The CLICK! of Potential

CLICK!

At 5:36am – that’s less than half an hour ago – I heard a click.

I love hearing that click. I hear it every morning at some point between 5 and 6 o’clocks, though if I’m having one of my daring weekend sleep-ins, it could be as late as 6:45.

CLICK!

I stand to attention when I hear it.  I’ve spent two minutes on-line – the two minutes it takes to turn the cold, just-filled kettle into a clicking dispenser of one of the ingredients in the adventure I’m about to undertake. And already, I’ve been discussing tea. And dreams, riots, postal shortcomings and other such things.

I head to the tea cupboard on the wall, open the tea door in the pantry and also pull out the box of odds and ends. Today I have 54 teas to choose from.

The kettle will click today at least 6 more times. On top of that, I’ll have a few teas whilst I’m out.

For now, my hand hovers over Lord Petersham, but then I switch my thoughts to an unmarked container in the pantry.

It’s the Doke Bai Mu Dan I received last week, and for today, it’s the first potential tea that will become an actual tea.

After I pour the water, I check the levels in the kettle, knowing I’ll be back in an hour, ready to hear that CLICK! and once again transfer the taste of somewhere exotic, some coutry of rich and poor, some place of hopes and dreams,  some land of danger, excitement, crime, love, passion, heroism, hard work, violence, peace, ordinariness and extraordinariness to my middle-class existence via a simple pottery vessel with a handle.

7 thoughts on “The CLICK! of Potential

    1. Given that coffee is properly made in one of 5 devices – the espresso machine, the percolator, the stovetop espresso, the siphon or the plunger/french press, I can only hope that you are referring to the later.
      In 1981, during a Year 11 chemistry lesson, I swore that I would never drink “INSTANT COFFEE” again, and that I would spend my life ridding the planet of that evil scourge.
      Don’t make me come round there…

  1. I love this post. I don’t have a click sound though. Other than when the timer goes off. Generally no use of a kettle either. I use my zojirushi on most all occasions and could not live with out it.

  2. Yes, happiness is just one click away! It’s an incredibly satisfying sound. The release of built up anticipation, the climax almost. From that point onwards the tea’s much more than a mere thought.
    Anyway, yes I totally share your feelings. At home we have the Breville 1-touch, so there is no click, just a beep. I miss it sometimes, and I love hearing it every morning where we are now.

    J.

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