tea socially enjoyed (with pinky in the air), tea to warm up, tea to calm down, tea with alcohol. In Dreaming Spies by the prolific author Laura King, Protagonists Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes travel aboard ship to Japan. They befriend a quirky Japanese character who loves her ritually prepared Japanese tea. Britishers in that era the 1900’s enjoyed British tea with milk but Mary, American born deems it wimpy and It seems Sherlock agreed. In this story, she bargains with the chef; No Japanese tea or British tea for me, just give me a good cup of strong American tea.
Jean Grainger, The ever enjoyable Irish author includes tea endlessly with arguments about preparation, sometimes taking many paragraphs or frequent references to the enjoyment of the tea as the story unfolds. A frequent greeting in many stories would be “I will put the kettle on for tea then we can talk…” and surely this happens in films and stage plays and real life. The first thing my grandmother and mother did was make tea–with preserves served in glass/a “Glassel of tea.” This tea is often served in Stories set in the “old” country; Russian novels, Tsars, murder, scheming and intrigue with the spoon in the Glass slurping the preserves or fresh cherries. Yum.
The world of books, drama and more offer endless servings of tea and opinions about tea. I have chosen a few quotes to share and hope you will share books, sources and your experience about tea and books.
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
―
“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.”
― Notes from Underground
“Writing is a job, a talent, but it’s also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.”
― Truth and Beauty
“As far as her mom was concerned, tea fixed everything. Have a cold? Have some tea. Broken bones? There’s a tea for that too. Somewhere in her mother’s pantry, Laurel suspected, was a box of tea that said, ‘In case of Armageddon, steep three to five minutes’.”
Ahh, a remedy for the times we live in today, I wonder what that tea contains?
A final quote; “There´s more than one kind of tea?…What do you have?”
“Let´s see… Blueberry, Raspberry, Ginseng, Sleepytime, Green Tea, Green Tea with Lemon, Green Tea with Lemon and Honey, Liver Disaster, Ginger with Honey, Ginger Without Honey, Vanilla Almond, White Truffle Coconut, Chamomile, Blueberry Chamomile, Decaf Vanilla Walnut, Constant Comment and Earl Grey.”
-“I.. Uh…What are you having?… Did you make some of those up?”
― Scott Pilgrim, Volume 1: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life
And I wonder my readers, do you drink tea, what will you have today?