I think it’s time for me to switch back to tea — I’ve been drinking far too much coffee in the last six months.
When I was in Darjeeling last month I ended up in a tea shop called
Nathmulls. The staff at Nathmulls did a really fantastic job at helping me pick some teas that were really superb.
I usually have trouble when I buy tea because there are simply too many choices. My favorite local tea shop in Minnesota is great about letting you smell tea, but it’s very hard to correlate a smell and the taste of a tea. Nathmulls helpful staff helped me narrow down my choices to a few basic varieties and then let me try a range of teas for each variety. For instance, I knew wanted a white tea. They made four or five cups of white tea and let me sample them. The samples were expertly made, hot and steeped for exactly the right amount of time. I still had difficulty picking my favorite, since each batch had at least two great teas in it. In the end I bought a lot more tea than I expected. It doesn’t matter how you measure it — dollars, rupees, grams or ounces — it was more than I expected. When I got back to my room I actually wondered if it was going to fit in my backpack for the journey home.
Since I’ve gotten home, I have still been drinking mostly coffee even though I bought all this amazing tea. It’s not because I love coffee more or because I need the heavier stimulant dose of coffee. I’ve been drinking coffee for the immediate gratification that I can get by walking down the hallway and pressing a button. With tea, I walk down the hallway, press a button and then wait for the tea to steep.
The waiting is the real problem.
Lately I imagine I’m too busy to wait for tea. I’m too busy to watch the clock and make sure I steep the tea the correct amount of time. I’m too busy to sit and smell the tea as it develops that sweet scent.
This is why I need to switch back to tea. Waiting is an important discipline. Taking a minute or two to engage in a brief ritual, like brewing tea, is the kind of mental practice that actually makes you capable of accomplishing more. It’s tempting to think that staying busy is the best way to accomplish more, but real accomplishment may require avoiding the urgent in favor of the important. Making time for your ideas to brew and ferment can only lead to more clarity and purpose.
So is it coffee, tea or me? I think the answer is switching to tea means a better me.