SPRING TABULA RASA – 50 Gms

“How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned” -Alexander pope ‘Eloisa to Abelard’

Tabula Rasa – the clean slate, every individual is born with upon which one’s sensory experiences and perceptions etch, scribble and ultimately wreak havoc – so to speak, the idea of the ‘self’ and ‘personality’. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind – a pretty wish, paradoxically prettier than the humanity that wishes it, for the Tabula Rasa it began with, once the ‘self’ ironically meets the inevitability of laments and regrets and its own helplessness of remembrance and forgetfulness. One might be inclined to say “that’s just life” but to think, “once upon a time we were a clean slate” is romantic enough to see the beauty-incognito of Pope’s tragic appeal: Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind and fall in love with the phrase. There’s a juvenile shamelessness in falling in love with a phrase or a line and eloping with it, completely disregarding the tragedies and horrors of context, but isn’t that how all beauty is found and held close to the heart?

This is why we love tea. It inspires romance- the juvenile kind! One always feels, well, younger, braver! Wine may be fine and whiskey way quicker but tea has more perspective than any liquor – the romance and spirit of all the academic disciplines, which includes wine and whiskey, just comes pouring out – poetry, literature, culture, art, balderdash, philosophy, music, nature, humanity and about 2000 other things we can’t imagine! Only in a cup of tea can one fathom, how the sheer amount of beauty and romance at any given time in the entire universe, be condensed in a single line –“She wasn’t doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.” One is not quite the same after reading Salinger’s line- it’s almost revolutionary!

Only in tea…! Only in tea….!

“Between propriety and joy, choose joy” – While it’s not always so easy for a human being, the Spring along with Autumn teas have always adhered to that adage effortlessly and have inspired an impressionistic, fleeting romance – hazy, tissue papered, water colored, and the most memorable ones – and there is more than a good chance that one might miss it altogether to the more assertive, stimulating and expressionistic Summer and Autumn! This AV2 Oolong begins with a clean slate and inspires is the impressionistic ‘Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind’ kind or the inalienable natural right to the ‘pursuit of happiness’ kind. It brews thick and amber yellow. The dry leaves smell of cool icing sugar. There’s the Spring woodiness, yet to develop a personality, that lets the flavor of Herb and Honey rise up and dominate. The distinct taste of Baked Fruit, maybe some pretty dry fruit like Apricot with a mild Floral recognition of Lilies or Orchids, all allude to things indulged in fleetingly but memorably. “Don’t haste now, stay awhile”.

… It was a spring that never came; But we have lived enough to know,
That what we never have, remains; It is the things we have that go. –Sara Teasdale