When we’re both at home, we usually have a cup of hot tea before going to bed. In recent years, I’ve taken to lemon verbena. I buy the elegantly pointed leaves sun-dried and whole, and the light-green infusion, almost translucent, tastes immaculate and innocent, and there’s only a soupçon of lemon and the hint of a Mediterranean garden in summer. It is a delight.
My wife, however, has made a habit of falling back on the harder stuff. Her tea is a dubious mixture of five herbs and is sold in small boxes of twenty bags. It is a perfectly legal organic herbal infusion. Its name is straightforward and makes it clear that the tea be drunk in the evening or at night. The package looks harmless, although on closer examination, I have the feeling that there might be something hypnotic, even psychedelic, hidden in the illustration. It shows an oversized crescent-shaped moon, glowing and very yellow, surrounded by a halo of white light against the backdrop of a dark blue sky. In the foreground are two different herbs, and it looks as though they were dancing in the moonlight, their flower buds swooning in a meditative, fantabulous trance.
My wife says that one bag of this herbal tea makes her sleep safe and sound, and it gives her a comforting feeling to drink a cup of it before going to bed. Whenever I mention other helpers for a good sleep, both chemical and herbal, and not so legal ones, she wouldn’t listen. My wife doesn’t like narcotics of any kind and she is strict about it.
A few days ago, however, the box with her tea bags was empty, and it is no exaggeration to say that she kind of freaked out. She needed her tea, she said pleadingly, but it was late, and the shops had closed. She had a cup of lemon verbena with me, and the following night was restless. In the morning, when I asked her how she’d slept, she nodded and said: “Okay. Not great.” She’s a good sleeper usually, so I felt alarmed. And then she beamed all over her face as if she remembered something. “But today, I’ll go get my tea”, she said, “and I’ll be able to knock myself out again!”