October 2012 GTH Newsletter

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Global Tea HutNewsletter #9, October 2012

It has been so remarkable participating in thesemonthly tea sessions that time has slipped by andtwo seasons have come and gone. But we haventlost the joy behind creating these gatherings, servingyou and this growing circle o people. Were just ascommitted to connecting you to astonishing teas andorganic armers, to this living tea tradition and ourcenter in aiwan, and o course to each other. As muchas the rst month, we learn about which tea to share

with excitement and are thrilled to visit the armers thatwish to donate their tea to you. We are just as joyousabout packaging these envelopes, writing these newslet-ters and selecting gits or you as we were when this allstarted or a much smaller group o tea brothers andsisters. And we hope you are as thrilled to receive thesepackages as we are to send them.

It eels like this gathering has grown in morethan size alone, like we have also all grown closer orthese shared tea sessions. It seems easy to slip into acasual tone writing or these newsletters, as thoughchatting with old riends. And indeed, we have beenthrilled to have visits rom many o you, or at least toreceive word that your Eastward-bound trips are in the

works.In this tradition we say that we learn not how

to maketea, but rather how to serveit. Tis isnt a wit-ticism; serving is in concordance with the true spirit o

tea. ea wants to be shared. It speaks to the soul as aconnecter, connecting us with Great Nature and witheach other. A ne tea is so much better when the jaris opened in the spirit o sharing rather than in thename o enjoyment. O the hundred best teas we haveever drunk, there have been so ew that we could haveowned ourselvesthey were all shared with us reelyand openly, given in the spirit o connection, manytoo priceless to ever be bought or sold. Long ago, thesages that cloudwalked Chinese mountains had littleelse to give a passing guest, other than the leaves they

had gathered rom nearby trees. And sometimes, thesesimple gits are the most important. It is, ater all, thepriceless parts o lie that matter most.

It has been amazing to hear that so many oyou have gured this out and started sharing these lit-

tle envelopes o tea with others, in the spirit o spread-ing this tradition and Cha Dao as well. You inspireus. It seems that with each passing month, this centerbecomes more activeignited by the energy o yoursupport! Tere are more guests, emails and queries. Wehave a new book out, which youll learn about later onin this issue; and i you havent yet checked out the vid-eos we are making, you should head to the GH web-site (www.globalteahut.org) and have a look. Tey aregetting better each time, as we learn our crat. We knowthis will also be an important medium in sharing ourtradition with this magnicently modern world.

As this Hut grows and we share these teas eachmonth, let the heart be warmed by our communityand the small, though poignant, eect its having onthe world. ake the time to share this months tea in a

warm space, as so many o us are experiencing a shit inthe weather, in the moon and wind. Perhaps go outsideone last time beore winter and share this months tea

with someone special. Maybe youll tell them about themarvelous armer that produced it, or about how proudhe is to be connecting to you all.

It is amazing to imagine that so many travel-ers in other times can be recalled and remembered inour tea gatherings. Like us, they have gathered to sharesome warm tea around tables, on cushions or blanketsby the alls, on a bridge or even on a boat, as we recently

drank our teaA weary mountain man came across a hut ater

weeks o wandering alone. Te hint o company en-ticed his soul in ways even ood could not, and he real-ized how hungry he was or companionship. Te smokerom the small hut seemed a ribbon o joy, descendingrather than ascending rom Heaven. He strolled upcondently, knowing that tea would bind him and hissoon-to-be brother. Sure enough, there was little spacebetween the opened door and the rst bowl o tea, o-ered graciously and with a smileor nothing pleased

the old hermit more than a ar-o traveler stopping byor some tea. Perhaps the traveler, a stranger no more,

would smile at the scroll o calligraphy that was theonly decoration in the otherwise sparse hut: Troughtea make riends!
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The most important role this Global ea Hut

serves is the riendships we broker betweenincredible tea producers and all the peoplegathered here each month. I you didnt know, all theteas we share with you each month are graciously do-nated. Te armers and vendors who give us tea to shareknow that we are a non-prot tea school devoted tosharing Cha Dao with the world, but that isnt the pri-mary reason why they share their tea with us. All o ourclasses and publications are ree and all the guests whostay here do so completely ree, so without the gits otea these supporters donate to us, we wouldnt make

enough rom this monthly sharing to pay our bills. Tearmers know that their tea supports us in this way, ando course think it is nice, but again it isnt the real mo-tivation or their gits: you are!

All o the amazing armers who support us withtheir hard labortea is one o the most labor-intensivecrops on earthdo so to share their tea with twentynations. I have seen two tap their chests with a tear-

jerking pride and tell a riend how, Our tea, yes, ourtea is being drunk by someone in Spain! Tey wantto connect their heritage, culture, art and work with

the world. Any artist could relate. I certainly wouldntturn down the chance to have my book read by people

worldwide, even i it was or ree! And with so manyenvironmental problems in the tea industry, and all ag-riculture or that matter, it is very important that theseorganic armers who are creating sustainable teas havesuch an amplied voice. So you might say that we at theHut are the microphone, and you the audience.

Some people in their urban oces or at bars de-clare that global warming is a myth or debate whetherthe changes in the environment are real or true. Butno armer, living and working in concordance withthe climate, denies the changes o late. ea just isnt asgood as it was even ten years ago. And when you askthe armers, they all tell the same story: It doesnt rainenough; its cold when it should be warm or warm whenit should be cold; the mists arent coming the way theyonce did in early spring, etc., etc When you add tothat smog, water pollution and over-use o chemicals,you have a dreary painting indeed. But wait, look there!

Where? Just there, in the back o the paintingbehind

all those grays. Tere is still some green. Some hope.Tere are the seeds o change, already growingthriv-ing in a renewed soil based on community, sharing anda view to the uture.

As many o you who have been to our cent-er know, one o our modes o service is to set up ourtea service at parks, trails or gatherings and serve reebowls to passersby. We do so without any agenda orteachingsimple tea in a quiet space o presence andloving-kindness. ea is the great connector, connectingus to Nature and to each other. We blaze right past eachother all the time, with more modes o communicationthan ever beore, and yet less human connection sincecreation. We oer people a bit o humanity, a smile, achat or even some silence to get in touch with them-selves beore they move on. We do so at a variety o

venues, including our monthly service at Hope Marketin aichung.Hope Market is a group o organic producers

who work together as a model or a sustainable uture.It is mostly armers, though there are producers o recy-cled clothes, jam, miso, etc. Tey hold activities every

week, including courses conducted by various armersin which the public can come and learn to make tou,honey, organic ertilizer, etc. Tere is no currency ex-change allowed within the Hope organization, rathertrade and barter. I a soy bean armer wants some honey,

he trades tou or it. Tere is also a wonderul exchangeo work as well, which means that i that same soy beanarmer needs some help harvesting he asks his brothersand sisters in Hope and they all come to help, knowingthat he will also help them i and when they need himto. It goes without saying that they will also help usbuild our permanent center to replace the temporaryspace we are in now. Every month Hope also holds amarket in a beautiul garden, with rivers, koi sh andlotus ponds. As members, we have been given a perma-nent booth in the market. We dont use tables like the

others, though, instead setting up on the ground andserving tea to the guests that come to buy vegetablesand other organic products. Next to sending out thisGlobal ea Hut, Hope Market is the highlight o ourmonth here.

It was at Hope that we met the amazing Mr.Xie Yuan Zhai, whom we o course gravitated to im-mediately because o his organic tea. He came to thecenter a ew times and we started visiting his arm. It

was so easy or a riendship to develop (organically ocourse). He is kind and joyous, with smiles that ll aroom, not to mention incredibly knowledgeable abouttea. Hes made every kind o tea you could imagine atsome point, and has decades o experience.

Your Tea of the Month, October 20122012 Summer Mi Xiang Oolong, Ming Jian, Nantou, aiwan

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Aside rom providing this months tea, whichyou are sure to love, Mr. Xie is a very important parto the scenery at our center, and will be very importantor many o you as well, because so many o our visitorscome here with a curiosity about how tea is processed.It is very important to experience with your own hands

just how dicult it is to make tea, so that in your ownsoreness you will develop a tremendous respect or theLea. Tis respect isnt just in the billions o years o evo-

lution, or in the Nature we always wax poetic about: thewind and rain, sun and moonshine, minerals, moun-tain and water that ow rom roots to crown. It is alsoin the blood, sweat and tears o generation ater genera-tion o armers. And there is a deep reverence in seeing

just how much mastery, skill and, dare we say, art in thecrating o the Lea. And so, with great joy we take asmany o our guests as possible to a ew dierent armsto try their hands at tea processing. It is amazing tomake your own tea, and take it home with you. I youdidnt have enough reasons to come stay with us, heres

another: Mr. Xie has ormally invited each and everyone o you to come to his arm and make tea, eat a nicelunch and take the tea you picked and crated home

with you!

