St. Patrick and the Challenge of Green

making a clover chain, originally uploaded by amber_b..

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy St. Patrick’s Day before it's over! – Enjoy the rest of the night if you are celebrating, and especially your Guinness beer!
I’m not much of a beer person but I heard this particular kind is actually really healthy…

Without much time to post (the day was very busy with Spring Break starting today and lots of work remains undone as a result), this would be just a quick post to tell you that my day started with trying Gaucho tea for the first time. There will be a lot more about it tomorrow. For now, before I pass out after a very long day, I just wanted to share a few thought in regards to the challenge of green.

One of the things that both Dawn and I experienced when creating the perfume and the tea, was the challenge of creating something that is different from our own personal tastes and overcoming our own prejudices and preferences. As much as I find it difficult to wear green fragrances, I can tell you that mate is not Dawna’s favourite tea kind. We both had to overcome the natural impulse of rejection that comes from the smell and taste of sharp, bitter greens.

Interestingly enough, what this as an exercise has taught me (I can’t speak for Dawna but I can sense that she enjoyed the challenge…) how close opposites really are. As I was sipping Gaucho this morning with increasing curiosity as we let the tea steep longer and stronger – I noticed that strangely, the more bitter the herbs are, the more sweetness they leave in the mouth after sipping the tea. This sensation has left such an imprint on me that I can still feel it in my mouth as I write…

Tune in for a guest appearance tomorrow – a piece by Dawna Ehman about Seasonal Attunement and the Therapeutic Use of Flavour