A Perfect Cup of Tea

Every now and again, I find myself obsessing about things to the point of making myself nervous or depressed. One of my vices in this respect is the price action in Bitcoin, the stock market and gold. I follow these things closely for no good reasons at all, and it ends up affecting my mood. I hate seeing things move against me, even if only temporarily, and I take too much pleasure in seeing things move to my advantage.

Part of my problem may be my early retirement. I got a lot of time on my hands, and it's tempting to spend it online. However, I obsessed about things even before I retired. My obsessions are not entirely a function of available time. It's more a matter of mind-set. In either event, it's a terrible waste of time to roam the web. There really isn't anything worth spending hours upon hours doing online, and that's why I make an effort to reduce my online time.

In my effort to improve my daily routines, I've identified things that make me nervous, and other things that calm me down. The point is not to cut out internet all together, but to use it more mindfully. Social media is like poison, so I've stopped reading other people's posts. I've also stopped posting things on Facebook. Obsessing about price action is similarly destructive. There's no point to it. No insight of any value is gained. However, writing a blog post or two, checking for messages and going through news headlines makes sense. A few games of solitaire to idle away spare time is also quite calming. Beyond that, I'm making a point of doing things around the house. Jokingly, I tell my wife that doing the ironing and vacuum cleaning the apartment gives me purpose.

Other things worth doing is home schooling for our boy, and tending the plants and micro-composts on our balcony. Then there's the exploration of simple pleasures like making a perfect cup of tea.

My wife and I have of late started buying loose tea, high end coffees and fine wines. None of this is over the top expensive. We're merely exploring original flavours that haven't been tampered with too much, and in doing this we're becoming increasingly aware of how messed up many of our favourite foods have become. Tea in particular has been reduced to something barely drinkable.

It's been a long and steady decline when it comes to tea, so much so that it's gone pretty much unnoticed. But once we started buying loose tea, there was no way back to the paper wrapped dust sold as tea in supermarkets. We now brew our tea the old way. Two topped teaspoons of tealeaves go into our tea infuser. This goes into our tea pot. One litre of boiling hot water is poured over it. This is left to brew for about five minutes. The tea infuser is then pulled out to prevent the tea from turning bitter and overly strong. What we have is then a truly refreshing drink, strong without being bitter. Invigorating rather than nauseating as is commonly the case with teas tampered with.

Similarly with coffee, meat, bread, and cakes. It's no longer what it used to be, and my wife and I are currently on a crusade to find our way back to the way things used to be. Luckily for us, Porto is a town where the old way of doing things still exists. There are delicatessens, and special shops for tea, coffee, meat, fish and cheese. Considering how much better some of this stuff is than what is generally sold in supermarkets, it can be argued that the products bought in special shops are cheaper. In the case of tea, it's not even an issue of quality over quantity. Loose tea sold by the kilo is cheaper than teas from typical brands, and when it comes to quality, nothing compares to loose tea straight from the producers.

Rococo Cup with handle

By Vincennes Porcelain (France, circa 1739–1756), Francois Binet (France, active 1750-1775, born 1731) - Image: http://collections.lacma.org/sites/default/files/remote_images/piction/ma-31852871-O3.jpg Gallery: http://collections.lacma.org/node/229367 archive copy, Public Domain, Link