Rakkasan Nam Viet Earl Grey

Nam Viêt Earl Grey is our own take on the world famous and always popular Earl Grey tea.  The wild black tea and bergamot combination offers an amazing experience where the character of the tea is enhanced by an orange, lemon, grapefruit citrus melody. (Rakkasan Tea Company)

I love the idea of having a melody in my cup for mornings.  I love mornings most of the time–it is always so fresh and clean, just waiting for us to write a new day’s experience, or in some cases, a new melody by combining bits and pieces of opportunities.

Yes, Rakkasan has entranced me yet again with their melody in a cup.  According to the tea description, Vietnamese tea trees are some of the oldest in the world, and tea farming has existed for hundreds of years.  Not surprisingly, “20th century conflict” had an impact.  The teas from Vietnam come from wild trees on the mountain sides of the northern provinces of Hà Giang and Yên Bái.  It is not possible for me to sip this tea without thinking of the families who carefully harvest and sort the tea leaves and then blend it with the bergamot oil sourced from Italy, with no artificial additives.

Organically grown and sustainably produced: good for the tea farm families, good for Rakkasan, good for you and good for the planet.  I do not know about you, but I embrace the idea that my morning tea has a systemic impact that is beyond ‘global’: it’s a little bit of love from Vietnam to Mississippi via Texas, keeping a circle of life going in a time when I feel the need to be part of that circle more than ever.  Cheers, and I raise my cup to us all.