Man vänjer sig.

Är det någon som vet var man kan hitta ginger beer i Sverige? Jag har googlat, och de allra flesta svenska träffar är antingen drinkrecept utan någon som helst antydan om var man kan köpa ingredienserna eller turistguider av typen "på Jamaica har de skitgott ginger beer".

Och ja, jag vet att man kan köpa ginger ale på vilket snabbköp som helst, och nej, det är absolut inte samma sak. Ginger ale är en klar och mild läskedryck, ginger beer är grumlig och har en mycket stark smak av ingefära.

One problem you encounter as a tea drinker is with linguistics. One week ago, sunjan and Justina treated me to a very nice oolong tea that was called "Shui Cheng" (or something like that) on the package. We couldn't find it in literature, until Justina pointed out that the package used a Cantonese transcription, while the book we were looking in used pinyin and called it "Shui Xian". After some searching this weekend I finally found it at Tea Centre of Stockholm, under the name Shui Hsien.

So, in one week I have encountered three different ways of transcribing 水仙:

1. God-knows-what system: Shui Cheng


2. Pinyin: Shui Xian


3. Wade-Giles: Shui Hsien

There are conversion tables, but it would still be easier if everyone could settle on using one system. If I wasn't aware that there are differences between pinyin and Wade-Giles, I might never have found what I was looking for...

Note to self: sparkling mineral water does not make good tea. The water has been shut off in the whole building for six hours, so we haven't been able to make coffee or tea until now. We tried mineral water as a desperate resort, but the minerals in the water made even Lapsang Souchong taste weird...

But now the water's turned on again and everything is back to normal. Ah, the bliss of finally having a pot of hot gen mai cha!