New Symptom

[Guest guest]

Will horrors never cease?

I'm a lifelong tea drinker. It's not that I don't enjoy a good,

creamy latte now and again; but I consider it a dessert treat, a

social drink...or something that can make my body weird if I do it

more than once or twice a week. Besides, I've always just preferred tea.

So I start most mornings with a big hot mug of tea. I'm a real

connoisseur of the stuff: my tea cupboard is stacked with pound-sized

tins of Chinese Gunpowder and Hu-Kwa Lapsang Souchong, delicate

Japanese blossom teas and elegant Moroccan mint teas and fabulous

Bengalese Darjeelings -- not to mention the gorgeous enameled tins

filled with the fine offerings of Vancouver's own legendary

Murchie's, purveyors of fine teas to Her Majesty the Queen.

One fine morning last week, I made up a nice mug of Murchie's Golden

Jubilee, a classic English morning tea created in honor of HMQ. I

took my first sip, braced and eager for the impact of that first

sweet-and-bitter mouthful that would wash the last bits of nighttime

murk out of my throat, and warm my brain and tummy for the day ahead.

But I tasted nothing. Remember: this is a dark black tea that's so

rich as to be almost chewy, with a caffeine punch almost as strong as

coffee. If it were beer, it would be Guinness.

Another sip. Still nothing.

I let the cup cool, and drained it. It was like drinking tepid water.

I absolutely could not taste it.

I've been trying other teas all week. Jasmine green tea at the Thai

restaurant, yerba mate, regular orange pekoe....nothing, nothing,

nothing.

It all tastes like hot water. If I put sugar in it, it tastes like

sweet hot water. Evidently, I have absolutely lot my ability to taste

tea.

This morning, my husband got up and made me a cafe latte, just to see

if this loss extended to coffee, too.

It tastes like sweet warm milk. The beans he used were rather bitter,

and leave an aftertaste -- but this morning, I'm not picking up any

of that. So I can't taste coffee, either. It's like there's this hole

in my mouth where the sensation used to be.

What's going on here? Has anybody had a loss of taste buds as a side

effect -- either of the ME, or of one or another of the things we do

to help ourselves?

I've given up enough of life's pleasures already. Is it too much to

ask to be able to enjoy my goddamn morning cup of tea?

Sara