Tea

Sit down, and let's talk about tea. Not the drink — the leaf, before water ever touches it. Take a handful and smell it. Good leaf smells alive — sweet, sometimes smoky, never dusty or like old hay. If it smells of nothing, it will taste of nothing. That's the only test that matters, more than the box, more than the price.

Watch the cup as it sits. A quick steep gives you a lighter colour and a soft, round taste. Leave the same leaf too long and the colour turns deep and dark, and the smell that rose so sweetly at first sinks under something sharper. You're not making different tea. You're choosing what to drink out of it.

Some people say the longer it steeps, the stronger and better it gets. No — leave it long enough and it turns harsh, drying on the tongue, the aroma buried under bitterness. That mistake turns good tea into punishment, and a good cook learns to pull the leaf out while the cup still smells like something you want to drink.