Mr. Xie is a third generation armer in MingJian, Nantou, Central aiwan. Ming Jian is lower al-titude, in the oothills o the central mountain range.In the last ew decades, such lower altitude tea hasbeen adumbrated by the popularity o the teas grownhigher up, as we discussed with regards to our OrientalBeauty rom Beipu County a ew months ago. Toughareas like Hsinchu and Miao Li counties, where OB isgrown, have struggled since high mountain Oolongs

have come to dominate the market, Ming Jian hasprospered by providing lower priced teas or export, orlarge-scale production or the bottled tea market (o-ten called Ready to Drink RD). Mr. Xies amily hasgrown small scale productions o Oolong tea throughthree lietimes, since beore the higher teas even existed.

When we discuss organic arming and the needto make changes in tea armingas well as other kindso agricultureits important to remember that thearmers are always the rst victims. It is they who handlethe agro-chemicals in large amounts, and most directly.

Furthermore, it is only by humanizing and beriendingthem that we can bring about change. We must includerather than excludeeducate rather than ostracize.

Like so many other armers, Mr. Xie started toget the nagging (coughing, wheezing) eeling that these

ea o the Month, October 2012

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chemicals were harmul to his amily, his communityand his land. When his wie almost miscarried their

second child in 1997, he had had enough. Despite op-position rom riends and amily, Mr. Xie made a com-mitment to become an organic tea armer, no matterthe cost. He rst attended some organic arming classesheld by the MOA organization, which we discussed in

April with regards to the Qing Xiang Oolong we sentat that time (as it was MOA certied). In case youveorgotten, here is the MOA story again:

MOA stands or Mokichi Okada CulturalServices Association International. It was created byMokichi Okada (1882-1955), who started three great

projects in his lietime: a Mokichi Style Detoxicationreatment or land, Natural Agriculture, Drinks andFood and Fine Arts and Culture. Tese three projectscreated aliated groups o people with common goalsto help each other. His overall aim was to allow hu-manity to expand and ourish, helping create healthierpeople, amilies, regions, countries and culture. His

Japanese NPO natural agriculture culture movementcreated the Da Ren arm in 1982, and then in 1991 de-veloped standards or healthy, organic agriculture. Teybegan to set up branches and create a social system or

theory and practical cooperation amongst armers inJapan.

In April o 1990, a group o people who caredabout Nature and were concerned about environmen-tal pollution wanted to change the situation in aiwan.

Tey joined the Japanese MOA International Associa-tion and created a sister organization to educate arm-

ers and legally certiy organic oods and drinks. Tisaiwanese oundation was ormed to explore and seekhealth and happiness or mankind and to guaranteeenvironmentally sustainable MOA natural agriculture,expecting this ideology and the sustainable agriculturetechniques behind it to spread all over the world.

MOA certication is rather rigorous and theydo a great job o ensuring sustainable, organic agricul-ture without much o the bureaucracy or nancial in-terests that trouble a lot o organic certication world-

wide. Watching or the MOA certication on teas is a

good way to enter the world o organic aiwanese teas.From 1997 to 2000, Mr. Xie and his amily

struggled to maintain their principles. His tea was sub-par and he lost most all his customers. His ather, whohad been worried when he suggested upsetting the sta-tus quo in the rst place, was very critical o his de-cisions. Organic arming is dicult, and it requires aradical change in arming and processing methodolo-gychanges that would take time to learn. Rather thangive up, as many would have done, Mr. Xie got a parttime job as a painter and carpenter, working day and

nighteither painting or armingto keep his am-ily aoat. Finally, in the early 2000s, his acumen ororganic arming improved to the point that he was ableto take his teas to market again. Since then he has goneon to win awards, been eatured on V and has even



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5heard his ather, now a sprightly eighty years old, brag-ging to others about how his tea is organic and good orthe environment.

Mr. Xies work hasnt stopped with his ownarm. He knew that he would have to keep improvinghis skills, creating new and better teas, and help showhis neighbors the value o organic arming, especially

since their land and his are close enough to inuenceeach other. He ormed a co-op with other armers andbegan teaching locals to shit to organic methods, oer-ing them equal shares in their combined enterprise. Asmore people have joined this local group, the incentiveto do so has also increased. o date, more than twentyarmers in the Ming Jian region are organic, includingMr. Xies immediate neighbors.

Mr. Xies kind heart shows in his teas. He caresdeeply about tea and the Earth. He produces green tea,large and small lea red tea, as well as several kinds o

Oolong; and all with great skill. Hes generous with histea, which is why weve all gotten an extra share thismonth. o us, he is an inspiration and a kind o herothe kind not talked about enough these days. Its easy toollow the crowd, maintain the status quo; or to say thatI am just one person. What can I do? It is dicult toace criticism rom amily and riends and stand up or

what you believe to be right. Te problem is that it is

too easy or armers to make more money with agro-chemicals, and to do it with less work. And thats also

why so many o them are over-using the ertilizers andpesticides, reducing the average lie o a tea bush to -teen years, all in the name o personal gain. Many othem get cancer rom improper exposure to such chem-icals, themselves victims as we mentioned above. Mr.

Xie is a man who has seen a dierent way, and moreinspiringly lived that way and taught others to do so.

And that is the spirit o tea.

Your tea o the month, a Mi Xiang Oolongrom Ming Jian, Nantou

Tis months tea is one o our avorite teas romMr. Xie. It is called Mi Xiang Oolong, which liter-

ally translates to Honey Fragrance, and youll soon seewhy. It is completely organic, although its plantationtea. It is a small-lea varietal. As we discussed in April,i all tea in the world were grown as it should behar-vested once a year, allowed to grow up with room be-tween trees, etc.there wouldnt be nearly enough teain the world. In this age, we must compromise. Mr.

Xies amazing story, and his great teas make that easy todo.



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6 Te tea has a honey ragrance because it isbug-bitten, much like the Oriental Beauty that we sentyou in June. As more tea armers have gone organic,they have had to come up with ways to cope with thekatydids that come and eat their tea, especially whenneighbors use pesticides and all the bugs come to theirelds. Allowing bugs to bite the tea, and then process-

ing it accordingly, began with Oriental Beauty in BeipuCounty, but has recently spread to Nantou as well. Teresulting hybrid is sometimes called Concubine ea.Tis months tea is a newer, more unique kind o tea:processed more like a traditional Oolong, with less oxi-dation or roast than either Oriental Beauty or Concu-bine ea.

Te bugs bite the leaves and their saliva reactswith the compounds in the tea to start oxidation beorethe leaves are even plucked. Tis happens in the sum-mertime, usually between June and August. When the

tea is less oxidized, the end-result is a musky, honey ra-grance that lingers in the back o the mouth.

Te tea is bug-bitten, plucked, withered out-doors and then indoors, shaken and mixed in piles(jiao ban), withered more, pan ried (sa cheen) to arrestoxidation and kill green enzymes, rolled to break downthe cells and urther oxidation, as well as to shape thetea (ro nien), and then roasted twiceonce to dry thetea and then or a longer time to add avor and ra-

grance. It is a semi-oxidized Oolong, lighter than tradi-tional Oolong though darker than much o the green,light teas produced nowadays (like Aprils tea).

Te Qi o this tea is upliting, sweeping up-wards. You will eel elated drinking it, perhaps like useeling the joyul toil Mr. Xie has impressed upon it.Tere is a great ellowship in this tea, between our or-

tuitous meeting at Hope Market, the many cups weveshared with Mr. Xie and now in the passing on o hiskindness to you. He gave us all some extra tea, to drinka ew timesspreading the love to a ew o your riendsas well

*As a special treat, we will be putting up a video o Mr.Xie making tea right about the time youll be receiving thisenvelope and reading these very words. Ater youve drunk

a cup or two, head over to the Global ea Hut website andtake a look at the video, so you can see his skill or yoursel.I that doesnt seal your plans to visit us, we dont knowwhat will!

** As we mentioned in previous months, we recommend let-ting the tea get over its jet lag. Let it sit a week or two andbecome acclimatized.



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In the last issue, I wrote about the joys o drinkingtea outside, in Nature. Recently, when I re-read it

to post it on our teashops website, it inspired meto take advantage o what I knew might be among thelast sunny, warm-ish days let o the year. It was a calm,sunny autumn Saturday aternoon and I packed up mytea gear and headed to my nearby orest-backed beachor a session among the pine and birch trees.

I spent about an hour drinking a braided Yiwusheng Puerh rom 2008, eyes closed in the sun, tryingto practice some non-obvious tantric yoga breathingexercises without arousing too much suspicion to pass-ing dog-walkers or mushroom hunters. I had my own

swath o orest oor; no one came anywhere near. For aew blissul moments o no-thought I managed to ap-proach eeling like a eld o awareness, just taking in thecurves and bends o the surrounding trees, the billowingpatches o browning grass, all with a minimum o men-tal noise.

I was denitely happy to be alone. Besides justsitting and being, there were a ew questions I wanted toponder, and in short order, ater just a ew bowls, all eltin balance. Yet while I didnt particularly wish or com-pany, I watched my mind calling up specic riends and

wishing theyd be able to pop in or just a bowl or two.

But how to make people just suddenly appear, withouthaving Samanthas Bewitchedpowers?

Somehow, my mind wandered to some lm Isaw long ago in which a therapist suggested to his cli-ent that i she wanted to nd someone, shed have torst make room or him. oo oten we complain or retabout wanting this or that, he or she, but change abso-lutely nothing in our habits or actions to make roomor this. Te therapist suggested she set an extra place ather dinner table every night in her solitary apartment,as i expecting someone and get used to this eeling,to this image o someone already by her side.

