BITTER TEA AND ROCK CANDY

A young girl of Chinese descent resists drinking the pungent tea made by her grandmother.

Mimi’s Waipo lovingly serves her liangcha, an herbal tea meant to cool her body and keep her healthy. As Mimi brings the bowl to her lips, her thoughts wander to the flowers on Waipo’s balcony, soothingly illustrated with soft pastels and a warm palette. Alas, the tea is too hot, bitter, sour, and smelly! Mimi can’t bring herself to swallow a single mouthful. But Waipo is adamant: Mimi must drink liangcha every day, just as Waipo did growing up, just like Waipo’s grandmother “before her, and her grandmother before her.” Mimi scrambles each day to creatively dispose of the murky liquid. When Waipo finally catches her, she’s angry, but Mimi is unapologetic; their strong emotions are captured in full-bleed spreads enhanced with charming botanical details. The conflict is ultimately resolved when each commits to understanding the other: Mimi comes to appreciate liangcha as a ritual symbolizing Waipo’s love for her, while Waipo looks to her own childhood for a sweet solution to make the tea’s bitter flavor more palatable for Mimi. Readers familiar with the role of teas in traditional Chinese medicine may see themselves in Mimi or Waipo—or perhaps in both. The depiction of affection between a grandparent and grandchild and the importance of empathy, however, are universal.

A heartwarming tribute to intergenerational connection.