Tea and Meditation

Tea is my calling--or is it my fate to follow the leaf? I have been a book designer for over 15 years now. In the very beginning, novels and big book titles were my most coveted projects. Throughout my career, I've designed for every kind of book a designer could hope for. Spiritual titles were merely part of my workload until recently, when my calling began to reveal itself and the path that I am now on.

Through designing for spiritual and self-help titles, I was lucky enough to come into contact with many authors and their associates. Most of these meetings were life-changing and mind-opening, to say the least. A recent encounter with a Jewish Tibetan ngagpa lama (a student of Chogyam Trunga Rinpoche and his main successor, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche) from Montreal completely awakened me and my views on life, being, and the relationship between tea and the mind. After learning basic meditation and "Knowing" (direct translation of meditation in Tibetan) with his guidance, I now find myself frantically trying to re-read all of these books that I have designed in my search for the true meaning of tea.

To be continued...

Faith to follow, or to Shepherd?

Ruling Your World: Ancient Strategies For Modern Life

The Tibetan Book of Yoga: Ancient Buddhist Teachings on the Philosophy and Practice of Yoga

Footprints in the Snow: The Autobiography of a Chinese Buddhist Monk

Dalai Lama: Man, Monk, Mystic

Jin Jun Mei & The Rose Program Chocolate

Unlike expresso with chocolate, tea and cocoa are not a common paring... or should it be?

Over the last weekend, I have had the pleasure to meet with a wonderful author who celebrates healthy and finer things in life.
Bringing up tea as my natural subject of choose, she rewarded me with a private commissioned chocolate bar made with 70% cocoa.

"I have travelled all over the world to find the best tasting dark chocolate made with the finest ingredients. The result is this handcrafted Belgian Chocolate produced with tremendous love and care in small batches in a remote beach village in South Africa... Enjoy!" ~ Rose.

Sounds familiar? It is the same vision as to my obsession with tea.

Although I am not an advocate of fine chocolate, this beautiful bar do carries a healthy oily sheen, rich and dark brown, it looks robust and piquant. But once in the mouth, the silky exterior starts to melt, releasing full, buttery, oily texture. Nutty and savory, with a kiss of citrus tangy at the roof of my mouth, followed by a breath of clean, fresh, salty ocean breeze. Waves of pure coco floral bouquet coated my palate, smooth but still maintaining the chewy true texture of its ingredient. I am pleasantly surprised by how subtle and balanced the profile is on the aftertaste of this 70% dark chocolate.


What's better than to pair it up with a Wuyi Red tea! The warm, refreshing brew melted the chewy nutty chocolate and washed it down smoothly, adding a dash of floral to the cocoa and in return, it balanced back with a hint of salt to the honey liquor.... Salt baked Kumamoto oyster came to mind with a dash of Oliva Novello on top. Heaven! How the chocolate helps the red tea to blossom into floral fragrance and the tea cuts back its mellow pungent espresso crema character. It is as equally interesting as Italian high roasted espresso paring with semi-sweet chocolate.


Many Chinese red tea I've sampled over the years have shared a distinctive characteristic: Hints of cocoa or baker's chocolate. From Yunnan Gold, Keemum red, Yixing Kung Fu to Lapsang Souchong, all are fine examples of traditional Chinese red tea. Until I found a 'new-old' breed of Wuyi Red Yancha: Jin (Gold, meaning of premium grade) Jun (location, summit name, using wild old bushes) Mei (shape, like an eyebrow).


Created in 2005 by Master Liang to resurrect a style of tea long lost from the region. The production of this rare tea is extremely labor intensive. Harvested from wild old tea bushes growing above 1200-1800m in the Wuyi protected national park, it takes around 60,000-90,000 buds to make a pound (depending on the grade and time of harvest), 1 bud one leaf style. That's why only 1000 kg are produced annually and it's the most expensive red tea (US $1300/pound and up) in the current market. Understandably, 90% of Jin Jun Mei on the market is fake. Many tea noobs will call it a Chinese Nouveau Riche tea, but until they have a deeper understanding of what good tea is, 'Breakfast at Tiffany' is always more a convenient truth.


I have been testing 4 grades of Jin Jun Mei since last year. Most of the grading depends on the harvesting date, the highest grade so far is from March 2010. The earlier the picking, the more golden hair from the tea buds you get and the more baby buds it needs to make up an invoice. This came to my understanding of finer things in life.... The more refined something is, the more attention and love it receives or needs. But to understand these subtle refinement, a individual must continue to educate and strengthen his/her palate and mind.

Thoughts on Brewing Tea....

It is all about ratio, the volume of tea to water, the size of the vessel, and how long the brew is.

Many people choose to brew tea the easy way, the safe way, and foolproof way....To me, using less tea leaves and longer steep is like brewing tea bags, you can not go wrong, just lesser steepings and muted taste. Perhaps 30% of the tea true flavor?

