On this occasion I’m feeling like I should have saved the advent calendar for this afternoon, as I try to only work until 12:30, and today being deadline day for essay drafts, I have a lot of feedback to write, and can’t afford to take time out to write blogposts about tea.

Nonetheless. The interesting thing about Honey Hon Cha is that it gets its flavour from the goo secreted by the leaves after being bitten by insects. This occurs during a very short timeframe, making t quite a rare and special tea. We are anticipating floral and fruit notes, as well as dark chocolate and of course honey.

Even after pouring through the filter four times, it remains pale, and an interesting smell emerges from the steeping leaves. The taste is something I can only describe as drainsy, with a hint of rose, and yet it’s not completely undrinkable. I probably wouldn’t go back for another cup of it; something that is happily facilitated by there only ever being one shot of each tea.

I have now depleted the kitchen cupboard of mugs, and had to go into the extraordinarily cold garage to find the box where I keep the B mugs. Back in the old days when I used to leave the house to run antenatal sessions, I occasionally needed to provide mugs because the venue didn’t. Venues are usually church halls, sometimes theatres and sports centres, they all have different arrangements. I’ve run a few sessions in school halls on an evening or weekend, and those are usually awful, and don’t provide any mugs; of if they’re letting you use the staffroom, don’t want you to use their mugs. And it’s not unusual for the mugs to be so filthy you wouldn’t expect paying clients to use them anyway. So that’s why we keep enough mugs in the house to take us all the way to Christmas Eve. Today’s mug arrived last year in the Grasmere Gingerbread hamper that I have mentioned before, and this is the first time it’s ever been used, as there were only a handful of antenatal sessions between its arrival and all our courses moving online in March. It’s a large and chunky mug with a very comfortable handle, and I’m considering promoting it to the cupboard.