I realized that I had or some reason packed

two bowls that day, and wasnt sure why, or a solo ses-sion. But I had deliberately packed and carried a sec-ond bowl with me and there it lay empty. Hmmm. Ithought, in my sun-drenched, hazy kind o way. Whati I poured tea in there and set it out in ront o me? I Iound mysel even partially wanting company, why notdo something about it? For a moment I had an imageo a antasy-come-true striding by and seeing a ull cupo tea, then saddling down or a sip and irt.

I poured the tea, set the bowl in ront ome and went back to ipping through the Art o ea

The Value of Pouring a Cupfor an Unseen Friend

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magazine, closing my eyes again when the sun piercedthrough the clouds.

No more than ve minutes ater Id set out thesecond bowl, I heard some rustlings nearby, gettingcloser. No one had so ar come anywhere near me so thesounds were distinct, crisp. I thought, Already? Wow,that Te Secretstu really works! and turned around.Te large, disheveled gure o a broken man was stand-ing a ew meters away rom me; large, sad, clownish eyeshanging over unshaven jowls. Clothes ratty, stained,oversized. People might reer to him as a bum, a drunk.

Ex-excuse me, he altered in Russian, I dontmean to disturb your peace, but He stopped, lookedaround, placed a nger on his chin, rowned and lookedback at me. Stilted head movements, very likely romintoxication. Youyou wouldnt want some com-pany? he asked.

I ound mysel slip into automatic mode, thatsame kind o Big City Mode that wants to immediatelysay, No!, when approached to give money or answera questionnaire: Ah, no, no thanks, I said, listening tomy supercial sel which told me that I did notwant to

talk to thisperson. With a tilt o his head, he sotly heldout an exposed palm as i to say, Hey cool, no worries,I understand. Almost comically, he raised his eyebrowsas he turned to leave.

I instantly elt terrible. Here Id called out tothe Universe to send me some company, and it seemedto listen to me, albeit not to my unspoken antasies,and I immediately rejected the oer. An inner grrrr,then an inner sotening. But hey, I called as he was

just a ew meters shufe rom me, would you like asip o tea? and held out the second bowl with still-

warm tea towards him.He turned around and his ace lit up or a sec-

ond. He chuckled. ea, he repeated, almost sardoni-cally, and walked back towards me. He leaned down

and took the bowl and brought it to his lips, standingtowering above me. I could see more clearly now thathis clothes were indeed quite dirty, like the tatteredplastic bag he carried. He set the bag and a large bot-tle o Coca Cola down in order to hold the bowl withboth hands. As Wu De oten says about drinking bowltea, it orces people to put down their worldly concernsin order to ocus on tea.

aste good? I asked. He paused in that uni-versally-understood polite way which indicated that he

was searching or a diplomatic way to say otherwise.

It needs getting used to, he said with a smile. Yeah,this tea we dont drink or the taste but more or how itmakes us eel. He looked at me sharply. Exactly, hesaid, I knowexactlywhat you mean.

Pouring a Cup or an Unseen Friend

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He told me that he had noticed me sitting thereso peaceully, drinking tea in the orest, that hed neverseen such a thing and elt compelled to come over, tomaybe ask something about Eastern philosophy.

Whats that youre reading, he asked, point-ing toArt o ea. I ipped some pages or him to see,Its a magazine about tea and tea culture. He started

laughing and said, Youre reading about tea! You dontneed to readabout tea, you need to drinktea! Readingabout tea, imagine! Drink tea, just drink tea! And now

we both laughed. Youre completely right, I said andmotioned him to sit down on the grass near me.

He was overweight but sat down cross-leggedeasily enough. His brown woolen hat was greasy, hisbrown pants had large stains on them; his brown jacketshowed signs o having spent time on grass and dirt,and his breath, even at this distance, was sharply redo-lent o alcohol. Yet his blue eyes were sharp, clear and

moved to and ro observantly. Tey were large, slightlybulging and very expressive, like a Marty Feldman intraining. Tey also got moist pretty quickly.

Im a drunk, he said, shrugging his shoulders.Okay. I merely looked at him.He paused. I so want to just leave this world,

stop it all. End everything. I just want to nish withit all. I allowed a silence.

He continued. I I tried yesterday Herehe made a slicing motion at his throat, but it didnt

work out; it didnt work out. He sighed. I dontknow!

Do you think thats the best thing to do? Ithink maybe it is not your time yet.

But why not? He blinked heavily and a largetear came rolling down his cheek. I have nothing let.I had a amily once. Tey they killed my wie. Teres nothing.

Tats rough, I said ater a pause, and he hunghis head lower and closed his eyes or a moment beoreraising his head again. Several more tears ran down his

ace. Teres nothing let or me to do. I dont seewhy I should bother to live.

I wondered what I could possibly say o as-sistance to someone I knew nothing about and whateither soothing words or practical solutions I mightcome up with. I thought or a moment and what cameinto my head was the thought, I only he could helpsomeone. I didnt know what that meant, but oundmysel thinking o a nearby social center which takes inhomeless and troubled people daytime and oers mini-

mal assistance. I didnt imagine him going thereorhelpnecessarily, but to help. Helping someone else (eventhough the term is a loaded one), has a magical wayo imparting a sense o meaning to lie. I ound mysel

telling him about this center and where its located. Hecut me o

Ah, I dont want to get any help!No no, I mean, maybe they need yourhelp.

Tey serve meals and organize events and whatnot, andmaybe you could help them out.

He looked at me. Me help? Kind o a volun-

teer thing?Yes! Who knows, they may need assistance

and you might like the eeling o helping others.He paused, raised his eyebrows, Tats a

thought. Ater another pause, a rown, But how couldI help anyone? I cant give them money or anything.

A slim, middle-aged woman walked past usnearby with her uy little white dog. I saw him leer-ing in that direction, suddenly a big smile on his ace.I turned to see what he was staring at. Cute dog,right? I asked with a smile. He ashed a look o dis-

appointment. What dog!? Who cares about the dog!He craned his neck to watch the womans disappearinggure.

Hey, I said, help is too big a word. Some-times just talking to someone can make them eel good,sitting down or a chat, even that can be a little help.

You can do that, make someone eel a bit better?He considered this. He looked up and pointed

to a orlorn older emale gure sitting on a wood stumpin the near distance. You think I could help her?

Who knows? Maybe she wont want to talk.But someone will. And sometimes just a little contactis all someone wants, it doesnt need to be anythingmore.

We chatted hopeully about this or a ew mo-ments. At some point he got silent again, said that heonce had a amily, a job. He reached inside his bag.I need a drink, I know its shameul, but orgive me,I need it. He pulled out a plastic bottle o a brightred liquid. He called it eau-de-cologne. Te kind opoison they still sell at roadside kiosks here: Perumed

water itinerants drink or a cheap buzz. He took a swig.I poured more tea into his bowl.I saw you sitting here in the orest, he started,

so He waved a hand in ront o him in the airmaking vague motions. So peaceul. Beautiul! Hesmacked his lips and kissed his ngers. Ive never seenanything like that. I knew I just wanted to come over,even i I was disturbing your harmony. Drinking tea inthe orest! Imagine!

He asked me to enlighten him about Easternculture. I told him I am no expert, but I am trying to

live a lie o a tea, in which we drink tea not just or thepleasant tastes or health benets but or the dedicationit requires o us to serve tea properly, or the ocus andconcentration it brings to our lives, or the appreciationit osters in us or the small details o lie, or the con-

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nection with Nature it oers. And thats why the tasteo tea is not the most important aspect or us.

He still liked the idea o drinking tea or howit makes us eel. I know I am poisoning my body withdrinking, but I cant help it.

He nished his second bowl o tea and we con-tinued chatting in the sun or a while. I tried to remainunattached to the results o our dialogue (in that tryingnot to orce him to go to this center, trying not to eelthat this exchange o ours must lead to something mon-umental and positive) and just tried to be with him.

Eventually, he decided to go over to another womansitting on another bench and see i she wanted somecompany, and I decided to leave. We shook hands andboth acknowledged what a pleasure it had been. Itsthe rst time Ive ever had such an encounter! he said.

Its always a rst time, I said, and motioned to thatlady in the distance. See i she needs cheering up. Wesmiled, and that was that...