The whole idea of Kung-Fu tea brewing is to maximize full potential of a good tea, pushing its limits, extracting the best essences and energy. Comparable to brewing coffee, how a master coffee brewer could pull a cup of espresso out from a fine machine with the right pressure, temperature and crema. You will never see them using less or underfilled coffee grind for a proper serving, that's like making diner's coffee! My point is, if its not challenging, why Kung-Fu? All good tea should be challenging, it is an adventure, they need full attention and mental focus. It is the least we could give back to them.


Finding the right balance of this practice is just the beginning. Pushing its limit, improving the skill, educating the palate, and listening to the brew is a life long dedication. The reward is both physical and mental harmony.

The Classic of Tea

Started reading the first Chapter of Lu Yu's thoughts on Chinese tea:

"Every Tea hour must become a masterpiece to serve as a distillation of all tea hours, as if were the first and with no other to follow..." —Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD.)


A moment translated a thousand years later. A uniquely Mandarin's attitude.

Shi Feng Long Jing '10

This post took me 3 weeks to compose, just because of the continuing tasting and researching of this year's Longjing from Xi Hu.


Lion's Peak or Shi-Feng is where the original 18 Longjing bushes tributed to Qing Emperor Qianlong are from. Lion's Peak is situated next to West-lake (Xi Hu), Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. The Mandarin's way to enjoy a true cup of Shi-Feng Longjing is to use the Dreaming of the Tiger Spring, a natural spring that is within walking distance. Quite opposite to Dragon Well's super dense water, on Shi-Feng mountain. (Named after a well that contains relatively dense water, and after rain the lighter rainwater floating on its surface sometimes exhibits a sinuous and twisting boundary with the well water, which is supposed to resemble the movement of a traditional Chinese dragon). Tiger Spring water is light, sweet and soft. I always view green tea as a seasonal craving, a trendy pre-summer luxury. Since my last trip to Shi-Feng years ago, it still tickles my fancy on this special seasonal harvest.

From 2006 on, I've been dedicated a month or two trying to learn more on the grading of Longjing. So far, the experiences were Before Rain Pre-Qing Ming (3 grades), Pre-Ming, and after Qing-Ming Pre-Grain Rain (3 grades). Each year, I do concluded on the same result. The Second harvest after pre-ming or pre-rain is the most bold and savory. Hence the less expensive price tag. Green bean, orchids, dry rice, sweet corn and seaweed.


Due to the harsh Spring weather this year, 2010 harvest has been compromised. More interestingly, a Pre Pre-Ming longjing sample I received from Hangzhou Tea Institute, besides it has much earlier harvesting date, the hair ball from the young buds were very obvious.Traditionally, the fury balls are sifted for a unified appearance. This year, I have seen many vendors advertising the extra fluff as a guaranteed of pre-ming premium harvest. Are these new tactics or marketing scams? The more the vendors add fluff balls or hair, the higher the price they get for that weight.... Some fluff balls I've seen on the web is like bubble tea/tapioca pearls/frog eggs. Very soon, 2011 will have Pre-Pre-Ming, after last snow, first valley mist, White hair Shi-Feng blah blah Longjing, which is covered with fluffs.


Don't get me wrong, I am all for the positive changes and continuing refinement on traditional Art/Craftsmanship. But if there is no revolution or improvement to the tradition, then it is a downgrade. I hope this new fluff ball Longjing is not another 'Pop-up' for the Longjing tradition, similar to the low grade, top priced, high publicity puerh bubble a couple years ago. Prediction and frustration aside, here is a testing from a March, pre-rain, pre-Ming Shi-Feng this year.


The appearance is not the most handsome which I'd expect from a top grade LongJing. They are clearly not individually re-selected by hand.


Dry leaves aroma of dry seaweed, clean morning forest air, dry jasmine rice, corn and tiny white orchid (Mei Lan). All the right flavor are presented.

Heat leaves: Lemon, rice, vanilla, chocolate, and pineapple. Brewing parameter: 1/3 in 100ml gaiwan. 120F water. 1st/10sec. 2nd/15sec. 3rd/10sec. 4th/30sec. 5th/20sec. with shrimp eye boil. 6th/30sec. 7th/60sec. 8th/2mins....

Liquor: Steamed green bean, light roasted corn, veggie, seaweed, roast duck, sweet pineapple, loads of bitter chocolate.

Notes: The liquor is not as delicate and soft as the promising aroma with big nose, and full fragrant upfront but not delivering in the taste. Perhaps the result of a too-early harvest, underdeveloped leaves. Too many tiny buds and fluff balls causing the bitter, veggie, over-brewed gyokuro quality, specially rough on the tongue at the later steeps. Although there are tons of umami, which might not be a good character after all. Will wait and hope for our 2nd harvest pre-grain rain shipment next week and compare.

The Seven Chinese Tea Varieties

The very basic to say the least.

Lilac Anxi Xiping TiGwanYin Oolong

Spring is here, or is it? The lilac trees in our garden are blossoming purple and white, and the scent of purple lilac is so intoxicating that it covers the night air into morning light. I never bother to find out the true bouquet of the white varietal because its purple cousin was always dominant until a couple of days ago.... Clean, balancing and alluring, the white has casted an unexplainable spell on my palate. The sudden interest in lilac bouquet was sparked by a tasting of 4 different Anxi light Tikwanyin which I am still in the process of learning.

