TEA & Wine

In farming and agriculture, Tea and wine are the two crops which the industry tries to lift to an art form. There is love and passion in cultivating these crops. Both are cash crops which are very high in demand. The Tea and wine industry is enormous and spreads across reaching the far corners of the globe, providing employment and livelihood for millions and joy for the billions who drink them.

Both are relatively cheap and comes in numerous forms and packages. There is no one particular taste or flavor that can be considered as typical of the drink. They come in myriads of taste and flavor.  The taste which appeals to me may not be palatable at all for you! .  My favorite tea or wine could be a vile stuff for you. So one has to settle for which ever taste that pleases the palate.

But that's where the similarities between these two drinks stop. 

Wine tastes tingly and tangy and the tea  is warm and gentle.
Wine generally good for the evening but the tea goes very well any time of the day.
Wine is better served chill and the tea served warm or chilled.
Wine after the first glass depends upon inebriation for its appreciation.
Tea lifts the sprite by its gentle warmth and heightening of senses.

Translation of a Latin poem written during medieval times -

Wine it is that gives life pleasure,
Yet it's naught in single measure,
Better is it thrice repeated,



And the fourth is rich conceited,
At the fifth, the mind's labyrinthine,
At the sixth, the body's supine !

Rather funny and hits the final nail.
Its the allure of alcohol that draws people to wine.
Tastes and the character of wine does count
but I doubt,
that will be of primary interest after the first glass !.

*****

Tea, instead of consiousness altering qualities,
depends on the instant relaxation and hightening of senses it evokes. 
This Chinese poem written during the same period perhaps
extols tea appropriately -

 The first drink sleekly moistened my lips and throat;
The second banished all my loneliness;
The third expelled the dullness from my mind,
Inducing inspirations born from all the books I've read;



The fourth broke me out in a light perspiration,
Disbursing a lifetime's troubles through my pores.
The fifth drink bathed every atom of my being.
The sixth lifted me higher to kinship with immortals.