This is a cool tradition. Yet, for some of us, out of reach. I, for one, turned 68 this month. :) But I like the idea a great deal, and I shall have to pick a tea to tell a yearly story. Happy birthday, Max!
Beautiful cake, and beautiful piece! I am happy to read your unique voice in tea writing several years since enjoying the pieces on serious eats. Fine tradition in the unique puer stripe of appreciating the passage of time, and quite an extraordinary year!
Leave it to Max to bless us with this gift on his born day:
"Most years I drink my birthday cake on my own. I return to it as if catching up with an old friend. I tell it that in 2024, I fell in love. I adopted a dog. I figured out some better ways to do things that tripped me up in the past. I gained a client and lost a client. I went to two weddings and one funeral. I stopped buying bonsai trees to focus on developing the ones I already have. I started a newsletter to write about tea, which felt like reuniting with an old flame after years apart. Each year, I tell the tea new stories. It holds on to them until I dust it off the following November, when the leaves tell them back to me."
Maybe my favorite graph you've penned on these leaf hopping pages. Big ups.
P.S. I'm now fully and shamelessly going to steal this tradition wholesale — just need to find a 1986 cake at a reasonable price. Let me know if you hear any times.
PSS I just bought two cakes from two 2024 bulang cakes for the twins to age on their behalf from Vancouver's Aroma Tea House. So if tradition holds we'll be sipping Bulong birthday cakes for multi gens.
Happy birthday! This is such a great tradition. My husband and I have a cale from our wedding date that we drink on our anniversary but I may have to convince him to buy me a birthday cake too haha!
Thanks for sharing this with us. Enjoyed this. Makes me want to find one for my birthday though I may need to rob a bank for it lol.
bro.... same
This is a cool tradition. Yet, for some of us, out of reach. I, for one, turned 68 this month. :) But I like the idea a great deal, and I shall have to pick a tea to tell a yearly story. Happy birthday, Max!
Thank you! I'm glad I started when I did. Perhaps a gift to pass along to younger relatives!
Beautiful cake, and beautiful piece! I am happy to read your unique voice in tea writing several years since enjoying the pieces on serious eats. Fine tradition in the unique puer stripe of appreciating the passage of time, and quite an extraordinary year!
Thank you for being a reader over such a long time, Amory!
お誕生日おめでとうございます。
Leave it to Max to bless us with this gift on his born day:
"Most years I drink my birthday cake on my own. I return to it as if catching up with an old friend. I tell it that in 2024, I fell in love. I adopted a dog. I figured out some better ways to do things that tripped me up in the past. I gained a client and lost a client. I went to two weddings and one funeral. I stopped buying bonsai trees to focus on developing the ones I already have. I started a newsletter to write about tea, which felt like reuniting with an old flame after years apart. Each year, I tell the tea new stories. It holds on to them until I dust it off the following November, when the leaves tell them back to me."
Maybe my favorite graph you've penned on these leaf hopping pages. Big ups.
P.S. I'm now fully and shamelessly going to steal this tradition wholesale — just need to find a 1986 cake at a reasonable price. Let me know if you hear any times.
PSS I just bought two cakes from two 2024 bulang cakes for the twins to age on their behalf from Vancouver's Aroma Tea House. So if tradition holds we'll be sipping Bulong birthday cakes for multi gens.
Thank you thank you Alex! Love that idea for the twins, and this way they don't need to share. Big fan of the puer I've bought from Aroma.
Happy birthday! This is such a great tradition. My husband and I have a cale from our wedding date that we drink on our anniversary but I may have to convince him to buy me a birthday cake too haha!
Thank you Raisa! I love the wedding tea tradition, gonna file that away.
Happy birthday dear friend.
Thank you Maggie!
I’m so glad I opened and read this letter upon receiving it. Feeling nourished and in good company. HBD Max! 🙂
Thank you Andy! Glad it resonated with you. In very good company here too.
That’s a great tradition… pu-erh is my favorite go to