Green Tea

Green tea has to be one of the most disgusting drinks known to man. Yet as I type, I am sipping it. Its disagreeable flavour, untempered by the civilising influence of milk, almost caused me to retch the first time I tried it. Having bought a whole box of the wretched stuff, I briefly considered putting it on the fire for a minute's worth of heat, until I calculated the cost per teabag. Like many other poisons and toxicants, the taste becomes less potent with every succesive mouthful.

Green tea is feted by the English middle classes for its alleged health benefits. Some claim it can prevent cancers; it can stay mental decline; it can rejuvenate cells; it prevents diabetes, and so on. There seems to be little evidence for any of these claims, yet people cannot be drinking it for its repugnant taste. The claim that it precipitates weight loss I can only attribute to its vomit-inducing qualities. Interestingly, it does seem to inhibit the drug bortezomib which is one of the ingredients of chemotherapy. Having seen, though not experienced, the effects of this belligerent cancer treatment, one cannot but admire green tea’s efficacy.

When the Saviour was in the garden, He pleaded:

“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me” (Luke 22:42a)

A viler draught than green tea was He required to drink that night:

“And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty”, spoke wise Job in 21:20b

He drank heaven’s fury on account of my guilt. Though dreadful its taste and painful its swallowing, He nevertheless added:

“…not My will, but Yours, be done.”

Those words of submission, and the metaphorical imbibing of which they spoke, sealed our salvation. For His drinking the bitterness of our guilt, we can drink the new wine of His Kingdom. 

The curse of death was in our cup:

The cup was full for Thee;

But Thou hast drained the last dark drop,

And emptied it for me.

That bitter cup, love drank it up;

There is no curse for me.

-Annie Cousin (died 1906)