A cup of Sencha steams in front of me . My Macbook is open. I want to write something…
I was going to start this post by asking if you’ve ever experienced one of those moments when all of a sudden, for some reason that would be difficult to explain, you stop going with the flow of waking life and feel as if you’ve been snapped into a state of higher awareness of yourself and think that something has gone terribly wrong. I’m sure you’ve experienced such a moment. We all do at some point or another. (Don’t we? I hope we do…) Perhaps there should be a specific word for such an experience. I wonder what that word would be. It would have to be one that captures beauty and tragedy at the same time.
I was going to ask that rhetorical question because I’ve recently had such an experience. Right in the middle of a typical day at work.
I find myself wondering how it is that so many of my fellow human beings who are living in the luxury which our “first world” existence offers to us on an almost constant basis, seem to have found such happiness, while others are only able to torment themselves with questions which can’t really be answered. I also wonder why it is, and how it is, that I’ve fallen in with the latter group…
I’m not particularly sad that I’m a member of the tormented questioners, but I do, from time to time wonder what it would be like to be part of the group that does not think about such things. But I never wonder for long.
I suppose this is because I’m thankful for all the questions, the doubt, and the disappointments which have enabled me to see beauty in the tragedy that is the dress rehearsal for the show that is life.
You know the expression, “Not seeing the forest for the trees?” I like this expression. I’m guessing that the reason why is because I often make the mistake of getting too caught up in a detail -or step- of an activity, that I miss the point of the task. When I started learning Gungfu Cha this happened to me all the time. I’d be obsessed with the water temp, and what I was using to make the tea, or how I was pouring it… And I forgot to enjoy the activity of making the tea.
But that’s not what I want to talk about today. Rather, I’d like to talk about a different kind of tea involved mistake that I’ve seen some people make. The mistake I’m referring to is taking to narrow a definition of “making” or “drinking” tea. This could also be called, “being a tea snob.”
The mistake, as I see it, goes something like this. Someone who knows a bunch about tea, tea culture, and brewing styles gets to talking with someone who is less of a “serious” (AKA snob-ish) tea drinker about tea. This less serious person says something along the lines of how they like and/or love things like Yerba Mate, Rooibos, or some flavored tea like Earl Gray. At this point the serious tea person will do something like cringe, or scoff at the non-serious person and say something pretentious.
I think this comes from a narrow, though very technically correct, definition of what does and does not constitute tea. What it misses, at least in my opinion, is the potential that dea drinking has to bring people together, and help them communicate with one and other.
I’m a huge fan of martial arts movies, and as such I’ve been a long time fan of the late Bruce Lee. When I was young I was interested in Bruce Lee because he was such a major badass, someone who can’t be messed with. In my mind’s eye he became this unbeatable force of nature, and a hero to me. As I grew older, and learned more about Bruce Lee, I became less focused on his physical capabilities, and more focused on his ideas / philosophies, which resonated very deeply with me.
Lately I’ve been thinking about Bruce Lee’s idea of Jeet Kune Do, and applying what I think are its core principles to the art of making tea in the Gong Fu (Kung Fu) style…
~What is JKD~
Jeet Kune Do can be translated as “the way of whatever works.” I’ve also seen it translated as “the way of whatever works best,” and “the way of water.“
Bruce Lee described JKD as a reaction of the overly rigid styles of martial arts. The wikipedia article on the topic explains this well…
Through his studies Bruce came to believe that styles had become too rigid, and unrealistic. He called martial art competitions of the day “Dry land swimming”. He believed that combat was spontaneous, and that a martial artist cannot predict it, only react to it, and that a good martial artist should “Be like water” and move fluidly without hesitation.
Bruce Lee would often use water as an analogy for JKD, saying that a person (a martial artist) should be “like water.” What Lee meant by this was that a person should be as adaptable as possible, so that whatever situation they were in they would be able to respond appropriately.
~What is GongFu Cha~
Gongfu Cha can be translated as “preparing tea with great skill.” Meaning preparing tea in a way which brings out the best flavor. More often than not Gongfu Cha is characterized by the use of a Gaiwan, or Yixing teapot, using LOTS of tea leaves, and many short infusions. When it’s done well the flavor of the tea brewed Gongfu style will change over the course of the many infusions, and the person(s) drinking the tea will fully experience all the tea has to offer.
The only problem I see with Gongfu Cha is that people can get too hung up on the style aspect of it. When this happens one loses sight of what Gongfu Cha is really about, which is of course experience of drinking tea. Another way to make this point would be to make a comparison. Imagine a archer who becomes so involved with the ceremony of shooting an arrow that he / she does not see the target.
Gongfu Cha is a ceremony, and doing the ceremony well is important. However, it’s always important to remember that the ceremony is a tool used to make good tea. Thus if making good tea means changing up the ceremony in some way than people should not feel any compunction about making adjustments, because Gongfu Cha is really just like Jeet Kune Do.
~The Spirit JKD & GFC~
I believe that if you take away the fact that Jeet Kune Do is a martial arts thing, and the fact that Gongfu Cha is a tea thing, and just look at the spirit of them both it becomes clear how similar they are.
Both things encourage a person to have confidence in themselves, and their ability. As a person trains, or is trained, in JKD or GFC they get to the point where they can start to trust their instincts, and make the necessary adjustments on the fly.
And most importantly both can teach us how to be like water, and respond perfectly to our present.
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…
Experimenting with tea has helped me not take naps after work. This has helped to regulate my sleeping pattern, and made more more productive overall.
Experimenting with tea has helped me to learn the range of flavors that tea can offer. This has made me more confident when it comes to brewing tea for others.
The confidence I feel in regards to making tea that a variety of people enjoy has carried over into other areas of my life.
I thought it would be nice to showcase some tea photography on some of the days where I don’t write a full post. I’m starting with one of my own pictures, but if you would like me to showcase one of your pictures please contact me!
One day I told a Chinese man I happened to know that I was attempting to learn Gongfu Cha.
This Chinese man looked at me with confusion and said, “What?”
I was surprised that he did not know exactly what I was talking about. Perhaps I did not pronounce the words the correct way. How else could I say it? “I’m trying to lean the Gongfu Cha tea ceremony.”
He still looked very confused and said, “What does the ceremony look like?”
I told him about the lose leaf tea in a gaiwan, or yixing tea pot, the multiple infusions, the small cups…
“Ohhhh that,” he said. “We never called it ‘gong-fu-cha‘ we always called it ‘lao-ren-cha‘.”
“Well I’ve heard it called ‘gongfu‘ too. You know that ‘gongfu‘ mean ‘with great skill‘?” This confirmed what I had read, so I nodded to show I agreed. “Well to make tea that way you do need skill, but it takes a long time to make the tea that way, sometimes more than an hour people will sit around making and drinking tea. You understand?” Again I nod to show that I understood. “Only old men have the time to sit around and make and drinking tea that way, so we would call it ‘lao ren cha‘ which mean ‘old man’s tea.”
When I got home I checked to see if the domain name was available. It was. I registered it and set up this blog.
They say that you can learn everything you need to know about a man based on how he blogs about his tea. Actually that’s a lie. No one says that…
Nonetheless, I’ve been talking with friends of mine in the tea community and they have encouraged me to write about tea. (In reality they said “blog about” but I like “write about” better.) This is my attempt to say things about tea. I hope that people enjoy reading what I have to say.
