tea!

content/post/2021/07/on-tea-prices.md

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+---
+title: "On Tea Prices"
+date: 2021-07-12T14:49:00+02:00
+categories:
+    - braindump
+tags:
+    - tea
+---
+
+We drink a lot of tea and developed a strong preference for qualitative loose leaves over the years. Most Belgians don't know what good tea is, their knowledge being limited to the well-known Lipton/Pickwick/Twinings pre-packaged teabags. Unsurprisingly, many people I know don't like tea because it's _too bitter_. It certainly is if you follow the instructions on the packaging! Even most cafés love ripping you off with bad tea for `€3` or more. It's clear that our country is a beer country, not a tea one. 
+
+Most "cheap" (we'll get to that) teabags are filled with what is called _dust_: there's an extensive tea (leaf) [grading system](https://ratetea.com/topic/grades-of-tea/17/), which are broken down into categories like whole leaf tea, broken-leaf tea, fannings, and dust. For instance, if you spot a packet with the acronym _FD_, it means _Fine Dust_. On the other hand, if you spot whole leaf tea marked with _TGFOP1_, it means _Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe Grade One_. I'm far from an expert at grading tea, but it boils down (ha!) to this: dust is finely crumbled leaves, meaning the tea will be much more saturated, quicker steeped, and generally speaking has an anything but refined taste. Does your teacup look black? You're doing it wrong. 
+
+Loose leaves then. Another adventure filled with hurdles to take, as the quality greatly varies from brand to brand, or even from season to season. Since discovering two dedicated shops in the heart of Paris, we are big fans of [Mariage Frères tea](https://www.mariagefreres.com/FR/accueil.html). In December, I thought I'd go wild and ordered a very expensive looking fresh harvest of black Darjeeling tea ([Bloomfield SFTGFOP1](https://www.mariagefreres.com/FR/2-bloomfield-darjeeling-nouveau-2021-T1000215.html)), costing `€39` per `100 g`: the most expensive tea I've ever bought. We don't drink alcohol so it's a lot cheaper than an aged Single Malt as it took us several months to work our way through all the leaves. 
+
+Today, I wanted to make a simple price comparison between supermarket store-bought pre-packaged teabags and more expensive loose tea. These teas are usually in our cupboard/drawer:
+
+- [Lipton Citrus Black Tea](https://www.colruyt.be/nl/producten/blue-fruits-18698) pyramid bags, `20` pieces for `36 g`, at `€2.59`
+- [Mariage Frères Bloomfield Darjeeling](https://www.mariagefreres.com/FR/2-bloomfield-darjeeling-nouveau-2021-T1000215.html), `100 g` at `€39`
+- [Mariage Frères Earl Grey Provence](https://www.mariagefreres.com/FR/2-earl-grey-provence-vrac-T8003.html), `100 g` at `€10`
+- [Mariage Frères Fuji-Yama Sencha](https://www.mariagefreres.com/FR/2-fuji-yama-the-vert-japon-T424.html), `100 g` at `€12`
+
+![](../teadrawer.jpg "Our 'loose tea leaves' drawer. It's a bit of a mess currently.")
+
+The Mariage Frères stock got consumed From January until the end of May when it was depleted. That is five months for `300 g` loose tea, or exactly `2 g` each day. We drink three cups each day. For brevity, I'll stick to the three---both loose tea and teabags are frequently brewed in a teapot to enjoy with several people. The total purchase price was `€61`.
+
+Suppose we drink the three cups a day with a Lipton teabag. That would require `450` teabags or `22.5` packets of twenty bags for five months, totaling at `€58.28` for the whole period. 
+
+That's a difference less than three euros! And we've enjoyed a perhaps ridiculously expensive tea. More modest people shopping at our local dedicated tea store [TeaStation](https://teastation.eu/) in Hasselt usually walk out the door with a variant of Earl Grey for `€7` per `100 g`. Suppose they buy three packets and drink it all up in five months. That's `€21`, which is `36%` of the price of those four hundred Lipton teabags!
+
+Funny detail: `22.5` packets multiplied by `36 g` equals to `810 g` tea dust in five months, compared to just `300 g` of loose tea: more than triple the weight of the leaves. Are you still surprised steeping those bags results in undrinkable bitter stuff?
+
+The numbers might not completely add up (I left out shipping costs) but it's scary to see that what we initially called "cheap supermarket tea" turns out to be very expensive supermarket tea. When buying boxes of [Twinings Green Jasmin tea](https://drive.carrefour.be/nl/Ontbijt/Thee-%26-kruidenthee/Thee/Twinings-of-London-Groene-Thee-Jasmijn-25-Builtjes-40-g/p/04315910), things are slightly worse: 18 packets are needed to get to `450` teabags, setting you back for `€62.10`, even exceeding our Mariage Frères `€61` cap. _Yoink!_
+
+Conclusion? Next time glancing over the exclusive tea selection at the Mariage Frères webshop, I can safely say to myself: _Go on, be a big spender, it will all be worth it in the long run_. 
+
+Enjoy your tea, but remember: do _not_ let it steep for too long!

content/post/2021/07/what-if-seneca-wasnt-neros-advisor.md

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 The words of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the famous Roman Stoic philosopher that also dabbled in politics as Nero's educator and advisor, have been well-preserved. In fact, my wife is reading a Dutch translation of his _De Tranquillitate Animi_ (On Tranquillity of Mind). We both love Seneca because he wrote about how to live a life---something that heavily influenced [The School of Life](https://www.theschooloflife.com/)--- and because he and his friend advocate the usage of "a simple pen". Take that, odd German post-rationalist philosophers. I'm looking at you, Hegel and Heiddeger. 
 
-But what if Seneca wasn't Nero's advisor? In his works, he regularly admits the privilege of being born in an affluent family, being one of the few Romans that could afford to devote a life to study. Seneca was born 4 years before Christ, and yet, two thousand years later, many of his writings can still be loaned in almost any library. His wife held up his legacy for a few years after Nero forced him to commit suicide. I suppose his fate also sealed his fame (and, ultimately, the other way around). 
+But what if Seneca wasn't Nero's advisor? In his works, he regularly admits the privilege of being born in an affluent family, being one of the few Romans that could afford to devote a life to study. Seneca was born four years before Christ, and yet, two thousand years later, many of his writings can still be loaned in almost any library. His wife held up his legacy for a few years after Nero forced him to commit suicide. I suppose his fate also sealed his fame (or the other way around). 
 
 What Seneca wrote about---life, death, happiness---is something we all can write about given enough time is put in to ponder on the subjects. It is the stuff of life, not the dusty stuff of erudite knowledge. Perhaps many Would-Be-Seneca's lived and thought interesting thoughts during that era, only those people did not have the fame, or perhaps not the ability to write. Blogging and archive.org wasn't quite there yet, although I wonder how volatile the world is where I upload these words to. Think about it. Montaigne? Famous lawyer and mayor of Bordeaux: legacy preserved. Socrates? Did not write down a single word, but his philosophy is still preserved thanks to his influence in Athens and Plato's Academy. Aurelius? The last great Roman emperor: double check. Diogenes the Cynic? Hmm, a bit of a puzzler, I must admit.