Thanks to the guys at Chan Teas I found this image is explains the different processing steps that tea leaves go through after they are picked. I’ve found that it’s a great thing to show people when they ask about the differences between different teas.
I that everyone who sees it finds it as useful as I have.
Dylan in China
LRC: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with Lao Ren Cha. To start with I would you be willing to describe how you first got “into” tea and tea culture? In addition to that what was your “gateway tea”, the first tea that really made you want to try out more tea?
DJ: I got into tea purely out of curiosity. I learned about brewing loose green tea, started
Gunpowder green tea was an early tea that got me into the world of loose leaf tea. From there I learned about the oolong category and my first experience with a real fine Chinese tea was a green Anxi Tie Guan Yin, this was the first time I saw gongfu cha and from there my curiosity has led me on a lifelong pursuit of learning about tea.
LRC: Can you describe how your relationship with tea and/or the tea community has developed over the years?
DJ: My relationship with tea is and has always been extremely simple: heat some water, grab some good tea, get a cup and take the time to mindfully prepare a good cup.
I love the tea community. They’ve been extremely open and generous.
LRC: What do you enjoy most about tea and/or the tea community?
DJ: It’s so simple: hot water + leaves. Everyone I have met in the tea community is nice, welcoming and supportive of each other. It’s great.
LRC: What is your favorite tea right now?
DJ: Medium roast oolongs seem to be my current favorite. They have so much character and complexity.
LRC: You are a founder of a tea company of your own. Can you describe your company, its goals, and where its focus is?
DJ:
Company: Chan Teas chanteas.com
Goals: To share our experience with tea.
Focus: We’re focused on sharing the knowledge we have about tea through cool pictures and fascinating information. Our content is meant both to inform people about tea and also to inspire people to start making tea themselves. In a way, tea is intimidating to people but it really doesn’t have to be. We want to demystify the tea experience. We also sell necessities like gaiwans, trays and cups in our brand new online store. For people learning about tea, it can be difficult to find a gaiwan or a proper brewing vessel, that’s why we’re doing it.
LRC: What advice would you have for someone else who wanted to start a tea company?
DJ: Go to China or Taiwan or Japan or India or where ever your kind of tea comes from. Travel on a budget with a backpack and experience the tea culture.
LRC: How has tea impacted your plans and/or for the future?
DJ: Pouring tea for someone who has never experienced good tea. Seeing their face or hearing their comments when they taste it is what it’s all about. For most, the aromas and tastes that they are experiencing are brand new.
(In the future) I plan on spending a lot of time in Asia continuing my first-had tea education.
LRC: Who would you describe as your tea heroes?
DJ: The tea heroes to me are the people who own and operate your local tea shop. There’s not many of them around America but there seem to be more cropping up. Even though we run an online store, our first piece of advice for people getting into tea is to go out and try to find a local tea shop- some are better than others and I’d say stay away from the mainstream tea shops in malls but if you have a good locally owned and operated tea shop in the area it’s important to support it.
LRC: Anything you want to talk about that was not covered in any of the questions?
Pour Tea.
~ Americans ~
Americans sure like to rush around, don’t we? We move so fast from here to there. From home to work, out to grab a hurried lunch, then back to work, after which we run a few quick errands, before we dash off to the gym, or a class… I’m sure you get the idea… we are always on the go go go.
This “lifestyle” (or lack of style in living life) has taken a large toll on many of us. We are all too often stressed out, we feel tired more often than we feel rested, we are constantly thinking about all the things that we need to do in the future while not recognizing our present, and we have forgot how to feel truly content with where we are and what we have.
Tea is a very much the opposite of the American way of life. It is a sit down, slow your roll, take some time to relax and enjoy life sort of drink. Which is why I believe that now, more than ever, Americans need someone to bring tea into their lives.
In an attempt to help the aforementioned, American tea drinkers, like myself, are seeking to bring the gift of artisan tea to the people. I’m going to offer my thoughts about how tea can affect the following topics:
I choose these topics because they weigh heavy on the minds of the typical overworked American.
~ Coffee, Tea, and Productivity ~
Many Americans fuel their constant feelings of “do more, do faster, do bigger” by drinking coffee. I use to be one of those people. I would drink many cups of coffee every day. Coffee became something I would use to keep myself going down the meta to do list that made up a “normal” day.
Nowadays, I’ll drink coffee from time to time, but it is a rare occasion. Rather than grabbing a to-go cup, or having a machine brew me coffee, I’ve opted to slow down and make tea. I’ve blogged about this before, but I think it’s worth repeating. Rather than having a negative impact on my productivity, I’ve found that taking the time to slow down and prepare tea has made me feel more calm, clear headed, and less stressed. As a result, I make less mistakes, and I’m more pleasant for people to be around. The over all result: I’m far more happy and far more productive. Needless to say this has done wonders for my “professional” life.
