I think the time’s about right for this one now, a full year after it happened.

To quote Miss Joni “It’s coming on Christmas, they’re cutting down trees, they’re putting up reindeer, and singing songs of joy and peace…“

A year ago, in what now seems like a different epoch, we were celebrating Christmas in the country with the extended family.

When all the constant cheeriness got too much for me, I escaped to the solitude of our room, armed with a pot of tea and a good book.

Not just any old book, though, and most certainly not your average tea.

The leaves were House of Tea’s Lincang Old Tree Sheng, and the book was, well, a personal game-changer – “The Case Against Reality“, by Donald D. Hoffman.

At the time the combination of those consciousness expanding words and a prolonged Qi belt from such a brain melting soup came across rather like how I imagined Semuta Music from Frank Herbert’s “Dune” must have felt like – a dreamy, otherworldly experience.

In any case, those sessions, cobbled together from pilfered hours over three days left a deep, lasting, impression on me. Since then, several profoundly weird things have happened, all involving tea, a funny little tale I might just get around to telling one of these days.

I really can’t recommend this book highly enough. Buy it, and read it whilst sipping the heaviest hitting sheng you have. You’ll be glad you did.

Here’s hoping you have a merry old Yuletide mes braves, and I’ll see you next week for some sort of review of the year thing…