I am drinking a cup of tea, Harney’s Darjeeling, to be precise. I ordered a tin of loose tea from Amazon a while back. It is damp and rainy today, so hot tea sounded appealing.

Americans aren’t exactly tea connoisseurs. Most Americans drink tea iced, with sugar, what Southerners call Sweet Tea. My sister’s term for Sweet Tea is “house wine of the South”. My mother never put sugar in iced tea, so I don’t. My wife drinks sweet tea from McDonald’s almost all day.

I am bragging to myself because I can distinguish the difference between Darjeeling and Irish Breakfast Tea. Earl Grey is too easy to distinguish, as is Lapsang Souchong, one of my favorites. I love Lapsang Souchong’s pine tar smokiness. I daresay it is erotic, in the way that the unique aroma and flavour awaken the senses.

The awakening of the senses is the very essence of the erotic. So consider this. Our culture has become very sexualized, but hardly is it erotic. We are abuzz with allusions to arousal and gratification (orgasm), but the sensuality of sexual awakening is a wasteland of deprivation.

Subtleties of touch, smell, taste, sound, even sight, are lost. The sexual imagery is drearily cliched´. The Playmate image (sexism, notwithstanding) died of boredom.

But I digress, as my tea has gone cold. I shall have a proper Afternoon Tea this Spring, with dainty sandwiches, and pastries. Something to look forward to.