~ Coffee, Tea, and Relationships ~
Brewing a good oolong, or a pu-erh tea gongfu style can be a ritual that can last an hour or more. While the prospect of sitting down and experiencing a good tea for that length of time is something I find exciting, most Americans would probably run for the hills at the thought of having to sit, drinking and talking about tea, for longer than ten minutes.
However, I’ve found that the people I’ve been able to brew tea gongfu style for, find the experience to be both a pleasant surprise and a rewarding activity, even if they were apprehensive about the process at first.
Having people sit down and drink tea prepared in a gaiwan is always very social. The people talk about the tea, their jobs, and sometimes even their lives outside of their jobs. At the end of the gongfu session, the people have shared some well prepared tea, and the gift of time spent and conversations had with one another. Doing this helps build and sustain meaningful relationships with our fellow human beings.
~ Tea and Economics ~
Tea is a very inexpensive drink (and hobby) for anyone, and in tough economic times, it has not only helped me slow down and relax, it has also helped me keep of my paychecks.
Before I was drinking tea on a regular basis, it was commonplace for me to go to Starbucks at least once a day, usually in the morning on my way to work, and spend anywhere from $2.00-$5.00 a day on some sort of drink. Now I spend $10.00-$20.00 on a few ounces of loose leaf tea and it will last me for about a month, and since I can infuse the leaves many times, I get MANY cups of tea. I’m not a math person, but the savings are obvious.
I would also like to point out that spending money on loose leaf tea is far more cost effective than single-use tea bags, which are filled with lower grade tea and will fail to steep for more than two infusions per teabag.
~ End Notes ~
As American tea people, we are living in a very exciting time. Tea is becoming more and more popular, and everyday more people are becoming curious about about this wonderful beverage. I really believe that the next few years are going to be great for us tea people…
Busy day at work,
everyone moving so fast.
I sip my oolong.
~ Talking About Tea From Nepal ~
Last week I had a conversation with Dan Robertson, who is the proprietor of The Tea House in Naperville, Illinois. At first we were talking about Darjeeling teas, but the conversation turned to a tea that I had bought from Adagio called Nepal First Flush, which lead to a discussion about tea coming out of the country of Nepal now-a-days. Dan and I mostly compared Darjeeling teas to teas that are coming out of Nepal, and the main points of our conversation are below:
To back up these statements I offer the following from Wikipedia article on Nepal tea…
Nepal tea is essentially identical to Darjeeling tea. Nepal’s tea industry owes its roots to the British East India Company. Production began in 1863 with the first factory opening in Ilam in 1878. Clones of Darjeeling tea bushes mostly of the Chinese hybrid variety were brought across the border have been planted in the districts of Ilam, Taplejung, Panchthar and Dhankuta.
~ Sharing Tea ~
This week I brought Dan some of my Nepal First Flush so that he could try it for himself, and draw his own conclusions about its quality. Dan brewed three grams of the tea, and we tasted it and spoke about the character of the tea for a bit. Dan seemed interested in experimenting with the tea some more, but he was reluctant to take more of my limited supply. We did end up tasting two other teas, and a good hour or so went by before we both had to move onto other things we needed to get done.
Which brings me to the second point I want to make in this post.
Tea culture is a culture of sharing, which is one of the things that makes me love it so much.
In this case, the simple desire to share the experience of tea from Nepal allowed me to pass an hour with a kindred spirit, and for that I’m very grateful to the tea.
~ Thoughts On the Tea ~
While I can’t speak for Dan, and what his thoughts were, I do want to tell you about my experience with this tea.
The first thing that stands out about this tea is the smell of the leaves. When I close my eyes and smell the dry leaves, I feel like I’m inhaling something from long ago, as if the leaves have been washed in time.
After water is poured and the tea infused, I inhale again, and it is as though I’m smelling the incense from an ancient and secret place once visited in a dream. It seemed like the water washed away the essence of time that first surrounded the dry leaves, and unlocked this new scent from a house of secrets.
The liquor is a golden brown that leads me to reason that the tea will be either very sweet like a rooibos, or very robust like a pu-erh. However, it is neither of these.
The tea has a flavor that is similar to a Darjeeling tea, perhaps like Darjeeling tea that has been washed in time, and seasoned with mysteries and secrets from a place that is somehow familiar to us all, but try as we might we can’t remember it.