Postscript: Im getting into the habit o pouring a secondcup during solo sessionseither to share with someone Ialready know and love or or someone I have yet to love.Im also trying to keep the passenger seat in the car unclut-tered, the other hal o my bed not a clothes way-station be-tween body and washing machine, the living room couch

clear enough or others, and a space around the heart wideenough to accommodate that which is gited to me withoutstretched hands. Tanks, ea, once again!

or an Unseen Friend

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Have you ever considered how dramatic an eect the shape o your pot and cups is having on your tea? In thisissue, we would like to encourage you to experiment with dierent shaped pots and cups. I you have an Yixingcollection, now is the perect time to try out your various pots with tea. I you already have your pots devotedto certain kinds o teas, you could try just one brew without too much o an eect, or perhaps leave those pots out o

your experiment.You may nd that taller and thicker pots with high proles are better or darker teas, especially red teas. Smaller,

rounder pots are more universal, but typically better or balled Oolongs or ne green teas. Flatter pots with larger open-ings are ideal or striped Oolongs like Wuyi Cli tea or Dancong teas. Te shape and thickness o the pot will inuencethe tea. Puerh, or example, is oten compressed and is thereore usually better brewed in a larger pot with room enoughor the chunks to open completely. Tat however might require you to use a pitcher i the group is small, so you may

want to have a smaller pot or Puerh and just be sure to break the tea up a bit more, i possible.As with pots, the shape, thickness and height o the cup has as great an inuence on tea as the material it is made

o. ulip-shaped cups are ideal or gongu tea. As with Yixing, the older the cup the better. With Puerh and aged teas,we take large drinks and it is nice to have a large and ull cup when drinking them. More ragrant teas, like Oolongs orgreen teas, are much better sipped in as small an amount as possible. For that reason, these teas are better drunk rom

as small o cups as possible. Originally, gongu tea developed in conjunction with Oolong teas so the rst gongu cupswere very, very smallthimble-sized! (ry sipping an Oolong in as small o a sip as possible and notice the dierence.)Also, ner, more ragrant teas are better in thinner cups that barely leave an impression on the lips, adding to their ethe-real qualities, while deeper and richer teas, like Puerh, can be drunk rom thicker cups, which can lend the tea greatersubstance.

As an experiment, try pouring the same tea into many dierent sizes and shapes o cups, and an old one (iavailable). ry going back and orth rather than drinking each cup to the bottom. What is the dierence? I you haveaccess to some Yixing pots, you might want to take a small amount o tea, weighed or accuracy (say two grams) andput it into two dierently shaped pots, and then pour the tea liquor into identical cups. What dierence did the shapeo the pot make?

ry experimenting with dierent teaware to improve your sensitivity and brewing skills. As your sensitivity isheightened, you will begin to notice all kinds o areas in which your relationship to tea can be improved. Gongu tea isabout respecting the tea, and wanting to brew it with mastery so that it can reach its greatest potential in the brewing.

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Pots and cups o various sizes and shapes or diferent teas

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It is my great honor and joy to nd mysel, unex-pectedly, the only person in the world qualied to

announce to you the publication o Wu Des newestbook, Zen & ea One Flavor. Tere have been allusionsto it here and there over the last year, just enough to leaveus all impatient. Tose o you that have been a part othat I am happy to say the wait is over! I think you willnd as you read it that this is exactly the book you weresecretly wishing would be written and nd its way intoyour hands all this time. And I dont think that is a reac-tion that will be reserved or the members o this group

who have been in contact with this tradition or sometime now; its a book that is called or and needed within

the scope o modern tea literature, and we can only hopethat it will be received as such amidst the seemingly end-less list o titles out there today which seem to be so stuckon either the physical qualities o tea or its historical sto-ry (and even then only as it relates to man, not really teaitsel) rather than its spirit.

Im sure most o you have already readTe Way o ea, and some o you have had the goodortune to read Faces o the Master as well. I not,dont let this review discourage you; in their own

way, each one is a prelude to and even a part o

Zen & ea One Flavor. Nonetheless, I have to say thatthis is my avorite o the three, to the extent that its pos-sible to compare what are certainly still very individual

works, each with its own denitively unique content. InTe Way o eawe are led through some o the more de-lightul bits o actual tea history and masters, ollowedby a look into the philosophical aspects o a lie o tea.In Faces o the Master, we do not even see the word teaappear at all as we journey through the semi-ctionalized(or not, who can say?) lives o legends whose existenceeven those by-the-book historians must acknowledge. In

Zen & ea One Flavor, however, there is something thatis at once a combination o eas history, philosophy, andlegends into something greater than any o these thingsindividually, and also into something more ordinary atthe same time.

As the introduction itsel states, the essenceo Zen is more easily communicated through art and liethan it is in words, though it can indeed be instigatedby language. Appropriately, then, at the beginning oevery chapter we are rst met with a beautiul illustra-

tion, ollowed by a Zen/ea story, and then the authorscommentary on the story, serving to ll in (or perhapsrather to widen) the gaps, as needed. Poignantly and inthe spirit o the Zen circle, called an enso, each chapterthen nishes with a bit o poetry or inspiration. Lastly,

we are treated to the ten-part illustrated journey o anunknown tea saint as he climbs the 10,000-oot pole o

Zen only to leap o o it; a summary-in-action o theprocess pointed to throughout the book. Tey are basedon the amous ten ox-herding pictures o Zen.

I ound this book to span the whole spectrumo what I could want rom a book. From the simple per-spective o a reader o books, I was delighted and en-tertained by many wonderul and unique stories, cleverinsights and beautiul illustrations. From the perspectiveo a normal guy who nds himsel sometimes caught upin various orms o rush and things to do, I ound dailymotivation not only to take time out to sit down or tea,

but even inspiration that could transorm my rush intorelaxation with the constant reminder that my tea prepa-ration is my day-to-day activity. From the perspective oa person o tea, I ound endless inspiration and bound-less insights; an expansion o my ability to see the aspectso the Universe in each cup and the cup in each aspecto the Universe. Lastly, rom the perspective o someone

walking a spiritual path, I ound a powerul tool that Icould use daily to enhance my practice, spending just 15minutes in the morning rst reading the story then an-other 15 that night or the next day reading the commen-

tary ater the story had some time to steep, preerablywashed down (and washed away!) with a ew bowls otea.

In short, then, I will state the obvious: I highlyrecommend this book. Especially because it is the rstbook ever published to contain my most Holy and Mag-nicent Name, thus rendering it a priceless collectorsitem, and possibly o great import in protecting your soulrom certain Doom at the End o Days; i they arriveprior to the publishing o my own book. Tat book willbe entitled Give your Lie-savings to Kaiya the Gener-ous & Receive Redemption rom Eternal Suering OneFlavor. In the meantime, however, get this book, or bet-ter yet come and visit us and well give you one or ree!

* You can order the book via Amazon or directly rom thepublisher at:https://www.createspace.com/3966017One Hundred Percent o the profts go to support our center,

ree publications and roadside tea stalls.

Zen & Tea One FlavorTe Defnitive Review

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Article by Lord Kaiya the Pious & Unbiased
https://www.createspace.com/3966017https://www.createspace.com/3966017


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A

lmost exactly one year ago, I was witnessing anOolong maker in aiwan drip with sweat as he

darted around two adjoining rooms to roast,measure and taste tea. Normally, he spoke quickly andwith great enthusiasm. Tat day, he was more extremein his behavior.

He weighed three grams o tea at a time againstagong gecoin, steeped samples or six minutes on thedot, assessed the aroma and avor o each sample, andthen bolted back into the baking room to tinker with hisroasting parameters. Troughout most o these activities,he changed the topic with great rapidity, oten leavingsentences incomplete to start new, unrelated ones as he

set a timer or peered, eyes wild, into a woven bambooroasting tray.

I his teeth werent so good, I might have beenconvinced that he was high on the locally preerred stim-ulant (a nasty, addictive drug that leaves teeth red androtten). But it wasnt that at all. Part o his manic mood

was due to the task at hand: roasting Oolong tea to thedesired avor, aroma and moisture content, and part oit was due to a concurrent, yet entirely dierent, task.

You see, the Oolong maker elt he had a limited amounto time to convince me (an American journalist) o what

he had to say (that aiwanese Oolong is one o the besttypes o tea in the world).

What he didnt realize is that I didnt need anyconvincing. Te renzied passion he displayed or ai-

wanese Oolong that day was something that I could al-ready relate to. Oolong was, ater all, what brought me toaiwan that year and the year beore, careening aroundthe island on a mad quest or more and more experi-ences o these beguiling teas. Like him, my ervor ortea was one o the sensory realm, which is to say onethat brought only eeting ulllment. It was the long-suering ardor that characterizes many a tea obsessive.

It is oten said that i you ask a tea connoisseurwhat their avorite category o tea is, they will almostalways say it is Oolong tea. (Ive heard this said in vari-ous places around the world, but its not consensus real-ity everywhere. For example, in Hong Kong, Puerh rulessupreme over all other teas, and in Germany, Darjeelingis widely accepted as the best tea in the world.) Tere isample reason or this. Much o it relates to the inherentvariety to the tea category we call Oolong.

Oolong tea is an expansive tea type, one whichranges rom light oxidation to heavy oxidation, lightroasting to heavy roasting, lightly twisted to rolled intotight pellets, resh to meticulously aged or decades orlonger, etc., etc., etc. It encompasses everything rom

teas that taste like tropical owers and coconut to teasthat taste like espresso and charred wood. Vegetal, ruity,

sweet, dry, roasty, chocolateyas a category, Oolong teashave all o these characteristics, and more. And, like othertea types, the avor and aroma variations relate to terroir,but Oolong tea is particularly susceptible to manipula-tion at the hand o the maker. A skilled Oolong producercan elicit incredible nuance and depth in their teas, cre-ating exquisite variations even within the multiple inu-sions o the same batch o leaves.

