Mixtape: Forest
I am known to love lavish tea ceremonies that last hours — mostly Chinese style, though I have enjoyed a British tea and cakes version — and own several sets to brew different kinds of teas. I dream about picking buds in Yunnan province and sipping in the tranquility of a traditional Japanese tea house. But my most treasured tea experiences are unfussy affairs — just friends, family or strangers around a pot of something simple.
That's why when someone shared Shay bil Maramiya, a Palestinian tea, with our household recently, I was taken back to the crowded living rooms of Georgia (the country), the Egyptian bags brought back by a college girlfriend, the syrupy Persian blend served with hummus and a friend's steaming zaatar buns. They all share Arabic influence by mixing black teas with herbs and spices, loaded up with sugar — an elegant solution to deepen flavor and stretch a budget. Shay bil Maramiya, with dried sage and fresh mint (or whole cardamom pods), feels ancient and familial at once — utilitarian, yes, but a layered invitation to be present in the moment.
"Yet the pace was exactly as it should be — the perfect ornament for our unabashed, collective idleness," Sarah Aziza writes about her grandmother in this beautiful essay on her own Palestinian diaspora. "The clinking of the spoon, the flamboyance in her pour, the languid, almost careless pause between stirs — each part of the ritual accumulated to a lavish expenditure of time. The moments grew thick and wide around us, and we let them burn, warming us for an instant before they wafted into the past."
It's a ritual, a way to reset and reflect. And it's a reminder that I should host more people for tea. —Lars Gotrich
Stream the Viking's Choice mixtape via BNDCMPR. Follow my Bandcamp collection. Tracklist below:
Daisy Rickman, "Feed the Forest"
Castle Rat, "Feed the Dream"
HJirok, "Maly Men"
Aisha Burns, "Look at Miss Ohio"
SAICOBAB, "Nachin Machine"
Farah Kaddour, "Estehlal"
The Reds, Pinks & Purples, "Your Worst Song is Your Greatest Hit"
Yirinda, "Yuangan (Dugong)"
Niko Karlsson, "Tyranny of Loss"
Al Fajer Group, "3an al Umniyat - عن الأمنيات"
Bloody Keep, "The Werewolf's Tale"
SPACED, "Landslide"
Rosie Tucker, "All My Exes Live in Vortexes"
Mary Jane Dunphe, "Fix Me"
Aidan Coughlan and Kass Richards, "Get a Little Rose"
Sensor Ghost, "Psychic Robots"
Force Model, "Variety Jones"
Los Doronocos, "A マイナー（A minor)"
Six Organs of Admittance, "The Mission"
Bingo Trappers, "Pack of Straydogs"
LOU, "05"
NØ MAN, "Glitter and Spit"
LAIR, "Tatalu"
Arushi Jain, "Imagine an Orchestra"
Dave Harrington, Max Jaffe, Patrick Shiroishi, "Dance of the White Shadow and Golden Kite"
William Brittelle, "Dido's Lament (Revisited)"
Sleeper's Bell, "Corner"
Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet, "Out of the corner of the eye (Live)"
Bégayer, "Fable bègue"
Lord Spikeheart (feat. SAIONJI BBBBBBB), "TYVM"
Locrian, "Chronoscapes"