Thursday, February 22, 2007

I’ve got to stop boiling the water

When I was in China I learned that you’re not really suppose to boil water before cascading it gently upon your tea leaves. If the water is too hot it will actually damage the leaves resulting in a less than ideal taste. The water, I was told, should be just shy of a true boil. That’s a difficult moment to catch. Often I’m making tea (as I was just now) and I run off to do other things while I wait for the kettle to boil. Then I come back when it whistles at me and, in a hurry, I just splash the scalding water onto the tea. Not good.

But really, isn't this just obvious? Isn't it a universal truth that extremes are never good - too much fat, too much salt, too much belief, too much anger, too much medicine, too much loneliness, too much dust on the floor, too many potato chips, too many cupcakes...

OK... well... that last one... I have to recant. I don't think there is such a thing as too many cupcakes. In fact, I'm a big supporter of the Legalize Frostitution movement.

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