Tis immense breadthSo much to explore! Somuch to experience!is part o the innate appeal o Oo-long tea, and o tea in general. From the aroma (heady

and oral) to the moutheel (buttery and rich) to the a-tertaste (lingering on the palate or hours), it is easy toappreciate the sensory side o such a sensual tea as Oo-long. However, to keep the sensual pleasures o Oolong(and o tea in general) as the primary ocus o ones rela-tionship with tea is to overlook the majority o the beautyo the Lea (and, I believe, its intended purpose behind aconnection to us humans).

Tankully, the enjoyment o tea is not some-thing to be overcometo reach a deeper connection to tea,but something to bepierced through. Much like the body

(a seeming hindrance on a path away rom worldly thingsand toward spiritual enlightenment) is oten the gatewayto spiritual enlightenment (through breathing exercisesor yoga, or example), building awareness around youraesthetic enjoyment o tea can aid you in tapping into thespiritual side o tea. As a particularly sensual and spiritualtea, organic Oolong oers many distinctive opportuni-ties to cross over rom the physical to the immaterial.

One o the easiest entry points to the spiritualside o Oolong is moutheel. I you arent doing so al-ready, when you sip an Oolong, see how long the ater-taste lasts and how it changes over time. Forget abouttasting notes and comparisons, and approach this nota matter o judgment, but a deepening o perception, ameans o staying in the moment and a way o honoringthe Lea. Access the spirit o the Lea through awarenesso the sensations it activates in your mouth and throat asand ater you sip it. In our tea tradition, a tea that splash-es up to the roo o the mouth is particularly appreciated.

You could think o it as your bodys way o welcomingthe tea or the teas way o rejoicing at being welcomed

into your body.You can also apply this approach o observingchange and impermanence to steeping Oolong (and oth-er teas) many times. Listen to the tea and, over time, youmay come to realize that tea patience is rarely lost by the

The Exquisite Black Dragon16Article by Lindsey Badwin

(Te evil twin o Lindsey Goodwin)


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tea that being steeped, but oten lost by the drinker o thetea.

Te way your body reacts to a tea as and ateryou swallow it is also worthy o some attention. Doesyour throat constrict or eel uncomortable? I so, theenergy o that tea is not right or you. (Perhaps it is notorganically grown and contains chemicals that your bodynds to be objectionable.) Does it glide down smoothly,relaxing the throat and moistening the mouth? I a teaslakes your physical thirst in this manner, then its alsolikely to help you quench a spiritual thirst or connectionto something greater.

Fully experience the anicca (impermanence) o

absorbing the tea into your physical body, remaining inthe moment and honoring what the tea and your bodytell you when they unite in this manner. You might besurprised by their wisdom.

Once you have begun to sense more deeply theways in which tea and your body converge, you will likelynotice the potential or a sense o intoxication rom tea.It can be easy to slip into viewing this as a sort o highto be chased down or an adventure to add to your cata-logue o experiences. I recommend avoiding these traps,as they tend to keep people in a seeking mode that can be

exploitative o tea, and result in an unending search orthe next tea buzz instead o an unadulterated connection

with a particular tea in a particular moment. Instead,harness the energy that results rom the melding o youand a given tea in a given moment. Rather than using

the tea like a recreational drug, use the experience o thetea to elevate your perspective. (Or, better yet, use it to

help elevate others by serving tea to other people insteado just getting high on your own supply. Serving tea si-multaneously promotes spiritual connection, connection

with other people and connection with tea, while keep-ing you grounded and preventing you rom generatingattachment to that particular tea. More on that anothertime!)

During my visit to the Oolong roaster, a ewweeks beore my rst visit to ea Sag Hut and my initia-tion into the spiritual side o tea, both the roaster and I

were rooted in the physical sensations o tea. However,

we both sensed that this was just the threshold, that somesense o peace lay just beyond his bustling about and mycopious note taking. Every now and then, the tea roast-er paused his verbal onslaught and hummingbird-likemovements or a ew moments. We smelled the backs oour tasting spoons and slurped samples o two teas he wasroasting. For a brie time, the two o us (the manic tea-maker and the then-equally-manic journalist) were stilland quiet.

According to my notes rom that day, one teawas vegetal and roasty. Te other was sweet with notes o

orchids and unripe stone ruits. Now, I understand thaton the surace they were very dierent, but underneaththey contained the same thingentryways to peace. It issimply a matter o stepping through the open door...

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The conessional tone o many contributions tothe Global ea Hut monthly newsletter has led

me to believe I already know some o you per-sonally, though we are all spread out across the globe. Isthere something in the nature o tea itsel that lends itselto conessional storytelling? Or is this impulse broughtabout by the act that we are sharing an intimate ritual,yet have never seen each others aces, so we compensateby baring ourselves to each other verbally? Tus, as wesip rom our cups o tea, each o us in our own corner othe world, we can better imagine the Others. Inspired byyour stories, I nd it time to come out and bare mysel,share my own story with those o you sitting in this circle

o tea who are willing to listen:Humans dier rom animals due to two vital ac-

tivities, as author Michael Ruhlman recently stated: Weuse re to cook our ood, and we use language to tell sto-ries. Te ritual o preparing, serving and drinking tea ts

well into this distinction and perhaps even intensies ourhuman qualities by linking us to a millenary tradition.Much like cooking, tea brings together natural elements:

water, plants, reand human interventionutensilsor teaware, and preparation skill. Moreover, the pause inour daily hustle-and-bustle that tea calls or, both whenshared and sipped on ones own, activates reection, rec-ollection, removal rom the, at times, overwhelming ex-perience unolding beyond our tea table.

Te perspective granted by the ritual o tea canbe a git, as it allows us to gather together pieces o our

broken selves. When things all apart, the grounding na-ture o tea can help us through, by simply anchoring usto the here-and-now, away rom the oreboding anxietieso pain and distress. ea grounds us as it connects us toimmediate sensory experience, and acilitates a momento repose, which, sometimes unassumingly, expands roma physical state to a more tranquil mode o being.

Tough I have been a tea-drinker or a long time,always preerring it to coee, my deep devotion to tea,and especially to tea as solace, is relatively recent, andis ironically marked by a amily tragedy. In December

2011, my sister in Buenos Aires suered a massive brainhemorrhage as the extremely unortunate result o a med-ical intervention with a 2% risk. She spent most o twomonths in a coma. She is my only sister, twenty monthsyounger, and though our lives took dierent courses indierent places, she is one o the closest people to me inthe world. en months later, as I write, she is still in thehospital, thousands o miles away, very gradually recover-ing, but with severe ater-eects: she can barely move thelet side o her body, and she has no short-term memory.Te account still sounds somewhat anecdotal and unreal,even now as I sit here, sequencing the words on the pagein ront o me.

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Back home in Barcelona in early 2012, ater

spending some time in Buenos Aires, struggling to makeit through unathomable pain at a distance, I ound my-sel getting up out o bed earlier and earlier each morn-ing, beore dawn, to sit or a while in silence with justthe sounds o my tea, beore my amily woke up and I

was orced to nd the strength to reassume my role omother, wie, teacher. One day I realized that the tea wasoering me some comort, through the opportunity tolet go o my story, to just sit and be. Te direct imme-diacy o teas stimuli on my senses, along with its permis-sive nature, allowing me to not have to do, be, remember,

think or speak o anything else in that moment, had meeagerly coming back or more.

Until recently, I had woken up each and everymorning or ve years to a long, strenuous Ashtanga yogapractice. For years this practice was my anchor, some-thing secure I could rely on to accompany me every day,no matter where or how I was. But in this new state andsituation, I ound mysel gradually and even at rst un-

willingly needing to soten my regular practice. At rst,I would rise long beore dawn to allow mysel time or asession o sitting meditation ollowed by tea beore the

yoga. Somehow the repose and respite oered by the still-ness, as opposed to the vigor o a practice that took moreenergy rom me than I had to oer, seemed more ttingto the situation.

It took a while to accept this change in what had

so long been a daily ritual or me; perhaps only now, asI put it down on paper, can I grasp that big changes inour lives require changes in even our most rooted prac-tices. Tis is easy to observe in our habits on a small scale:

we are oten naturally inclined to drink more green teaand eat more resh ruits and vegetables in the warmermonths, whereas when the weather starts to change wecrave more warming teas, such as Puerh or Oolong, andslowly-cooked meals. Te seasons demand changes inour bodys requirements, unctions and demands. So tak-ing on the enormous challenge o accepting a lie with a

loved ones health in serious danger meant, or me, learn-ing to listen to the possibilities and requests my body,mind and spirit now set upon me. Tough or a while Istruggled to maintain the physical activity I was accus-tomed to, a morning session o silence and stillness withtea and meditation began to take shape, almost in spiteo mysel, as the way to make it through harrowing mo-ments, one sip at a time.

