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Tea Soda!

Surprisingly, I think that this blend simply doesn’t work as a tea soda. While the smell of the tangy, juicy pineapple and ripe banana notes are both so bright and vibrant coming of the dry leaf and comparably strong with a traditional hot cup or cold brew they tasted a little weak and forced with a tea soda format. The flavour I wanted simply wasn’t there, and I was left with carbonated green rooibos and mediocre pineapple flavour. With enough tweaking I could likely make this work for a tea soda, but honestly I doubt it’s worth the effort.

I had more time set aside tonight for tasting notes, but Tre and I got into a very heated three hour long debate/argument tonight over this Youtube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xe6nLVXEC0

I’m firmly on the same side as boyinaband and have been for years; I think that nearly all of the topics he addresses (the only one I really disagree with is stocks) should 100% be made mandatory in school and there should be less of things like advanced math/science. I wont go as far as saying that we shouldn’t learn Shakespearean literature, or history – but I think the depth we go into is largely unnecessary and that time could be better devoted to more practical classes. Tre thinks if, as an example, if a grade twelve level science (physics, chemistry, or biology) isn’t mandatory no one will become scientists – but that’s bullshit! You don’t eliminate it from highschool, you have a class (perhaps up to a grade 10 or 11 level) that introduces the topic and provides everything you’d realistically need to know if you didn’t got to university or choose a job in that field, and then anything more advanced it made into an elective and the people who want to have a career in that field will choose to pursue it. How is that hard to understand?

Tre firmly disagrees: while I can get him to admit that most of what Dave/boyinaband is talking about is important information to know he thinks that the resources needed to teach that in highschool would be too costly. My rebuttal was that if less of the unnecessary things we’re learning was mandatory and was instead elective that the resources for those subjects could be split between those classes and a “Life Skills” class. His other argument was that things like finance could be pursued in further academics, like if you wanted to be an accountant. However, I don’t think you should need to want to be an accountant to know how to pay your taxes or balance a checkbook, and (like Tre does) you shouldn’t have to go to a specialist come tax season to fill out those forms for you. Some people can’t afford that. Besides, if you’re not taught hot to manage your money that puts you at even more of a disadvantage.

That’s just one of many examples, though.

I should probably point out that Tre and I are both from very poor/low income families; his was a single parent family and I lived with my mom but had some support from my father. We also went to the exact same highschool; he took mainstream classes and I took advanced classes. We were fortunate/privileged enough to have some of what Dave talks about (primarily anything regarding to the law or political system, and we also had a very good Sex. Ed class) as part of our mandatory education but not everyone does.

The difference, however, is that out of highschool he went to University/Siast and I didn’t because I didn’t know what I wanted to do (despite having had a much more academic/rigorous highschool experience). One of the things he’s having a hard time acknowledging is that just because the ‘system’ worked for him doesn’t mean that’s evidence ‘it works’ in general. I put every effort into learning things like ‘the quadratic equation’ or isotopes or many other things Dave rapped about – but it did nothing to further my education and now none of that knowledge (most of which was mandatory) isn’t being used practically at all. A ‘life skills’ class would have been much more beneficiary to me right out of high school.

I’d also recommend watching this ‘follow up’ video as well since most criticisms are well addressed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJIu7pE0lBA

One of Tre’s biggest ones is that parents, like his Dad, should be helping teach this stuff. Some people simply don’t have parents, others have really shitty ones. Personally, my Mom tried really hard to teach me a lot of valuable life skills; and in some areas she did a great job. I got a great sex education and learned quite a lot at home about politics and rights (LGBTQ rights in particular) but she never once addressed things like budgeting (which she can hardly do for herself, lets be honest) or how to do taxes. Had I lived with my Dad, I know for a fact I never would have learned anything about Sex Ed. because, due to his Christian beliefs, his approach was always “abstinence until you’re married” which just isn’t practical sex education. My point is that gaps exist – and someone needs to fill them.

It’s just very frustrating talking about this kind of thing with Tre, and sometimes even living with him, because while we had very similar experiences growing up are views on most things are so completely different – and he’s so stubborn and ignorant. While I had a rebuttal for every thing he said didn’t make sense/wouldn’t work he refused to accept them because “well, it worked for me so it obviously works overall”. It doesn’t work like that; we’re both in the ‘lower class’ and we fortunate to have parents who tried very hard to overcome that and teach us to overcome that, as well as go to a fairly exceptional school but the reality is that many people in our situations either didn’t go to the decent school that made up for some of the gaps in life knowledge, and didn’t have parents who tried to help them. Most people in situations like mine and his never went to university after graduating, if they graduated at all. These ‘life skills’ should be taught to them because they’re the ones who’ll probably need them the most.

Sorry for the long tasting note; I just had to vent somewhere other than to Tre because we just reached the point where I might as well have been screaming at the wall.