Me and my cha yuan

Add understated elegance to your tea setup

A while ago I bought a tea set from Dragon Tea House.  It’s an affordable “Yixing” set that comes in a carrying case that doubles as a chápán, or draining tea tray.  Included was a small tea towel – a washcloth, really – emblazoned with the legend CHA YUAN 茶缘.  茶 is tea, so I assumed this was Chinese for tea towel and moved on.

Recently, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to look up 缘.  To my bafflement, Nciku defined 缘 [yuán] as “cause, fate or edge.”  There are some poetic names for items used in gongfu tea, but this really took the cake.  How is a tea towel a cause, fate or edge?

Journal article: Pu-erh tea tasting in Yunnan, China

My wife’s graduate studies are winding down, so I’ve been taking advantage of her university privileges to access some tea books and journal articles.  I recently read “Pu-erh tea tasting in Yunnan, China: Correlation of drinkers’ perceptions with phytochemistry,” by Ahmed et al., from the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, and my scattered reflections follow.

Fig. 1. Lab setup

The authors studied 10 samples of puerh (ripe, new raw, and >10-year-old raw; plantation-grown and agro-forested), infusing each sample 10 times in gongfu fashion.  Each infusion was described and rated by a panel of Yunnan experts, and also analyzed in the laboratory for its constituent chemical content.

Literary names for Chinese provinces.

Chinese tea names can be difficult for English-speaking tea drinkers.  Mandarin characters are too thorny for our brains to grab hold of.  But the most common alternative, unaccented pinyin, can be worse.  If I write 茶, there is no question I am talking about “tea.”  But imagine I write “cha.”  Tea drinkers will probably guess what I’m referring to, and others will feel like they have something that can be looked up in a dictionary.  Instead, they will still be lost: did I mean “to be surprised,” “inferior,” or “a fork”?  Chinese is a tonal language, so accents or numbers must be used to convey tone information; otherwise, there can be too many possible translations for any romanized word.

Splitsville

I am no longer working at the Random Tea Room.  This is just a note in case my local readers are hoping to catch me there.

Art of Tea #1: Green Tea Bean-Paste Cakes, explicated

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from "Art of Tea" magazine

The Philadelphia Tea Institute has been making a systematic study of The Art of Tea magazine series.  The Art of Tea is the English version of 普洱壺藝, an irregularly-published periodical (an occasional?) on Chinese tea culture.  This English version is marketed to non-Chinese-speaking Asian countries (e.g., Singapore, Malaysia, and Korea) for whom English is a common second language, but thankfully it’s available stateside from Tearoma.  This post, my attempt at a recipe in The Art of Tea #1, will be the first in a series of comments on our studies.

Chinese Tea Culture presentation

I recently gave a presentation on “Chinese Tea Culture” at the Narberth Public Library.  See here for coverage by the local patch.com affiliate! And hey, look at the comments–somebody else wants me to do another presentation.  Thanks, Mom!

Indoctrinating the young

Tea Life, Tea Mind

Here are some excerpts from “Tea Life, Tea Mind,” written by Soshitsu Sen XV, “Hounsai,” the previous iemoto of Urasenke.

“In the time of Buddha, a man was walking deep in the mountains in search of a place where he could discipline himself to understand his spirit.  While searching he chanced to meet one of Buddha’s disciples.  ”Sir, from where do you come?” he asked.  ”The disciple answered directly, “I’ve come from my place of practice.”  Thinking that this man knew of the very place for which he had been searching, he asked the disciple, “Sir, I am looking for that same place.  Please take me there.”  The disciple answered, “The place of practice lies in the pure and honest spirit where there is no false vanity.”  Startled, the man saw that a place of practice and discipline is not only seen with the eyes.  The place of practice is the spirit.

*  *  *

Gongfu tea burns, and building calluses

For external use only

How do you keep from burning yourself as you begin practicing gongfu tea?  Good gear helps, like a thin porcelain gaiwan with a sizable rim, but direct contact with hot water and steam is unavoidable.  I imagine most tea masters would say, “Make more tea.”

A majority of guitar players would give you the same “suck it up, baby” attitude, but there are still enough on the internet who offer helpful tips for toughening your fingers.

An evening with Victor Mair

9th century Fiestaware

Dr. Victor Mair is a linguist.  What can a linguist offer to further the study of tea?

In 1998, his book, “The True History of Tea,” co-written with Erling Hoh, was a month from completion when he learned of a shipwreck being excavated in the Java Sea.  What’s known as the “Belitung wreck,” named for the nearby Indonesian island, turned out to be the most important archaeological discovery in southeast Asia: a ninth-century Arab trading vessel loaded with Chinese export porcelain.  And one of these bowls bore this inscription: 荼盞子.

“Tea-bowl (thingy).”  It was the capstone of his research.

Great ape?

You want milk and sugar?!

In case you hadn’t heard, I’ve been promoted from “Tea Monkey” to “Manager” at the Random Tea Room. We’re a single-barista shop, so this involves more operational rather than supervisory responsibilities. As you can see, I’m currently implementing our “Friendly Faces” customer service initiative.