SUMMER NOUMENA – 50 Gms

AV2 Oolong from Arunachal

 There are ones that whiz and crackle – send your mind in a thousand different directions; there are ones that take you inwards – hush the mind and nourish the soul; there are ones for the sunniest of days and ones when you have the blues. There are ones that put the wind in your sails when you’re stuck in the dead calm of horse latitudes and the ones when sailing though squalls and tempestuous waters. Phenomenal, each one of them – one for every mood, whim, fancy, circumstance and season – and yet what is this quintessence of tea expressed and experienced only through the spectacle of flavors?

This isn’t one of them phenomenal ones, though – not quite. It’s noumenal – neither this- nor that; bearing an inexpressible ‘suchness’; an ‘it’ being itself; grasped only in contrast to the phenomenal. No correct way to describe the Noumena- no way to express essentiality, ‘suchness’ without turning it into phenomena; no way without alluding to the ‘always,already’ present everywhere? So, we call it noumena in experience and not in expression. The question isn’t if it’s free enough from perception to be noumenal, it is why we the perceivers, known only by the phenomena of ‘who we are’ and not by ‘what we are’ possess the instinct to experience the unknowable, the inexpressible? Maybe, we the perceivers are unknowable too. While expressing the Noumena may be academically hazardous, it is much safer to call it Noumena in experience of the unknowable; the inexpressible – the unknowable experiencing the inexpressible.

There’s no escaping the phenomenal; the ‘always, already’ present everywhere, yet the Noumena comes bearing the reminders of an ‘it’ being itself that’s ‘neither this nor that’. It’s not a limitation of language that makes it ineffable, inexpressible- it’s the experience of limitation itself that renders expression useless, making it noumenal.  Saying AV2 leaves made into an Oolong is not saying much – there’s a whiteness, not quite white; a greenness, not quite green; there’s a nutty yellowness that’s not quite nutty nor yellow – not to mention it’s a radical departure from any other Oolongs. Immaculately plucked leaves – two leaves and a bud with no exceptions, there’s definitely craft involved – craft we await to be made aware of – oolong craft mysteriously referencing the old ‘Formosa’. Pale, transparent yellow in color, it is extremely smooth, thick and vibrant even on the most humid and cloudy of days – on sunny days it simply lights up and sparkles! There’s a complexity which can only be detailed in abstraction: A floral, honey like sweetness that’s neither quite floral nor sweet enough; there’s fire roasted popcorn and corn smokiness that’s not quite smoky; there’s a grassiness that’s not quite grassy; there’s peanut nuttiness that’s reminiscent of neither; there’s the lemon and lemongrass imagery that’s neither citrusy nor herby. It is fragrant, not in aroma but in taste, if that is at all possible – gustation conditioning olfaction. It is not intense but nevertheless utterly recognizable in flavor, with a memorable but indescribable aftertaste.

And if you’re wondering about the Noumena – about what’s left after we stop experiencing it – try rebrewing it in 24-hour successions – it is still the same Noumena.

Brewing Instructions: 3Gms in 150Ml at 90Degrees for 4 mins. Add an extra minute for subsequent steeps.