I arrived in Buenos Aires on December 17,three days beore everything changed. As a holiday gitor Melanie I brought along a ceramic kyusu and two

small porcelain teacups, some Genmaicha tea (which sheloved), and one o my avorite cookbooks. As this was therst time in many years that I was traveling without mychildren, we were looking orward to some quality timealone together, time we really hadnt had a lot o in the

Solace in a Cup o ea

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14 years wed been living on separate sides o the globe.We had made plans to share that time cooking, drinkingtea, chatting leisurely. Obviously, those plans didnt comethrough or us, and the teapot and cups sat or monthsin her empty apartment, unused and gathering dust. Ireturned to my amily in Barcelona in January not know-ing how I could bear the pain o my sisters agony, andliving it rom so ar away.

But tea as solace throughout the past year hasnot been merely a solitary endeavor; in recent monthsI was nally able to share it with my sister. As soon asthe school year ended in early July, I took my amily toBuenos Aires or the entire summer (winter there). Bythen Melanie was well enough to take part in the tea-halo our projects, so one o the rst things I did was packup the teapot and cups rom her apartment and, care-

ully wrapped, place them, together with two types oJapanese green tea, in the small nightstand next to herhospital bed with the very ew possessions she has there(mostly toiletries, such as the red lipstick she asks or

whenever someone comes to visit).During the seven weeks I spent in Buenos Aires,

we developed our own daily tea ritual: ater our motherlet, and as soon as Melanies lunch tray was taken away,I made some tea or us with hot water rom the dispenserin the third oor hallway. Some days, when I oered, shemay have said she didnt care or it, but I prepared it any-

way. Te moment she took her rst sip never, not once,ailed to arouse a timid sigh o pleasure. She thanked meor the tea, every day. Sometimes, I brought along a treatto nibble on: dark chocolate, some pastries or dried ruit.

We deliberated on which snack paired best with each tea.

Tese simple pleasures are the only ones she has now, andshe reveled in them every time.

ea, as Okakura Kakuz reminds us in the clas-sic Book o ea, shows that well-being lies in simplicityrather than complexity. Conronted with the complexi-ties o her rebirth in this new state, my sister highly val-ued these shared, stolen moments o simplicity, in whicheverything else could be put on hold, and well-being waslimited to the steamy goodness o a sip o roasted Ban-cha. When I wheeled her down to the hospital gym orher aternoon rehabilitation session, I parted until thenext day in hopes that the calm, alert state tea helps usattain might stay with her during the session, aiding herto work towards regaining her physical and mental unc-tions.

Te nurses giggled at our ritual, not used to see-

ing their patients drink tea other than the one served inthe hospital or aternoon snack (plain black tea roma teabag with lots o milk and sugar). Tey also admiredthe teaware, implicitly acknowledging how nice it was ormy sister to enjoy some beauty in the midst o the stag-nant, aseptic hospital surroundings. Melanie has alwayshad a strong appreciation or aesthetics, and there wasso little beauty in this place. Bringing her beauty in theshape o a teapot rom the outside world nourished herspirit as well.

Ater two months in Buenos Aires, in late August

I crossed the Atlantic once again towards Barcelona tobegin the school year. I sip my tea in the mornings onmy own again, and wonder whether anyone has used theteapot and cups with Melanie since I let. I hope so.

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Lately, I am reminded o why it is I moved to

aiwan in the rst place, having traveled soar. I had been to almost ty countries whenI chose to grow my roots on this small island, and orgood reason: it is the tea capital o the world. (Whyelse would Wu De choose a place to live?) In sharingmy week with you, perhaps youll understand why Imalways attering aiwan, and even encouraging you allto visit i and when you can. For those o you whove al-ready been here, this nostalgia will remind you o someo the reasons you also ell in love with aiwan.

Tis small island boasts so much joy or a tea

lover, and we are reminded o why more than oten.O course, there is tea culture and production all over

Asia, though nowhere as vibrant, varied and alive asaiwan. And in aiwan, you nd a meeting o all thedierent tea cultures o Asia. Casually walking into anew tea house you might nd the owner boiling water

with a Japanese tetusbin, steeping aiwan Oolong in anYixing pot with Korean decorations around. And ai-wanese tea culture is not as plastic, copied or business-minded as other places. It is inspiring to see new teahouses opening all the time, each with its own deco-

rative style and brewing methodology. Other places,you oten nd many o the same shopcopying whatthey think is traditional, antique or perhaps just whattourists want to see. aiwanese, on the other hand, areexpressing tea spirit through the heart and soul o thebrewer, and so you wont nd so much redundancy.

Tere is so much tea to experiment with andenjoy in aiwan that it can actually be overwhelmingsometimes. It is hard or some tea lovers to nd theirown tradition and style in such a sea o tea. Still, eachgatheringeach new pot or cupis a chance to learnsomething new, adding insight to even the oldest otraditions. And trust me when I say that you have wan-dered into the Hut o a very open tradition, where wepride ourselves on learning and growing all the time.

While it is important to respect and grow upon ourtradition as handed down to us, we must also give it lieand blood, and better it or uture generations.

Tis week we were invited to two o the manytea gatherings that are ever-present across the island.Tey were both inspiring in their own way, and just

hint at all the vibrancy o tea available on this Formosa,which means Isle o Heaven, and a tea Heaven it sure-ly is. Long ago, Mainland Chinese saw Formosa o thecoast, with mountains that raise up above the clouds,

and thought that it surely must be the home o the im-

mortals. Ive ound them to be ea Immortals.On the third and ourth o October, the secondannual Southeast Asia Oolong ea Seminar was held inai Nan, aiwan, with visitors rom Malaysia, Singa-pore, Korea, Japan, China and yours truly speaking orgood old Mei Guo. My avorite part o such seminarsis seeing old tea riends, discussing changes in tea andsharing great nds with each other. Te event is held by

Wushing Publications, and they do an excellent job oit.

Aside rom the discussions, there was great ood

and tea or us to enjoy and we all walked away withgits o tea and literature. Some o the discussions wereboring, like the long talk about the scientic dierencesbetween various roasting temperatures, complete withpolyphenol and theanine charts or various roast-ing temperatures, 80, 100, 120, 140 yawn 160degreesand I was napping Others, however, wereinteresting.Tey had designed the hall with a circular table inthe middle o the hall and a strange, though beauti-ul, decorative space in the middle: it was a large clear

cylinder with tubes that connected to various teapots.As the convention went on, an unseen ice block abovemelted and the water ran down a willow branch andinto the cylinder. When the cylinder was ull, the wa-ter streamed down the various branching tubes andinto the teapots. During the more boring speeches, I

watched with glee as the water streamed down the wil-low leaves and into the chamber, wondering how longit would take to reach the point at which it would startrunning down the branching tubes and into the Yixingteapots.

Each o the seven seminars involved a groupo experts sitting around this circle discussing varioustopics related to Oolong tea. Te audience was allowedto participate by either grabbing a microphone and ask-ing a question, or anonymously writing their questiondown and handing it to one o the attendants who werecircling the crowd or that purpose. Tis made or someinteresting dialogues, arguments and even some dramaor spice Te topics included the incredibly labori-ous roasting discussion mentioned above, Oolong his-

tory in various countries like China, aiwan, Malaysiaand Singapore, a long discussion o Yixing teaware andOolong preparation, Cha Xi and tea gatherings (a ai-

wanese invention o hosting themed gatherings), Te

The Richness in a Cupof Taiwanese Tea Culture

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Article by the Wudekulous Rex


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aiwanese ea Culture

Future o aiwan Oolong ea (also boring), and an in-teresting discussion o what makes Oolong tea special.

I had a chair and a small voice in the last othose discussions, about Oolong tea. I think they want-

ed me to talk about i Oolong has spread to Americaand what tea culture there is like. Instead, I politely re-buked them all. I spoke o the act that I loved aiwan,citing many o the reasons I already mentioned at thebeginning o this article, and that it was great to hearso many o the most important people in the tea worldspeak about tea culture, history, production, etc., butthat we wont have any more tea conventions, let alonetea culture or production, i we dont also start discuss-ing environmental issues in the tea world. O course, I

wasnt alone. Many people agreed and one tea lover inthe audience even suggested that next years gatheringhave a seminar on this theme, turning to the owner o

Wushing, and organizing manager in askance, hopingthat they would agree on the spot. Everyone applauded

and the embarrassing moment passed. I later wonderedi I should have just spoken a bit about tea in Americaas suggested

At night, they brought out tables in the beau-

tiul old garden behind the cultural center where theconvention was held and placed teaware on them. Lastyear, various shops had arranged their own Cha Xi (lit-erally tea stage this reers to the decorations on whichthe tea is prepared). Tis year, however, each table had atea sink (cha pan) with built in lights that lit up the teatable. Tere were pots and cups, but no other decora-tions. Te idea was that various people could sit downand brew tea, switching every once and a while. Teyprovided tea, but many people also brought out theirown teas. You were supposed to keep your cup and

wander around rom table to table and try the dierentteas, brewers, company and conversation. Tis madeor a quite hectic scene, but it also allowed or some in-

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Old tea caddies at Master Lus shop


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teresting exchanges and the chance to try some uniqueteas. All in all, though, it wasnt my cup o teaTe best part o the seminar, like last year, was the enor-mous east at the end. Tey piled us all into buses andtook us o to some ritzy ve-star hotel in downtownai Nan. Tere, we were treated to a twelve courseextravaganza in which every single dish incorporated

aiwanese Oolong o some kind. Tey had a ew veg-etarian tables, so I was in Heavenso stued I sleptsoundly the whole train ride back home

Riverboat ea

I that wasnt enough tea or a week, we wereinvited to go on a boat cruise just three days ater theconvention, hosted by Master Lu. I cant drive so Kaiya,Lindsey and I took a train up to aipei, not knowing

what to expect. Master Lu had called and talked toJoyce. All we knew was that there was tea and a boat.

