Gunpowder Green Tea

I was kindly given some Gunpowder Green Tea. It was tasted before I researched it, and was pleased that its name did not derive from some sudden reaction in the mouth. Its curled or rolled leaves were thought to resemble gunpowder pellets from which its name comes. The taste was perfectly pleasant, though I noted that the loose leaves I had placed in my cup afterwards expanded considerably (see bottom picture); one teaspoon’s worth filled a quarter of the cup several hours after I had drunk the tea and left the cup on the side.

Actual gunpowder does not expand, but it burns very quickly because one of its constituents, potassium nitrate, supplies oxygen to the charcoal and sulphur to achieve an accelerated burn rate. This enables it to fire muskets and blow things up. Gunpowder tealeaves respond to the heat of the water and absorb it, causing them to expand.

Church congregations also ought to expand, and believers’ faith ought to grow. Unlike fireworks and explosives, motion is often slow. Even in that first wonderful enlargement of the Church in Acts 2, we read that the addition occurred day to day rather than all at once:

And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:47b

Likewise, a disciple’s growth, like a baby's, is gradual and often frustratingly slow:

...as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. 1 Peter 2:2

It is not the speed we should question, but the reality. No growth at all, no life at all.