Nepal First Flush inspires images of misty mountain tops, and people living a simple and rewarding life. I think that this would be a perfect cup of tea to drink while watching the sun rise over a new day.
~ End Notes ~
~ A Sencha Cup From Kyoto Japan ~
I saw this sencha cup several weeks back when I was out shopping for tea, and initially I knew that it was an object that I would love to be able to use every day. Because it was the only cup like it I saw in the shop, I assumed it was only for display purposes, and did not even ask about it.
Every time I have returned to this tea shop I would take a few moments to admire this cup, and only recently did I ask about it. The owner told me that the cup was from a tea house Kyoto which he visited when he was touring tea farms in Japan.
To my surprise, the cup was for sale! Happily, I bought it.
This cup has become one of my favorite pieces of tea ware, and it has been helping me bear the cold winter mornings by cheerfully holding warm green tea that wakes up my mind, as well as my spirit.
Today’s post was submitted by guest blogger Mei Li // Photos by Neil Gorman
Salutations Lao Ren Cha Readers!
This is Mei speaking to y’all today, rather then your usual resident lao ren, Neil Gorman. A brief bit about me: I am 25, a comparatively niang ching ren, young person. I am currently in the last throes of working toward my MFA in Creative Writing, emphasis on Poetry, a woeful server at a local brewery, a hackneyed musician who abuses ears on piano and hand drum, a cockeyed painter and visual artist, specializing in desecrating mixed media relief pieces, and an all around jack of some select trades.
Today’s post has its roots in the ebb of a hectic week and the flow of a special tea on a cold Saturday morning. After a long and wild work week punctuated by manic poetry writing, my first thesis meeting with my adviser, and the general misery of living under the beating of the Chicago winter, I treated myself to a visit to The Tea Store, of which a Mr. Dan Robertson is the proprietor. Enchanted at the idea of Dan as a medicine man doling out tea based cures in the most elegant and esoteric of manners, I shyly asked Dan for a tea prescription to keep away the malady of writer’s block and to encourage a hearty buffeting of creative energies. Dan perked up instantly, and with absolute boldness, produced a tin of Lotus Heart for me to study and smell. Who am I to turn down the gift of creativity? No one at all. At the lofty price tag of eighteen dollars an ounce, I took home a shiny red bag full of Lotus Heart.
Lotus Heart
Lotus Heart is a Taiwanese Green Tea, handcrafted by Tea Master Zhou. It is composed mostly of young tea buds, with a smattering of hand twisted leaves. I brewed this tea gung fu style, in a large gai wan and used scent cups for the tasting. This experience featured four infusions of Lotus Heart tea after one washing.
First Steeping
170 degrees, 1.5 minutes
The scent of the Lotus Heart leaves in the gai wan was reminiscent of honeysuckle, made darker with a hint of musk, of something a bit older. After pouring and cupping, the balmy breeze of tea in scent cups gave way to the smell of rosy blossoms, punctuated by the excitement of spice. Upon tasting, I discovered a lovely mix of luxurious dolce notes and lightly medicinal herbs. Lotus Heart has zero astringency, is golden smooth and hinted of a future brothiness, resplendent with the salinity of sea water. As I submerged into the warmth of experiencing this virgin voyage into Lotus Heart, I felt a warm flood of congenial affection bloom in my chest, bringing up feelings of love and well being; an homage to the tea’s namesake.
Second Steeping
160 degrees, 2.5 minutes
The second distillation of Lotus Heart produced leaves with a roasted scent, and the further punctuation of herbaceous qualities that pointed at an enticing future of cooking perfumes. The scent cups revealed a bold candied plum odor, nicely Oriental, a gentle incense. After sipping, the flavor of Lotus Heart was discovered to have mellowed a bit, resonating a grounded and shimmering earthiness. Meditating on this flavor produced the image of afternoon sunlight warming a twilight bound ground. Lotus Heart had a mystical way of returning my body, heart, and mind into a natural state, relaxed, not intoxicated. I experienced a harmonious cycling of all Earth rhythms, it was good in nature and brought on haiku feelings.
Third Steeping
173 degrees, 4 minutes
This third experience of Lotus Heart satisfied the predictions of the steeping before it, releasing the hearty steam of beef noodle soup, green veggies and subtle clove dashes. This steeping was amazing, it fed and taught me with a maturation of fruit extracts into a deep maltiness of grains and golden roasted corn kernels. This gradual development released a depth to the tea, and a cavernous mouth feel that had enough mass to gain presence far after the sip of tea had been swallowed. Lotus Heart was now at its most magnificent, lordly and dazzling in a coat of warm cream. The luminosity of the tea now carried suggestions of astringency, but held no real dryness; which was exhilarating and mysterious at the same time. Contextually, Lotus Heart was now making it apparent that it was a maternally spirited tea, fully female in it’s floral perfume and monarchical strength.
