The Importance of Tea (Part 1)

"Creativitea"

I started a new story last weekend. Currently untitled, it stars a new cast of characters and is told by the female lead. (This surprised me. I had imagined that Shade would do the talking, but hey, I’m merely the scribe.)

Getting to know a new character is awkward at first, so to help break the ice, I consider tea. Perusing a pathetically diminished stock, I determined that nothing on hand would do for my new project because what I have is either already spoken for by someone else, or it’s just inappropriate.

Of course, I don’t actually have tea with my characters. I have it for them. It puts me in touch with the voice I’m writing – for one it’s vanilla oolong, for another it’s pure Japanese green. It’s kind of fun, in fact; I sat with the Davids Tea spring list on Saturday morning and pondered the possibilities for Cristal (named for her father’s favourite champagne). It didn’t take long; she chose Gold Rush for its sweet butterscotchy undertone. So of course, because I can never buy just one flavour, I picked up some Vanilla Orchid oolong at the same time. I brewed the latter because I wanted to try it (for someone else, how inconsiderate of me); Cristal was okay with it, but I think she’ll really open up when I brew the one she wanted.

I reckon at some point Ter will know which story I’m writing simply by which tea I’m drinking.