Tea values and Tradition

I like tea. Duh. I own a tea company. But I really like tea, its taste, its enormous diversity and, more than anything, the associations it has. For me, tea still has the traditional Red-Hat Lady association, yes. But more so, the aroma of an Irish Breakfast or rich Assam Black tea conjures images of Indian Riflemen patrolling the frontiers of Empire. Heavy bergamot-infused Earl Grey sends me to well appointed studies where gentlemen sip this timeless infusion while reading the exploits of intrepid traveler, explorer and spy, Robert Fortune. There's an equally rich and nostalgic association with every tea I've encountered transporting me back to a simpler time.

Truth is those times were hard and harsh. No penicillin, half your children died before attending grade school and that's just the start of it. If you could, as I imagined, speak to someone from that era I'm sure they'd think you nuts to want to return to their world. Asked their advice, they'd tell you to transport their values and perhaps some of their lifestyle forward into our world. So I, like my ancestors couldn't, took to the internet and found others, too many to list, that were doing just that. Steampunk and retro lifestyles. Men and women in Victorian clothes taking the subway to work. Handle-barred mustaches peering over laptops. Less television and more reading. Fewer "activities" for the kids and more one on one time at home. Work schedules re-arranged for family time first. Special attention and resources dedicated to social seating areas and less on wide screen bedroom audio visual appliances. Sofas and chairs that face each other and not the wide screen. Tea and biscuits with kids.

I think tonight, after dinner with the wife and kids, we'll, together, watch a little Sherlock Holmes on television. And over a Russian Black Cherry tea with maybe a dram of cognac. The kids, with some Caffeine-Free Honeybush Herbal, will tell me about the latest writing exercise that they're proud of. After they're asleep I'll read, "Travels to the tea Countries of China" by Robert Fortune on my iphone.