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20 January, 2014

Running Out of Tea

In all my days drinking pu'ercha, I have never, ever finished a cake.  Not one.  This is deliberate: I cannot bear to be out of a particular cake.  The notion of "running out" terrifies me.  This may explain some of my tea-purchasing habits, in which I buy enough such that if I drink some then it makes no difference to the overall quantity.

It is a form of psychosis, I am entirely certain.




For me to finish a cake, then, is something of significance.  The happy event came recently, in my lab, when I had the final portion of the entirely delicious, and extraordinarily inexpensive, 2006 Tiandiren "Bulang".  I bought this for $11 (eleven US dollars) from white2tea.

I feel... strangely different, after finishing a cake.  It is as if an important mental obstacle has finally been overcome.  It is a feeling with which I am absolutely unfamiliar... but I like it.

Now, what do I do with the wrapper?

9 comments:

  1. Michel20 January 2014 at 15:35

    What do I do with the wrapper?

    Keep it to Make a shoji screen collecting all the otherwrappers from the other cakes you have never finished.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yunnan Sourcing20 January 2014 at 19:01

    Hi Hobbes,

    I am curious... what's the pressing date on the wrapper for that cake? Hand stamped or printed on the wrapper?

    - Scott

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown20 January 2014 at 22:51

    That's incredible. I'd say my approach is almost exactly the opposite, as there's few cakes I've bought, and keeping to a not large budget+preferring to buy 1 higher quality cake over 2 or 3 lesser ones means that my cake consumption approaches a zen like quality--that which I savor, appreciate, enjoy while it exists..because I know that soon enough, it will just be a memory, and all traces of it will vanish.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hobbes21 January 2014 at 10:24

    My wrapper, perhaps unsurprisingly, is now being used to wrap other cakes. :)

    I'm not sure if it's stamped or not, Scott - I think it was hand-stamped, with little red numerals, in the usual manner.

    I appreciate the Zen aesthetic, generally, but cannot avoid hording tea!


    Toodlepip,

    Hobbes

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mighty Tea Monster21 January 2014 at 12:57

    I think you should finish another one..would you keep a library of books and never finish reading any of them?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hobbes21 January 2014 at 22:53

    A book is always available after consumption!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mighty Tea Monster22 January 2014 at 02:24

    lol good point..

    You could always move to a drier climate like here in Colorado USA where you must finish your bricks before they mummify.. that always motivates me...

    Been thinking of building a giant humidor..

    ReplyDelete
  8. hster22 January 2014 at 05:07

    Dear Hobbes,

    I for one am completely flabberghasted that you have finished this particular Bulang. Your vast collection houses better tea which will take you multiple lifetimes to work out. Why this beeng?

    H

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hobbes23 January 2014 at 16:40

    Why this cake? Like climbing Everest, because the challenge is there!

    Plus, it's a cheap-but-cheerful cake that I enjoy regularly in my lab. :)


    Toodlepip,

    Hobbes

    ReplyDelete

(and thanks)