Friday, October 05, 2012

Tea Junkies

I have been just called an "incurable junkie" by the king of incurable junkies. My mouth opened in protest when I read his e-mail. I was about to mount a vigorous defense, but something in me knew it's probably not untrue.  I've gone clean for years but now it's worse than ever.  So now I reflect on how it is I came to this sad spot where I'm constantly thinking of the next hit.  Even though I've got a crazy conference week ahead- my presentation is Monday and we're trying to do five different live demos- I'm really planning which teas I'll have next.  Since the no-buy pact,  I can't even surf tea vendor sites as it is too tempting so I constantly look through the photos of my samples collection during precious spare moments. 

Israel recently sent me an entire EoT library plus two chocolate bars. I almost cried when I received his box.  One because of his utter generosity but two because I really really want to taste all of them now but physically can't.  He gave me helpful hints like "Proceed w/ Caution" on the 09 Nadacha Bulang and again "Go Easy" on the 2010 Bulang.  I timidly tried a little of the 2001 Jin Chang Hao Yiwu but it still burned my gullet.  My sheng intolerance is just getting worse making me sad so I'm left with sniffing and fondling tea chunks. And who wants to read about that. 

Israel and I are both in a strange quandary. We can't really take too much young sheng. Montana is really no place to age tea and neither is Berkeley. So we just have lot's of tea on our hands that we really can't drink and it will take decades if ever for our sheng to age enough for comfortable drinking. So there really is no point for either of us to continue buying young sheng. When I cognitively recognized this sad fact six years ago, I stopped being a junkie cold.  The second time around,  I know I really have no other place to turn except to aged pu-erh. Shu only took me so far. 

With aged sheng,  I really have no good alternatives but to go direct to Asia since there are no consistently good suppliers.  But that would turn me into even a bigger junkie. How can one cure oneself?  By exhausting oneself through excess?  Any ideas appreciated. (Eeks- already past midnight! Good night!)

No comments:

Post a Comment