Tea Rooms and Sad Farewells

I remember thinking once after visiting Origin, the Cape Town coffee specialists; what a great idea it would be to open up a tea room, that specialized in teas. Tea, after water, is arguably the most-widely consumed beverage in the world. Especially in the orient. So my thinking was it would only be a matter of time before it took off here in good ol' South Africa. I also figured that being an oriental looking fellow myself, that I would be an ideal candidate to evangelize and bring teas to the heathens...

After having some Lemon - Green Tea concoction earlier; I realized more than ever that the West has still a lot to learn about teas. Sadly, I have not acted upon my idea; but coincidentally the people who inspired my entrepreneurial stirrings are the same people who took the initiative and opened up a fantastically, exquisite tea room.

Yesterday evening was the opening of Nigiro - that's Origin backward in case you were wondering, not some butchering of an oriental dialect. Speaking of dialects, I often hear Mandarin being spoken, but it's not often that I hear Taiwanese getting flung about. So whenever I do hear it, I like to take the opportunity to practice it and freshen up on my lingo.

Speaking to a Taiwanese family at the event, it turns out that Dave Donde and Joel Singer, teamed up with one of my fellow country-man, Ming Wei (okay perhaps you caught me, so I'm actually South African, but my family is from Taiwan) to bring close to a hundred different types of teas to our fair city for your tasting pleasure. Being a massive fan of Origin and what they've done with coffee, I only anticipate the best from their teas.

If truth be told, I was late for the event; but that was because I was stuck in traffic coming back into the city from the airport. Like most people, I hate goodbyes, especially if it's saying goodbye to someone who is rather near and dear to ones heart. I felt rather sad watching Josephine board her flight to go home. It's already been over a month, but it seems like just yesterday that she had arrived.

I met Josephine a couple of years ago, on one of her epic adventures; in relative terms I didn't spend that much time with her. But as I've mentioned before, sometimes you just make an instant connection with someone. This time though, I truly feel like I've gotten to know her; it feels like I've known her forever and I sincerely believe that we've forged a lifelong friendship. I miss her already and hope that it won't be another two years before a visit.