We headed to Master Lus new shop in aipei.It is in the Chinese medicine shop district, on one o theoldest streets, Di Hua. Te house is an amazing nd: anancient wooden house backed by a small, plant-lledcourtyard. Master Lu has, o course, decorated it withmany antiquesurniture, tea caddies, tea boxes andteaware. We sat around and drank tea with his brotherand son or a while, waiting or the boat to come at our

oclock. We got to the dock, still wondering how thiswas going to play out. I knew there was a good chanceit would be amazing, as some o the best tea gather-ings I have been to were hosted by Master Lu. He isgracious, generous and kind; and there is oten goodtea, music and ood at his events. Te river boat wasbig, with ample room or the 40ish people that werecoming along. Beore we boarded, everyone was draped

with a purple and maroon scar o hand-dyed cloth,placed over our necks like Haiwan lei.

Inside, we were seated six to a table. Each tablehad a brewer who had arranged their own unique Cha

Xi. I immediately noticed that one o the back tableshad a nice woman who had brought an Yixing pot,some antique porcelain cups rom the Republic era andsome antique Japanese coasters. Her inviting smile andtasteul selection o teaware beckoned us to her table.She had arranged some owers in a celadon bowl orsimple decoration. Earlier, Master Lu had told me I wasgoing to have to brew at one o the tables, so I was re-lieved to nd them all attended to.

When we set out on our long, ve-hour cruisewe were spellbound to discover that one o our avoritemusicians would be providing the entertainment, andthat the our teas we were going to enjoy were all veryspecial Oolongs. Shou Ge plays guitar and a lute-like

instrument he built himsel, with a sound somewherebetween apipaand agu zheng, though it looks kind olike a precursor o the guitar. He also sings. His music isnice or tea. We were introduced to his music throughMaster sai, donor and highlight o our April issue. Hecan sing in a estive wayhes a wonderully talentedmusician with a range o musicbut also quiet and

deep. He brought a couple utists with him this time,and they lled our evening with great joy.

Like any good tea gathering, we are the guestso the tea. So many gatherings are disappointing be-cause they orget this very important principal: that

without tea there is no tea gathering! Tey create glori-ous Cha Xi with owers and old cloth, and are otenthemed around a season, estivity, etc. Tey have all thegreat colors, sights, sounds and smells but orget aboutthe tea, which seems to be some secondary, backgroundopening act or all the pomp. For me, it is always disap-

pointing to come into a gorgeous tea space and drinklow-quality tea rom such beautiul teaware, discussingeverythingbutthe tea were drinking But not at Mas-ter Lus gatherings.

Tis night we were treated to our incredibleteas: a 40-year-old Iron Arahant Wuyi Cli ea,a 1983 Dong Ding Oolong, a 1916 aiwanese BaoZhong tea and nally the star o the show, a 125-year-old Wuyi Cli ea that Master Lu recently acquired,

which is called Bao Quai, a varietal no longer in pro-duction. Te last tea was amazing, and we could havesat drinking it all night long. It was stellarbeyond

words. We all let drunk on it.Te rst tea was a nice example o an aged Cli

ea (yan cha) o the 70s, which were oten lower qualityor export. Tey usually come in little single-pot pack-ets. Tough the tea was commercial grade, the age addsa poignancy to it, enhancing what was oncelongagoa mediocre tea. Tere is a slight sourness underthe ruity, aged qualities. Te second Dong Ding wasroasted by aiwans most amous armer. It was ruity

with a yang Qi that lingered or some time. Te thirdtea was improperly stored, as are most aged aiwan Oo-longs. Mostly, such teas were just let in bags or drums,and very rarely intentionally stored. Still, 1916 is a longtime ago. Te brew was deep and wise, dark as Puerhand upliting as green tea. Ater the storage avors woreo, the true tea shone, with all the berries and eleganceo a very proud bao zhong tea. Te nal tea was theoldest and best-stored aged Cli ea I have ever had. It

was deep and proound in every way, carrying us o theboat to soar with the moon as a calligrapher who was

with us on the boat later commented in the poem hewrote to commemorate the event.

Te our teas were interrupted by a dinner onthe top o the ship, watching the sites o nighttime ai-pei as we sailed downriver. Besides the music, we were

24aiwanese ea Culture


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treated to an enthusiastic lecture on the history o ai-wanese tea and how it had once been carried down thevery same river we were cruising on barges headed toKeelong harbor. Master Lu was a gracious host, actingas cha tong (tea boy) and etching out water romthe galley, applauding the musicians, introducing theteas and occasionally sitting down at each table to makesure we were all having a good time. At the end, he said

words o mastery which touched my heart: he said thatthe essence o tea was in the serving and sharing, andthat we all would probably never again drink some othese teas, especially the last, but that despite its rarityand incredibly expensive price, he could think o nobetter way to drink it than by sharing it with other tealovers. He said that hiring the boat and organizing sucha gathering was his greatest joy, and the centriuge ohis tea practice. I let with those words echoing in mymind, amazed that one o my teachers, whom I respectso much, had just spent the night etching our water

With such a tea lled week, I was o course in-spired to return home and make more tea, write about

tea and otherwise drown in tea. I also said a specialprayer o gratitude to Guanyin or guiding me to ai-

wan, the Heaven o tea. I hope that these brie glimpsesinto the rich tea culture and heritage here have inspiredyou to start planning your next trip here to see us, orat least to return in thankulness to the trip you havealready been on. You are all so very welcome. A warmcup and a bed always await you here

25aiwanese ea Culture

ea on the river boat


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T

here are some very useul tea terms that tealovers use to communicate aspects o mouth-eel. In looking or these sensations, you will

improve your sensitivity. O course, such terms can alsobe misleading i you ocus on their meaning rather thantrying to eel the actual sensation in the mouth. It isenough that you eel something, in other words. Youdont need to be able to articulate it, just understandthe basics o what you are eeling or now. Tese terms

will help you explore moutheel.

1) Co Gan (): Tis translates as moutheel. It

reers to any o the sensations we experience whendrinking tea. It points more to sensation than avor,and most all the ollowing terms are parts o Co Gan.

2) Gan () /Hui Gan (): Gan is a coolness orminty-ness that lls up the mouth, a bit like breathingoutside on a very cold winter day. (Tis is a dierentGan than the Gan in Co Gan, discussed above.Te same word with dierent tones occurs in tonal lan-guages, to the conusion o us oreigners.) It also some-times reers to sweetness with a ragrance that travels

on the breathcooling the mouth in this way. We saya tea has gan when it stimulates the mouth with sucha reshness. With hui there is a remembrance, bor-rowing rom the literary term to reect. Tis meansthe sweetness rises up rom the throat ater the tea isswallowed. It lingers, in other words.

3) Hui ian (): Tis term is a clarication or dis-tinction made to separate the cool, reshness o huigan rom a sweet ragrance arising rom the throat.

When the sensation is accompanied with a predomi-

nate sweetness, we call it hui tian.

4) Nai Pao (): Tis literally translates as patience.It reers to how long a tea can be steeped; how manyinusions can be had rom the leaves, in other words.

5) Sheng Jin (): Tis reers to a pleasant moist-ness caused by a tea. It means the tea causes salivationrom under the tongue, and sometimes the sides o themouth by the cheeks. It also coats the mouth, like oilor milk.

6) Ruan (): Tis is the smoothness o the tea. Agood tea has the texture o silk. It seems as i all theatoms in the liquor are in the right place, coordinated

and rounded. Te tea liquor all stays together and isalmost oily or gelatinous. It slides down the throat to-gether, smoothly. Improperly prepared teas are rough,

as i the atoms are jagged, misplaced and scratchy.

7) Fong Fu (): In tea tasting, this means ull-bodied. It means the tea is rich and complex, deepand subtle. Te best teas have sensations, aromas andavors that lead you onwarddrinking them or years,you still discover new and amazing sensations. Te best

works o art are always like this.

8) Cha Yun (): Tis is a very elusive term. Yunliterally means to rhyme; and cha is o course tea.

When a tea has rhyme, it means it is well-rounded. Atea with cha yun transorms in the way the best teasdo, as we discussed above. A tea with yun splashes upto the upper palate, rolls down the throat naturally andsmoothly, coats the mouth and throat, causes salivationand gan. All the aspects o such a tea are comortableand t together the way lines o poetry do. Such a teais, itsel, a poem.

