Florida Key Lime Pie Sparhawk Maine Tourmaline & Diamond Ring

I once had a slice of Key Lime Pie at a Florida roadside restaurant somewhere west of Lake Okeechobee. Sun was going down. Dinner, which I remember nothing of, was followed by the dessert possibilities. Thinking nothing of it at the time, I ordered a slice of Key Lime Pie. Now, for forty years, whenever I see Key Lime Pie on the dessert menu I order it because I’m trying to relive the night of the Key Lime Pie.

That Lake Okeechobee slice was unlike anything I had ever tasted before or since. It was a taste that lingered toward the back and sides of the tongue. A taste and I swear I could feel and taste it up and down my spinal column. A taste I could feel in my shoulders and on the inside of my wrists. Once you’ve had a culinary experience like this you spend the rest of your life looking. It’s like the lost love of your life. Well maybe not that strong.

I really don’t obsess about it except in those moments when a Key Lime Pie appears on the dessert menu. A lost love you never get over. She’s always there on your mind. An awesome slice of Key Lime Pie that’s pretty good too.

Now the ring. I look at the gem in the setting and I can feel the steamy night air. I can hear the bug zapper at the corner of the building. I can smell the earthy scent of swampy land and I can catch just a whiff of that memory of that slice of Key Lime Pie in Florida. And 40 years of desserts that never measured up. The ring is good, really good. The gem has taste. If you are looking for that elusive slice of Key Lime Pie, this is the closest I’ve come.