How to peel and eat a poem in Specks: My darling Darjeeling (An ode to the harvest of tea varieties)

How to peel and eat a poem in Specks: My darling Darjeeling (An ode to the harvest of tea varieties)

Are you a tea-lover? Let us have here a little introduction to teas through reading a poem. This poem is inspired by my curiosity about teas. Darjeeling is a place in India where teas are cultivated and the picked teas from there are named after that. The poem My darling Darjeeling (An ode to the harvest of tea varieties) on page 47 of Specks appears to be a wooing poem but then it actually explains the times when the tea leaves are harvested and each time gives teas a different texture in taste and aroma.

The Speaker asks for apology for not giving the tea the special attention it deserves considering that Darjeeling teas are special picks in India.

I was wrong.
Accept my apology,
my Camellia Senensis,
for treating you like
you are nothing special.
When we were in India,
you are Darjeeling,
my no ordinary darling.

Sounding like meeting a young girl, the Speaker recalls the first harvest of tea leaves.

The first time I had you there,
it was after the spring rains,
and you offered me your gentleness,
lightness and mildness.
I had that first flush of blush on you in Mid-March.
And then you declared that I can have you in April,
but I chose to wait until June.


This time sounding like meeting a lady, the Speaker recalls the second harvest.

My second flush of blush with you in June
rewarded me with your amber appearance,
full-bodied embrace and muscatel-tasting kisses.


When rainy season arrives, the Speaker expresses his longing to pick but there is no picking around this time until autumn.

Then came the monsoons,
the lowest time of your life,
but you chose not to deprive me of you.
You would pay me back comes autumn, you promised.

The Speaker waited, like waiting for a true love, for the autumn to come in order to enjoy tea leaves laced with a kind of mature taste.

My autumnal flush of blush for you
gifted me with your fuller darker body
and delicate touches,
all laced with kisses made of less spicy tones.

The proper teas consist of the leaves of “camellia senensis” only and the place of origin of the tea as well as the time it is picked gives it a distinct taste and aroma. The Speaker here, sounding like a proud lover now, is amazed as to how his tea tastes as to where it came, and as to when it is picked.

My Camellia Senensis,
I must admit,
you surprise me
wherever
you are,
whenever
I am with you.