Wedding Tea

The Story of A Delicious Mystery

I met this tea canister today with absolutely no description on it, no origin of flavor or fancy flower, but only "The Wedding Tea". Amidst the other tell-all tins marked "Cinnamon Roast" and "Green Tea" and "Crysanthemum", my curiosity was piqued. What is this ones flavor? Do you drink it before a wedding? Should you toast with it right after the wedding? Should your guests drink it during the wedding to bring good luck (or to cover the wine on their bachelor-party breath)? Maybe! Just maybe it was a tea that brought good luck and weddings and sorts of things to romantic girls. So I bought the tea satchets, five to be exact, and took them to dinner to meet Ilya. It was the best tea I ever had. And that's got to be basically what's wrong with me lately.

Things kind of get muddled when you deal with a clarity that you didn't want to. It's like I had this idea, I stewed it and set it down in front of us and shared it with you during dinner. We'll both admit that we like it, it's smooth, not fancy and complicated or from somewhere far away that we'll never get to go to. It's simple, and it's very clearly labeled without frills. And day after day I wonder "Well, what was it we talked about? Did we ever even make any plans, or just toss around the idea of drinking tea together, far away, for as long as we have it?" Well see, I don't really know what it is, I guess. It certainly isn't as plain and easy to find as Green Tea or Earl Grey. And certainly is much more fun than the Earl or any shade of green. It's indescribable and I only have four little satchets left. It's terrifying to feel like it's running out and I don't even quite fully understand what it is yet.

Not all things are so simply defined or so delicious in their mystery. I had to force myself not to google the tea, reminding myself that I liked it, I didn't need to know the details of how it had happened.

Oh, I guess you don't have to know what you're smelling to enjoy it. Hovering over the mug on your back porch in the coldest weather and you think man, that lemon and honey really just... it just hits the spot. Good thing I knew exactly what to expect, or else I might have picked the wrong jam to go with it! Geez, what a catashtrophe. I can't believe I chanced it with the unlabeled Wedding Tea. Now that I think about it, the second bag might even taste different than the first! I could keep buying it, not knowing what to expect, and taste the same thing every day for six years ..until...

Well, I just hope that you're there to enjoy the other half of the mug of Wedding Tea that tastes suspicially unlike the previous six years of tea. Maybe that's what I was trying to get at. Experience something different together- maybe I should quit trying to put words to it.