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Afternoon pick-me-up: lokum ("Turkish delights") and tea from a sweet friend in Istanbul who surprised me with them. I've never been to Turkey, but hopefully will make time to visit this year or the next.
Years ago, I went down a rabbit hole of tea and now find it hard to enjoy pre-packaged tea bags. But she explained this tea is nothing like the yellow Lipton tea it resembles. Çaykur is state-grown tea from the rainy Black Sea region, free of pesticides or foreign blends.
In Turkey, tea is served in glass so you can see its purity. I improvised with my glassware, but it would traditionally be served in a tulip-shaped glass that keep the top cool enough to sip while the bottom stays hot.
The lokum is from Hacı İsmail Hakkızade Hafız Mustafa 1864, a confectioner from the late Ottoman era. It brings back memories of trying "Turkish delight" for the first time as a kid. Our teacher brought it for us when we read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
These lokum are much more chewy and rich in flavor than the Turkish delight I had at school. The flavors include pistachio, walnut, hazelnut, pomegranate, orange, lemon, cinnamon, and mastic. Also, I love the beautiful red of the tin it comes in.
I'm having my tea atop a book I picked up from one of our town's many Little Free Libraries. It was printed in 1982 and is a collection of mysterious and unexplained stories gathered from newspapers and reports from around the world. Prophecies, coincidences, UFOs, miracles, and so on.
Sometimes I wonder how anyone could be crazy enough to believe stories like these. Then I take a look at myself. Right now, I'm tapping my thoughts into photos on a glass screen, riding fiber-optic cables and satellites around the world, while unwrapping 19th century confections flown over an ocean in a pressurized metal tube.
What's crazy is forgetting that we are already surrounded by magic. The future is built by those who believe it before they see it. 10 replies
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