Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Keemun, Try It

I'm Still working my way through the nice bag of Keemun I received from the Perennial Tea Room in Seattle. This is another one of those great Chinese black teas that you can squeeze at least three infusions out of, and each one is great. You would think it would just get weaker with each infusion but instead the flavors mooglify a bit on each pass so that it tastes pretty much like the same thing only now there's a little backwards guitar part and a tambourine in the left channel that wasn't there before. I've heard Keemun described as having an indescribable taste which sounds like a challenge to me, so here goes: honey and tobacco. I mean that in a good way. Honey, can you pass the tobacco? They're all just dried up leaves that we extract drugs from, right? And thank god for that. I remember a time when me & my friends tried smoking everything we could find (including tea) thinking we might stumble upon a previously undiscovered hallucinogen. Come to think of it I also recall (vaguely) trying to make tea out of a bona fide hallucinogen at least once (note: does not work). Anyway, this here tea gives me a pleasing hand-rolled cig/oak-paneled library/honey & biscuits/winter morning waking up at your friend's house and not having to go anywhere feeling. Suggested listening: late period Hendrix or maybe some pre-longhair Who albums.