Culmination of experiences

Over the past few days at work, I've been lucky enough to come across some interesting people which have given room for beautiful experiences.

Lately, I've been fascinated by the Chinese black teas. Our Keemun Mao Feng for this year, 2008, is amazing. At Harney & sons in Millerton you all ought to come and visit me at the tea tasting room. This tea is relatively affordable considering its unique and elegant qualities.

Coming from Keemun in China, in the Anhui province, this tea lends itself a very amazing flavor. There's a sweet quality which pervades the taste, partly because of the fact that there's an essential oil in it called myrcenal.

This year's Keemun Mao Feng is amazing and if you'll come and visit me at the tea store at 10 AM, you will see this tea as the tea of the moment. With such incredible richness and a body that does not offend, it is easy to fall in love with this tea. Such sweetness, maltiness, chocolate notes along with a body that's really mellow... you really can't go wrong.

I met a woman named Hong. She's a beautiful woman from New York City who came to visit us for a couple of hours. She was in the tea lounge having a pot of tea and scones. As I walked over there, I was completely overwhelmed by her style and youthful spirit. I hugged my co-worker, Sarah, and told her that I was in love with her. This woman was like, what a sweet young man he is... it's got to be a joy working with him.

She came my way to the tasting room. She tried the first tea of the moment which was a second flush Darjeeling tea called Selimbong. Second flush implies it was the second picking of the year which is in late May, early June. Second flushes are quite different from first flushes. Second flushes tend to have a more prominent muscatel quality, with an astrigency that sustains itself longer in your mouth. There's more of a pucker and there's also a heavier body. The leaf is usually darker, and I believe it's been oxidized for a longer amount of time as well.

We then decided to taste a couple of white teas and my favorite green tea, Gyokuro, which is a Japanese green tea from Uji.

After that, we had a bowl of matcha. She and I were so buzzed on tea it wasn't even funny.

She's working in finance in lower Manhattan. I asked her if she enjoyed her work. She said that it's okay. She then looked at me deeply into my eyes and asked me if I enjoyed my job. I told her that my job is my passion, I love my work.

She told me she's doing this job because when she's older she wants to travel and have her life be comfortably taken care of. I can't settle for less than passion and love, maybe I won't have a retirement plan. Oh well.