“ME HAVE COOKIE! YOU WANT COOKIE? THAT WHY YOU MUST GIVE COOKIE TO ALL CHILDREN AT BULT HOSPITAL ONE DAY IN FEBRUARY. BUT THEY MUST BE COOKIE WITH MILK CHOCOLATE, NOT COOKIE WITH DARK CHOCOLATE, AND NOT COOKIE WITH NO CHOCOLATE. AND A GOLDEN COOKIE FOR CHILDREN’S CANCER WARD. OTHERWISE, IT NOT WORK! AND YOU MUST GIVE 1000 EURO TO ANIMAL SHELTER IN LANGENHAGEN”.
“ME HOPE YOU LOVE COOKIE AS MUCH AS ME LOVE COOKIE AND THEREFORE WANT TO BE GENEROUS! REALLY, THIS IS SERIOUS! OTHERWISE, ME GIVE COOKIE TO OSCAR IN TRASH CAN!”
“WHEN YOU DO THIS, ME WRITE ANOTHER LETTER AND TELL YOU WHERE COOKIE IS.”
Signed,
“COOKIE MONSTER”
That was the Ransom note the cookie manufacturer ‘Bahlsen’ received, originally written in German in words cutout from magazines, with a picture of a person dressed in a ‘Cookie monster’ suit sometime in 2013! The ‘Cookie monster’ was holding their 1910 gilded brass representation of a Leibniz cookie, hanging outside their store, for ransom. Now, that’s how you make a demand, if you want them met- with a real threat – “REALLY, THIS IS SERIOUS! OTHERWISE, ME GIVE COOKIE TO OSCAR IN TRASH CAN!” Who wouldn’t comply to that tone, that Patois!
And comply, they did. The ransom was paid in full and only in milk chocolate cookies – no dark chocolate. The 20 kg brass cookie was returned, with a note referencing Bahlsen’s chairman: “Because ‘Werni’ love cookie so much like me and is now always crying, missing cookie so much, I giving it back” – ‘Krümelmonster’.
This autumn, the Krümelmonster drove home the simplicity of a point Susan Sontag made – feels a lot like taking a conscious inventory of the mind and applying it to itself – in her book ‘As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh’: “It’s not ‘natural’ to speak well, eloquently, in an interesting articulate way. People living in groups, families, communes say little—have few verbal means. Eloquence—thinking in words—is a byproduct of solitude, deracination, a heightened painful individuality.” As it is with ‘conscious moral inventories’, it takes a bit of effort for the reader to quell the debate that it stirs up and think what it really is that one stands to gain by a loss of eloquence; then somewhere, halfway-maybe, in an ‘autumn of the mind’ one can meet the simplicity of ‘the fall’ and have a conversation in its own low stature ‘Patois’, realizing empathy and simplicity would be two things that would inspire to sacrifice eloquence- maybe that is why they spawn their own patois to align with the fluidity of life or maybe it’s the patois that inspires community and comfort. It’s paradoxical.
Mythologically, autumn is described as the time when femininity is transforming – when she’s changing her mind – letting go of the urgency of her summer self, slowly subsiding into a more marooned and desolate winter self. It is easier to make up your mind about the ‘transformed’ than to find the stable perspective of a fluid transformation. Personally, and more so in the context of teas, we think Autumn flavors arise when summer has decided to take a moral inventory of her notes. But that’s just us; Meandering us. Nevertheless, it’s quite easy to see how Autumn seems to be discarding vocabulary and accents of the season’s past and incorporating, inventing new words, new dialects and new expressions into her own empathetic ‘Patois’ found everywhere- in her colors, sounds and flavors.
The Krümelmonster’s ransom note perfectly captures the flavors and intentions of autumn – sacrificing eloquence to convey the authenticity of intentions and simplicity of empathy. Its paradoxical, how much ease and comfort autumn teas bestow and the learning is, if you’re processing things intellectually and eloquently, then you’re bound to run into paradoxes – that’s how you know it’s time for an ‘autumn of the mind’ and take a higher path to deliver intention. The aroma of ripened citrous fruits and warm oats suspended in the thick translucent liquor immediately sets the intention with the dry leaves reminiscent of butter and cookies. The ‘Patois’ seems native to tastes centered around Honey and Cereals but it’s the presence of Vanilla that hints away the eloquence. The ripened citrous fruit aroma slowly gives way to a savory mango taste as the tea cools down. Made as an Oolong, with a fruity aftertaste, there is a mutating, fluid ‘Autumnness’ – a kind of love that is light to bear; the kind that you love while it lasts but doesn’t haunt you back, after it has moved on.
Brewing Instructions : 3 Gms at 90 Degrees for 5 minutes in 180 ml.
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