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Before It Begins

Impala and Peacock

Five minutes with a cup of tea, every weekday morning. Pour the water, watch the colour arrive, and hear one true thing about what's in the cup — why lemon myrtle carries more lemon than a lemon does, why hibiscus isn't a flower, why no ginger plant has ever been found growing wild. Then one thought worth carrying into the day. A new blend each week, Monday to Friday. Made by Impala & Peacock Artisan Teas, blended by hand in Melbourne. Best taken with something steeping.

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  • 24 episodes
  • daily
  • Avg 5 min
  • English

Episodes 24

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  • September 17 · 5 min

    Earl Grey - Mr Grey's Legacy

    The cup is Earl Grey, and the colour comes up fast—amber, copper, then it stops. There are dark leaves, pale curls of rind, a drift of blue petals, and a scent that reads as old: citrus at the front, malty tea beneath. The name is everywhere, but the man behind it is not a legend or a marketing invention. He is a real person, and the strange part is what he is remembered for. The tea carries his name further than his life ever could, and the story that travels is rarely the one chosen. Today's cup: ⁠Earl Grey ⁠— Camellia sinensis, bergamot, citrus peel, cornflower petals, bergamot essential oil. 1 tsp, 200mL, 100°C, two minutes straight or three-plus with milk. --- A tea and a musing every weekday morning. Before It Begins is made by Impala & Peacock Artisan Teas, blended by hand in Melbourne. To join our tea ritual - ⁠⁠⁠⁠click here.⁠⁠⁠

  • September 16 · 5 min

    Earl Grey - The Smell Nobody Names

    The cup of Earl Grey Tea is a room-filling presence, its colour rising fast and its scent arriving before the water has finished pouring. There are dark leaves, curls of dried peel, blue petals drifting, but the most familiar thing in the cup is the hardest to name. The scent is bright, high, floral at the edges, a little bitter underneath—recognised instantly, described with difficulty. The ingredient that carries it has no shape of its own, and it reaches you before you even sit down. Most people could pick this tea from a lineup in a second, but almost nobody can say what makes it smell this way. The most recognisable thing in the cup is also the one that slips through language. Today's cup: ⁠Earl Grey ⁠— Camellia sinensis, bergamot, citrus peel, cornflower petals, bergamot essential oil. 1 tsp, 200mL, 100°C, two minutes straight or three-plus with milk. --- A tea and a musing every weekday morning. Before It Begins is made by Impala & Peacock Artisan Teas, blended by hand in Melbourne. To join our tea ritual - ⁠⁠⁠⁠click here.⁠⁠⁠

  • September 15 · 5 min

    Earl Grey - The Blue Sits Between

    The cup opens quickly, the colour shifting from amber to copper and stopping just short of red-brown. In the swirl, dark leaves soften and pale curls of rind hold their shape, but one thing stands apart: a blue petal, bright as a summer sky, untouched by the water around it. It gives nothing away, not to the aroma, not to the taste, and yet it holds its place, unchanged, in a cup that has gone entirely brown. Almost nothing in nature is truly blue, and what appears so is only an arrangement—several ordinary things, none of them blue, held in perfect relation. Some things exist only in the space between their parts. Today's cup: ⁠Earl Grey ⁠— Camellia sinensis, bergamot, citrus peel, cornflower petals, bergamot essential oil. 1 tsp, 200mL, 100°C, two minutes straight or three-plus with milk. --- A tea and a musing every weekday morning. Before It Begins is made by Impala & Peacock Artisan Teas, blended by hand in Melbourne. To join our tea ritual - ⁠⁠⁠⁠click here.⁠⁠⁠

  • September 14 · 5 min

    Earl Grey - The Only Part That Lingers

    The cup of Earl Grey changes quickly, the colour rising and settling into amber and copper before you can look away. In the swirl, nearly everything softens and gives in, except for one pale, curled piece that holds its shape against the water. The aroma lifts bright and sharp, then settles into something rounder and faintly bitter, a note that lingers after the sip is gone. The citrus in this blend is younger than it seems, a hybrid with a story that didn’t begin as planned. Most things that feel permanent turn out to be improvisations, arrived at by chance and kept because they worked. Today's cup: ⁠Earl Grey ⁠— Camellia sinensis, bergamot, citrus peel, cornflower petals, bergamot essential oil. 1 tsp, 200mL, 100°C, two minutes straight or three-plus with milk. --- A tea and a musing every weekday morning. Before It Begins is made by Impala & Peacock Artisan Teas, blended by hand in Melbourne. To join our tea ritual - ⁠⁠⁠⁠click here.⁠⁠⁠

Showing 21–24 of 24 episodes