Chamomile tea is very good. I started drinking chamomile during a slight Chinese period of mine (it wasn’t anything as extensive as my military period). It’s a pity I don’t drink it more.

Tea holds the same properties over coffee, as cats do over dogs. It’s more subtle, quiet, distinguished. It doesn’t make a fuss, it’s got its own gentle character, and it bristles with class. Chamomile, while technically not a tea in itself – herbal teas are sometimes included among teas, sometimes not – exudes that same kind of distinguished charm.

There are two kinds of teas that go very well in a specific circumstance; and that’s when you sit on a balcony, or front porch, and watch the gentle summer rain. It’s warm, and there’s a quiet, sad tap-tap-tap on the roof from the rain drops, and a quiet splashing of the water trickling down the sides of the building and gently falling on the surroundings. And that’s when these two teas shine in all their glory. Number one, the chamomile; and number two, the lapsang souchong.

Chamomile has a rather sharp, distinct herbal taste, and it is countered very well by the smoky, heavy flavor of the lapsang. As both have a very organic feel to it – very earthy, natural somehow – they are, in my opinion, ideally suited for this kind of activity: To gently sit and watch the rain fall while you’re immersed in quiet thoughts about life.

I’m sure you’ve all read the funny tandem writing story where chamomile tea figures briefly.