Fourth Steeping
180 degrees, 5 minutes
I have never been one with enough heart or patience to let a tea gently fade to its end, so this last infusion was made to release the remaining life in tea like fire, to not go gently into that good night, but to rage, rage against the dying of the light. This last sounding of Lotus Heart was the hottest and longest of it’s cycle. Despite the intensity of processing, Lotus Heart’s swan song was clean, leisurely and calm. Regal and ornate to the end, Lotus Heart surprised me with an oolong echo at its tail, complex and resonant.
Meditations
With it’s peace and elegance, Lotus Heart held an important lesson. What I neglected to tell you, Dear Reader, is that Master Zhou is a renowned tea master, with large orbit of mythos surrounding him. At The Tea Shop, Dan had told Neil and I that Master Zhou is a viciously spiritual man, with powerful chi that he offers into every blend of tea he creates. Once, a woman who had merely walked by a ball of Master Zhou’s tea felt its pull, and was touched by this experience, without ever knowing anything about the tea or its maker. As one who is very easily taken by ritual, ceremony, and all things pantheistic and metaphysical; I expected intoxication, to be mesmerized and spellbound. The veracity and simple dignity of the tea humbled me, taught me that holiness is everything, and everything is just what it is. There is a profound honesty and integrity in the experience of Lotus Heart. So I am subdued, so I am taught.
As far as Lotus Heart as a creative catalyst, well, what do you think?
End Notes
~Intro~
Most people who drink tea here in the United States use a tea bag, which is not my preferred way of drinking tea, but I’m not going to knock it. Why not? Because even though I’m someone who now-a-days brews lose leaf tea in Lao Ren Cha style, I did not start out that way.
When I first started to drink tea I would use tea bags (Earl Gray the most common sort of tea that I would enjoy), and most the other tea enthusiasts that I happen to know here in the United States stated to drink that that way as well.
In short: the tea bag, despite all of its many short comings, does bring people to tea.
As my interest in tea grew I found out loose leaf tea, and found that I liked it much better than tea bags. I also discovered that there were many different ways to brew loose leaf tea, and that the best ways allowed me to get many infusions from the same set of leaves. In addition to this I found that the Gongfu / Lao Ren styles of brewing tea not only gave me a broad spectrum of taste through multiple infusions, but they were also the perfect ways to brew tea for myself and others at home and at work.
~When at Work~
For the sake of this post I’m going to focus on brewing tea Lao Ren style while at work.
When I first considered brewing tea Lao Ren Cha style awhich takes more time than just brewing leaves in something like an ingenuiTEA) at work, I thought it might be nothing but trouble. After all, when I’m at work in in GO GO GO mode, not sit down and relax mode. On top of that I had to consider what the natives (my co-workers), might think of what would appear to them as a totally bizarre affectation. For a very long time, thinking like this was enough to prevent me from brewing my tea Lao Ren Cha style at work…
However, on a day when several little things in a row had gone wrong, I found myself feeling very stressed. I decided that I was going to take my tea, a small cup, and a gaiwan to the cafeteria and take a few moments to unwind and really enjoy some tea by preparing it in a way (Lao Ren Cha style) that I find relaxing.
Sure enough people I worked with saw what I was doing, and shot some clearly perplexed looks my way. Most people just left it at that, however a few people actually approached me and asked, “What are you doing?”
I explained that I was brewing tea in the Lao Ren Cha style, and citing the stressful day I was having, I would explain my reasoning for choosing this particular method of brewing tea. To my surprise, I found that most of the people who approached me were genuinely interested, and wanted to know more about this style of making tea.
~The Gift of Tea~
When I offered to make some tea for those who were interested, they would usually say something like, “Oh thanks, but I don’t want to take any of your expensive tea.”
To which I would respond, “Please, I’d really like you to have some. Tea is much better when you share it with someone.” And I would pour from my fair cup into their cup. After a time I started to bring a an extra small tea cup with me whenever I brewed tea Lao Ren Cha style, so that I would be able to pour whatever tea I happened to be brewing for any of my curious co-workers.
This really facilitated some great conversation between me and the people I worked with. It also proved to be relationship building / networking at its finest!
In addition to conversational benefits, preparing the tea Lao Ren Cha or Gongfu Cha style was a great way to get me to slow down and relax. Rather than screwing up my GO GO GO rhythm, slowing down helped give me a much needed perspective check, which I’ve found is the most necessary and the most beneficial when it comes to surviving a hectic time.
