Before It Begins

Look through everything sitting in this cup and there isn't a single petal. No flower, no bud, nothing white — just leaf, rolled and opening. And yet the smell filling the room above it is the loudest thing there. Jasmine only releases its scent for a few hours after dark, on its own schedule, negotiable with no one — which means an entire night's work, for five nights running, was built around a flower that isn't there any more.

Today's cup: ⁠Jasmine Pearl Tea⁠ — Camellia Sinensis.

1 tsp, 200mL, 80°C, three minutes. Takes three infusions.

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A tea and a musing every weekday morning.

Before It Begins is made by Impala & Peacock Artisan Teas, blended by hand in Melbourne. To join our tea ritual - ⁠click here.⁠

Somebody rolled this tea by hand, one at a time, into a ball tight enough to hold its scent for months. Watch it in the water this morning and there's usually one that hasn't opened yet — still round while everything around it has gone flat and ordinary. That shape was never meant to last. It exists purely to survive the distance between where it was made and where it's being drunk, and the moment it arrives, its whole job is to come apart.

Today's cup: ⁠Jasmine Pearl Tea⁠ — Camellia Sinensis.

1 tsp, 200mL, 80°C, three minutes. Takes three infusions.

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A tea and a musing every weekday morning.

Before It Begins is made by Impala & Peacock Artisan Teas, blended by hand in Melbourne. To join our tea ritual - ⁠click here.⁠

There's a cup of jasmine tea in front of you, and none of the jasmine is in it. Each evening for five nights running, fresh flowers were scattered over the dry leaf and left to open in the dark — and each morning they were picked out and thrown away, spent, with nothing left to give. There's a faster way to get the same smell, finished in an afternoon rather than a working week, and it's nearly impossible to tell the two apart. Almost.

Today's cup: Jasmine Pearl Tea — Camellia Sinensis.

1 tsp, 200mL, 80°C, three minutes. Takes three infusions.

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A tea and a musing every weekday morning.

Before It Begins is made by Impala & Peacock Artisan Teas, blended by hand in Melbourne. To join our tea ritual - click here.