I wrote last month about glossy teas; teas with a polished appearance, mostly from Japan. I also mentioned a pea-green variety from Sichuan’s Emei mountain range called Bamboo Leaf Tea . Now, let’s be honest. Sichuan is less famous for growing tea than it is for pandas, bamboo and spicy snacks. Were Sichuan and tea are ever connected in people’s minds, it is the tea houses and the tea-drinking culture that stand out rather than native varieties of leaf. Possibly that is just how Sichuan people like it. Local tea...

It’s much easier to get maple syrup these days. Canadian president Justin Trudeau just announced the construction of a new pipeline to export it to the rest of the world (…or was that another liquid commodity?) Anyway, when I was a child, our family received a bottle of this treasured syrup. Before that day, we had only known the “simulated” stuff. We then waited months before opening this bottle of “the real thing”; no moment seemed important enough, no pancake perfect enough. And then we did open it, only to find...

From my days selling tea in the UK, some moments stand out in my memory. In one, a lady comes into our shop (a national chain) and takes from the shelf her usual packet of cheap Darjeeling. The season is Spring. Coincidentally, we have just received a consignment of First Flush Darjeeling from Margaret’s Hope in West Bengal. I’ve only just sampled this new “premium” version for myself. The experience is an epiphany to me (as one who prizes Chinese tea above all others!) The difference between this and the...

The everlasting gobstopper is of course the invention of Roald Dahl. It’s his hero, Willy Wonka, who manufactures the boiled sweet that keeps on giving. Well, everlasting flavour is something that appeals to anyone who’s been stuck with flavour-faded chewing gum. But, sadly, diminution is the way of things in the real world. Let’s call it the curse of osmosis.   It’s natural for people to try and squeeze the last dregs out of something they’ve paid for. And British fiction also has various other characters (mean old misers, mostly) who...