~Epilogue~
I think there are several “lessons” that I’m attempting to communicate with this post.
~ Hibernation ~
During the winter months I tend to sort of hibernate. By this I mean that when I get home from work, I often choose to take a nap, even though there is always something I could be doing,
I’m someone who has difficulty sleeping soundly. Always have. I enjoy napping, but taking naps in the middle of the day only worsens my already restless night’s sleep. In addition to that, I become far less productive than I would like to be.
I’ve found that experimenting with tea when I get home is something I can do to prevent me from napping, and give me more energy to do things that need doing. In addition to this, experimenting with tea has helped me feel more confident as a person.
~ What do I mean by “experimenting”? ~
I simply mess around with the elements that make tea. If the water temp for an Oolong tea is 212, I see what happens when I make the water temp 180. Rather than steeping tea in the gaiwan for a one minute, I’ll steep the tea for two minutes. Rather than using the Chinese gaiwan,I might instead use a glazed Japanese Kyusu to brew a Chinese tea.
One of the wonderful things about tea is how malleable it is. You can change things up and see what happens. The worst case scenario is that you screw up and end up with an overly astringent or burned tasting cup of tea. Which, considering how cheap most tea is, is not really a big deal at all.
I find that the people who make the best cups of tea are people who see the rules as guidelines. Such people approach tea the same way that children approach play, as something that they do for enjoyment!
Tea has changed so much over the years, has it not? Why is that? Because people experimented.
In my case, experimentation has helped me understand how my tea leaves behave under a variety of conditions, and as a result I feel far more confident brewing tea for my friends and guests I invite into my home. This confidence seems to carry over into other areas of my life as well. Perhaps it is just the idea that I’m getting good at something, the idea that I have a skill of some sort, that changes the way I think and feel. I’m not sure, but I know I like how my tea experiments have made me feel.
~End Notes~
Today the end notes are going to just sum up the post above into three compact bullet points…
~Intro~
Today I read an very good post by Diane Walden over at T Ching all about how much the specialty tea business is growing here in the United States. She sites the success big players like Argo, Adagio, and Teavana. Ms. Walden furthers her argument by also writing about other small -but successful- specialty stores that can be found in growing numbers all over the country.
Adagio retail store Naperville, IL. (Image via Agagio Teas).
Reading this post got me to thinking. I’m going to try to explain my thoughts here…
~My Thoughts~
I remembered watching films from the 1970s (my favorite decade when it comes to films), and noticing that whenever characters are drinking coffee, nine times out of ten they are drinking it from a mug. The remainder of the time, the characters are drinking their coffee out of a generic to-go cup.
So what?
So this: The now ever-present Starbucks logo was totally absent. Ms. Walden talks about Starbucks in her post, and she states that they did not really find their mojo until the 1980s. If my own memory serves correctly, the specialty / gourmet coffee craze did not really get moving until the 1990s, the era of grunge music, both of which happened to come from the crazed city of Seattle.
I think of coffee in the United States in the following terms…
Is it possible that something similar could happen to tea? Could a tea version of Starbucks arise, or will a company like Starbucks or McDonald’s take over one of the growing and successful emerging tea retailers?
Ms. Walden writes,
Chicago has been a hotbed/center of successful U.S. retail loose-leaf tea store concepts, including TeaGschwendner‘s, Argo‘s, and, most recently, large online retailer Adagio‘s. New York has seen the Argo chain come to town and TeaGschwendner recently moved into a tiny space in Rockefeller Center. What concepts are working best in terms of potential growth into the kind of dominance that a few coffee chains hold in their niche?
For whatever it’s worth I hope tea will not suffer (I use that word suffer very deliberately) the same fate as the coffee. I say suffer because even though chains like Starbucks, Caribou, and Second Cup have really taken off in the coffee market, it has been at the cost of so many small -and unique- Ma & Pa coffee shops.
Image via Brandon at Wrong Fu Cha
Currently there are very few small Tea Houses near where I live, but there are a few, and those few are all unique. I like the uniqueness of those places. I don’t want there to be a Baltar’s Tea House (or whatever) near every Starbucks. I’d rather have the variety of many different small tea houses.
(Points to you if you get my awesome Battlestar Galactica reference about Gaius Baltar).
~End Note~
Ms. Walden writes regularly for T Ching, and her opinions on the tea industry are all worth a read. In addition to writing about tea, she has started two tea businesses, one of which is a specialty tea house called The California Tea & Coffee Brewery. You can also follow her on Twitter @CA_Tea.
