I remember it well. Vividly in fact. While what I'm about to tell you is a memory from childhood, I still shiver every time I think back to that day. Our relationship started off rocky. To say the least. When we first got acquainted I felt revolted and was rather disenamoured. Little did little me know that later on in life I would fall head over heals.
Little me was sitting at a large table. I was in an after school club that focused on crafts and other activities. Even then I wasn't much of a group person, but crafts were my thing for sure. So to the club we went. At the end of each activity we would all sit down and have something to drink. It was at this very moment that I was first introduced to the love of my life.
Tea.
Our introduction, however, resembled the plot of a horror movie more so than a romantic one. To begin with, it was presented in the most abominable cup. I remember the horrifying colour like it was yesterday. Cobalt blue. Now, I have nothing against cobalt blue, you must believe me on that, but I mean really, a cobalt blue plastic cup? Admittedly the colour wasn't even the worst part of it. It was an old cup you see. When plastic gets to be very old, it sort of frays and that was definitely the case for the one Little Me was holding. I can still feel that coarse texture as I held the cup in my little hands. Not comforting or cosy at all! As a cup of tea should always be. It's one of the rules!
Now here's where the story gets truly dark. You can still stop reading now if you feel you can't handle any more of this atrocity. I would completely understand. See, the reason I was able to hold the cup in my hands without the hot tea burning them was because.. well.. it wasn't! I know, I warned you. The tea was not hot. It wasn't even warm. It was, lukewarm.
Goodness, I need a breather don't you? Revisiting this particular traumatic experience always takes a lot out of me. Please feel free to at this point make yourself a hot cup of tea to ease the severity of this harrowing tale, if you've not already done so that is.
Believe it or not, the story does not end there. No my friends, it gets even darker. I guess what they say is true. It's always darkest before the dawn. Aside from the cobalt blue, fraying, plastic cup with lukewarm tea in it, there was one other thing very, very wrong with this so-called "cup of tea".
While I have found space in my heart to forgive the person who served me this horrorshow of a drink, their greatest crime in all this did have a long lasting effect on me. The lukewarm tea had the weakest hint of flavour I have ever had the displeasure of tasting. They either did not allow the tea to steep in its steaming hot bath as it should have to reach its full potential, or the water was lukewarm from the very beginning. Of course I do know now that some teas thrive very well in less than piping hot water, such as white, green and yellow tea. However, this was not that. That was merely a teabag full of ground up dust that might have been dunked once or twice in this giant (no doubt also cobalt blue, plastic, fraying) pitcher to be poured in those sad, sad cups.
Now from here on out my memory gets a bit fuzzy. It's very probable that my mind has tried to shut this last part of it out and let's face it, that might be for the best (I have suffered enough as you may well understand). However, to add insult to injury, I do believe it might have also contained sugar, because there was something so unnaturally sweet about this already sickening and dismal concoction.
Just take a moment here and try to envision it. You're a young innocent, sweet person. You've never done anyone any harm. You've crafted your little heart out and at the end of it there you are, being served a lukewarm, barely even possible to identify, sugar infused, cobalt blue, fraying, plastic cup of tea. It's all just so wrong and so unnecessary.
I did not deserve that. No one deserves that. As a result of this singular incident, my perception of tea was tainted for a long time to come. I thought that this is what tea is. A dreadful mixture of sugar, lukewarm water and a half-hearted attempt at flavour. We spent many years apart after this. Years we might have otherwise had spent in blissful harmony together.
Luckily for us both, this is not the end of our tale. Despite it all, I decided to give tea another chance, many years later. I wanted it to work. I wanted to love tea, because I could see that tea brings people joy, warmth and comfort. I wanted to experience that myself. Once I understood that it's all in how you make it, our love story truly began.
The plastic cup, was now replaced by an elegant glass, through which the wonderful colours were allowed to shine. The water was steaming, the leaves were given room to unfold and gone was any form of sugar, forever!
Ever since then, we have lived happily ever after.
Комментарии