** Some 菊花茶 Tea? **
I’ve recently started to appreciate Chrysanthemum tea. For most of my life, I thought it bland, and if given the choice, would readily take coffee, preferably with sugar. But this year I’ve started to appreciate Chrysanthemum, a sweet fragrance almost orthogonal to the sweetness of sugar and a refreshing touch that pairs nicely with savory dishes. How could I have missed this flavor all those years?
Ann Leckie, and the Imperial Radch books remind me of Chrysanthemum tea. The sweetness is not action or setting. Instead it’s humanity amongst the stars, the fantasy of found family of kindred spirits. Of course constant references to tea drinking help, but the wry twists and optimistic narrative serves as some of the escapism that smells… faintly like Chrysanthemum.