The Terms of Appreciation26Article by Wu De the Dumbounded


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When you begin down an Eastern path, and Cha Dao mostly heads East, you quickly realize the impor-tant role language can play in our thinking, and consequently our insights. For the most part, we come to lovethe ancient spiritual words in languages like Sanskrit and Chinesefor their subtlety and breadth. Tere is oneEnglish word weve come to like better than its Eastern equivalents, however: Enlightenment. When most peo-ple think of Enlightenment they see in the word the light and are reminded of the light in us, which we all

travel towards. But light in English has another meaning: not heavy! Being enlightened means, literally, light-ening up! Dont take yourself serious, or anything else for that matter. Tere is an old Indian saying: beware thespiritual/religious man that takes himself seriously! And many of you know how we here do so love laughter andhumor. We thought that these newsletters might be getting a bit heavy and that we would en-lighten them up.

en-Lighten up

Tis month, we thought wed oer you up a small helping o some o the un-ny tea memories weve shared. Tere are many involving burps, arts, nudetea or other inappropriate topics (dont even mention the Armpit ea Inci-dent o 2011) but we thought wed keep it wholesome this month, resort-ing to a more mild-mannered orm o humor. I your sense o humor tendsmore towards the slapstick, send us an email and we will send you our two-hundred-page manual o How NO to Brew ea, which includes severaldozen o Kaiyas mishaps, with illustrations o course. As the great ood and

tea critic Mortimer J. Snerd said o the book, its a hilarious ride throughthe bumbling, crashing, breaking, chipping, alling down shards o teaware;not to mention spilled, lost and mislabeled teaa strong brew to keep youlaughing through your next several kettles worth o tea, though laughing sohard you might nd it hard not break some teaware o your own.

28

Blame Kaiya

Call now: 1-800-BOOBERY

Paid for by your friends at:


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29

In a peaceul old tea shop, we sat around the antiquetable in quiet, drinking an Oolong and leisurelyslipping in and out o conversation. Te old master

decided to brew an aged Puerh, despite the act thattwo o the guests werent really tea lovers. Perhaps hesaw in them a longing or quiet, and wanted to sharea memorable aternoon with them. He scooped someeighty-year-old Puerh rom a jar into a small dish,sending it around the room or us to admire and smell.Tere were ve o us, three tea lovers and a couple. Te

husband had a mild interest in tea, and was obviouslythe reason they had ound themselves there that ater-noon. Te wie, however, was completely uninterestedand betrayed the act that their stay had been way toolong and way too quiet or her taste. When the dish oold Puerh came to her, she held it up to her nose andinhaled deeplyat that moment she sneezed violently,scattering the old Puerh all over the table and guests.Needless to say, we all laughed uproariously!

One time we were drinking some quiet tea rombowls. Te Cha Xi was an elegant Japanesecloth, some owers and a small bowl on the let

to be used as the kensui, the waste-water bowl. A riendwho was coming only or the second time showed uptwenty minutes late and sat down at the only open seat,to the let. He saw us quietly sipping our tea rom bowlsand beore anyone could stop him, switly grabbed the

waste water and gulped it down. You can only imaginewhat he thought o our tea!

One time we were serving tea to a large group opeople, teen or so, at someones house whilethey were out o town. In order to do this, you

need one or two people to help bring water and one toserve the tea. On that night, there were only two us:one pouring and one preparing water. I was the onepouring the tea. About halway into the session, the wa-ter stopped coming. Tis went on or some time, so Isent another riend to go see what happened. She wentupstairs and began etching the water hersel, and con-

tinued to do so or the rest o the session. Aterwards,we ound out that the one preparing the water upstairshad gotten hungry and opened the ridge to see whatthe owner had to munch on. Seeing some caramels, hequickly garbled up three o them. It turned out thatthey were marijuana caramels, and so he stopped etch-ing water altogether, maybe even orgetting about thetea session entirely. Te other student ound him on thesoa, smiling contentedly.

O ne riend asked permission to smell a ew teasin the various jars around my tea room. I saidokay, and got busy preparing water or the teawe were about to drink. He didnt know that you cantreally smell powdered matcha the way you do normaltea, and stuck his nose in it. When he came and satdown at the table, his nose was all green. We let himstay that way or the whole session, giggling gnomishlyall throughout.

Funny Tea Stories

En-lighten Up


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Jared Krause was born in Ojai in 1979. He gota BFA in Film and V production at NYU lm schooland an MA in Western Classics rom St. Johns College.He worked or some time on a production company hecreated with a partner, moving to LA to do so, but de-cided that the upward climb through the lm industry

was too crooked, like one o M. C. Eshers paintings.Jared has a huge heart, and needed to do some-

thing that would have an impact on his community, hu-manity and the Earth. He has worked or various startup companies that are trying to change the way we live,towards a brighter uture we all know, deep down, to bepossible.

Currently, Jared is the co-ounder and developero rade Ya (www.tradeya.com), which aims to restruc-ture the economy based on trade and barter. We otenassume that bartering is a primitive, less-developed ormo economic exchange. However, bartering doesnt nec-essarily entail a step backwards. Tere are many aspectso bartering that help solve many o our economic andenvironmental problemssolutions we encourage youto explore by trading there. Ater all, the way humanbeings live and interact is the only real environmentalissue. Te Earth doesnt have an environmental problem,actually. It doesnt have Nature problems. It has a humanproblem!

Geniuses like Jared, with big hearts that really

care about the Earth and their communities, are going tox this world, i it isnt too late. We hope you get the op-portunity to have some tea with him, and pick his mindor any solutions you need! Hes been essential to thedevelopment o this Hut, and will continue to be thus inthe uture as well.

Jared started drinking tea at emple ea. He saysthat he once elt it was just a beverage, and not even onehe particularly liked, but the tradition that was broughtto LA changed his lie, and now, the leaves have woven

Tea Wayfarers

From now on, we plan to introduce one o the Global ea Hut members to you each monthin these newsletters. We hope that this helps us all get to know each other better. Its also topay homage to the many maniestations that all this wonderul spirit and tea are becoming,as the tea is drunk and becomes human. Te energy o the tea uels some great work in this

world, and we are so honored to show you some glimpses o such beautiul people and theirtea. We thought wed introduce you to the kind-hearted genius o Jared Krause.

themselves into my lie in an unmistakable way. Bringingme together with new riends and old day ater day, weekater week, or a ceremony o laughter, sel-reection,connection and joytea has become an irreplaceablepart o my lie.

You can contact Jared at:www.tradeya.com

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he Global ea Hut website now has a orum up, wherewe can all discuss this months tea and ask or answerquestions, as well as share our experiences. It is a great

way to meet some o your brothers and sisters in the hut.Come and join us:

www.globalteahut.org/forum

(We are also on Facebook and witter now!)

We have launched the new video series! Te rst video

is an introduction to this Global ea Hut. Te second isabout bowl tea. You can visit our Youtube channel viathe GH website or watch the video on the new pageat our site. We will be launching regular videos startingin August, with tutorials, interviews, introductions andmuch more about this love o the Lea!

here are currently more than 110 people in Global eaHut rom all around the world: countries like Spain,Russia, Estonia, Australia, New Zealand, America, Can-ada, USA, the U.K. and aiwan. Our accountant, Kaiyathe Magnicent (and Merciul) says that once we get toaround 120 people all our nancial worries will vanishand well live happily everater, orever and ever... Mem-bership will be limited to 200ish members!

I any o you are interested in seeing these newslettersin color, you can read them on the Internet at the GH

website, under the link or newsletters. Some o thephotography is worth taking a peak at.

You are all welcome to visit our center in aiwan. Allclasses, as well as room and board are completely ree ocharge. We have tons going on. You can read more at:

www.teasagehut.org

We werent able to send the envelopes without havingthem registered. Tis is because the post oce inormedus that they will be mishandled that way. I your enevel-ope is returned to us, we will send it back. I it gets lost,please let us know. ry to choose an address where some-one is sure to be home during the day to sign or it. Also,remember to pick it up rom the post oce.

We have given out 5 scholarships or a ree year o GHto people who want in but cannot aord the cost. I youknow anyone else interested, please let us know. It is a

great joy to expand this community!

Wu De will be in Estonia this October/November! Weare doing some amazing tastings and workshops there.Come and join us i you are nearby.Contact Steve or more inormation!

Let us know about what you think o Global ea Hut soar, either by contacting us or expressing your thoughtson the new orum. We would love to hear your com-ments or criticism. We are here to serve and make thisexperience better or everyone, bringing us all closer to-

gether.

www.globalteahut.orgwww.teasagehut.org

www.the-leaf.org

Be happy!

Center News 31
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Our center Expenses (essentially covered by local donations and Global Tea Hut) Food and entertainment, trips and gas for visitors who wish to see Taiwan Bowls and tea for every guest to take home A Puerh Cave on the third oor A library of vintage teas for future students to study from

A Large collection of various teawares to learn from

Future Center Mountain land (probably around 200,000-300,000 USD for the size we need) Building (expenses unknown at this point)

Gardening (both landscaping and vegetables for eating)

Publications Te Lea, ea & ao Magazine (Online and ree at:www.the-leaf.org) Translations of some Chinese texts for free distribution Printing of pamphlets and introductions for free distribution e purchase of copies of Wu Des books: Faces o the Master, ea Wisdom, Way o eaandZen & ea, One Flavor

or ree distribution at our center

Videos

Tea Sage Hut projects

October 2012 GTH Newsletter

Documents

Transcript of October 2012 GTH Newsletter