Simple things make me chuckle. Like this display that I came across while hunting for Wacky Snacks at the Bodega R Ranch Market in Tustin, for example. It's just a rack of herbal teas. But look at it! It's teas especially formulated to cure a litany of ailments!
Going through menopause? Constipated? There's a tea for that!
Diarrhea? Can't sleep? There's a tea for that!
Herbal remedies are, of course, nothing new and isn't unique to any culture; but the fact that these packages are color coded and come in easy-to-read pouches with the condition it's purported to cure is really, well, convenient. I might even go as far as to say it's genius.
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It's almost as easy as looking for your name on those personalized keychain racks at amusement parks. Actually, it's probably even easier, because I can tell you now that I've never been able to find my name on those things. It's always “Edward”, “Eddie” or “Ed”. Never “Edwin”.
But if I was ever suffering from P.M.S., now I know just where to buy just the right tea.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.