Wednesday 10 November 2010

Tea with Charles de Gaulle

I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.
Charles de Gaulle

Imagine you have the opportunity to share tea with any historical figure, as long as that person is Charles de Gaulle. What kind of tea would he drink? Let's say to make this interesting that he's agreed to tea but insists on Earl Grey. Oh, I can already tell this one's going to hurt.

But dear Monsieur de Gaulle, the Bergamot oil just masks the true taste of the tea. Whoever tended the Camellia sinensis plant and processed the leaves and sent it all this way for us to enjoy, probably wanted us to be able to taste the actual leaf. The delicate balance of either malty or flowery goodness. Although the oil might be the best of its kind, it's still interfering with our ability to actually taste the tea.

Here's where in my imagination Charles de Gaulle politely responds, 'I drink my tea with so much cream and sugar that with or without Bergamot oil, you can't really taste which tea it is. That's how I like it and that's how we're going to drink it. After all, you have invited me to tea, and that's the only way I know.'

Uh...ok. Milky, sweet Earl Grey it is. No-one said this'd be easy.

4 comments:

  1. He did as he wanted/foresaw and trying to make it go another way was the best way to keep it headed in his own direction.

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  2. How late at night did you write this? And was it for a bet?
    You could just as easily have used Attila the Hun and a spiced apple chamomile.
    Perhaps you're going for a sort of Zen parable or a tea version of the frog and the scorpion?

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  3. Only evil people drink Earl Grey. I know this for a fact.

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  4. It's true Lisa.

    No wonder #Klout says you're influential about tea.

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