The Honey Spoon Question

The bees work the hillside above the spring, and the honey arrives on the tearoom tables with a faint mineral edge that divides the room. June Ferro, who folds blankets and forms opinions slowly, says it is real. Hal Marsh says it is the cup, which is walnut, and therefore tastes faintly of wood by association.

The house settled it the only way it settles anything: a blind tasting in 2019, using china cups. The mineral edge survived. The walnut cup theory did not. Hal still serves honey in walnut cups on principle.