If Wuyi yancha is Cabernet Sauvignon, and Puerh is the Merlot, then Tikwanyin might be the Chardonnay of tea. Specially with its character of dairy, vanilla, floral and buttery French cream. Like all fine wine, it's in the balance and structure rather than in your face. The aroma should be equally pronounced as of the body and aftertaste, nothing like a 30 sec. Walmart commercial which its message only last a mere seconds.

The weather dropped back to 38F tonight... most of the lilac trees are shocked by this dramatic change. I can feel the uneasiness of those wonderful Anxi TGY bushes atop Xiping mountain. Over a conversation with my Anxi TGY tea master earlier, she is still hard at work harvesting the older bushes, but forecast in a drop of production due to the frosting this year. "Second Winter in April", its not a welcoming sign she said. I can deeply understand her feeling. I told her my sudden enlightenment on the white lilac over the more simple perfumey purple. Her reply was over joy and I felt a good karma was sent thousands of miles thru her cell phone to the mountain top, an encouragement to continue her work.


I like the contemplative aspect of Anxi Tikwanyin.... I think it will be my ongoing challenge for a while.

NYC Tea Meetup - Spring 2010

http://vimeo.com/10836902
Thank you Brandon for putting together such a wonderful and beautiful tea gathering.

Photo Courtesy of Brandon and Jeremy

Da Hong Pao Wuyi Oolong. Vintage 1985

Many teas come through the tea room every season, many of them only last for one session, and some are revisited over a period of days, months or even years. This harsh discrimating tasting process let only the choicest to be selected and pampered. A final Paring test will then conducted for concluding the result.

Most of these early candidates are found from my trips to the farmers or teamasters in China, not by random samples sent by vendors. Many times, in my experience, a newly acquainted master shows you their special selected. I will then test the 1st batch for a season and acquire the same tea on the next. Troubling to said, 1 out of 3, these 2nd acquisitions usually prove disappointment. Not only they are missing 30-50 % of its luster, farmers cheat by blending lesser grade to the batch. Sometimes, specially for high fired oolong, they over roast the lesser grade to become fillers. For me, being bold and asking them the right question after repetitively testing, and learning from the same good batch are the only ways to arm oneself. I always give them the benefits of the doubt, and a second chance... which prove to be more constructive.

This 1985 DaHongPao was acquired from a tea farm/factory owner in Fujian. I am very skeptical on anything labeled DaHongPao, because it's the most faked Wuyi Yancha in the market today. Even third generation of these tea can commend a hefty sum, leave alone the aged ones.... I remember the same owner showed me a tiny pewter box of the original mother tree DaHongPao from the 80s, which roughly costs US$3000 per gram on the current market.


Using 5 grams of tea in a 40 ml yixing, my third tasting of this tea begins:

Weather: Easter Sunday afternoon. Clear sky with 62 % humidity / 60sF.
Water: Fresh Polandspring water / not aged.
Method: Traditional Chao Zhou/ Hong Kong Kung-Fu style.
Tea vessel: 80s yixing zisha teapot / late Ming dynasty's QingBai tea cup.

Steps:
1. Separate the larger/whole leaves from smaller broken leaves. Crush the broken leaves by hand.
2. Preheat all the vessels with rolling boiled water. Carefully place the broken leaves and line the bottom of the pot.
3. Follow by layering the whole leaves on top.
4. gently tap the body of the pot with the palm of your hand and with a tea-pick to settle the tea leaves, creating an even surface (the heavier whole leaves on top will act like a filter to settle the crushed powder).
5. Softly pour water (212F) from a low height around the rim of the opening, letting the water slide from the wall into the pot until overflow.
6. Slowly pour out the rinse without tipping the pot more than 90 degrees. Proceed to first brewing, steeping time 15 seconds.

Notes:
Clear, bright and oily liquor, burnt amber copper color. Light Chinese medicine, with subtle lingering floral of orchid and aged pomelo peel. Calming and warming chaqi. Nothing aggressive nor intruding.... peaceful and zen for this Pre-Ming celebration.


End-notes:
Still too early to decide if this could be a Mandarin's tea.


5 days later. Conclusion:
After some intensive evaluations, this tea did not make it to the list. Unfortunately, the age of this 1985 Da Hong Pao is much younger than what I was told. At least 5 to 10 years younger.

Tea Cupping Steps

A Visual How-Tos:


1. Bring water to a boil until steady streams of large bubbles (Rope of Pearls). Pour water into the Tasting Cup.
2. Once water is fill to the top, pour water into the tasting bowl (Spoon is optional).
3. Now all units have been pre-heated. Place 5g of tea leaves into the heated cup (Yixing Red Tea was used). Smell and take notes on the heated leaves.
4. For the rinse; use fish-eye boiled water 195F. Pour a fine stream of water into one corner of the cup, letting the leaves get rolled and tumbled by the water.
5. Pour out the rinse from the cup immediately into bowl.
6. Make sure the air hole is on the top side to avoid spilling.
7. Drain until completely empty by dipping motion.
8. Take notes on the rinse color and discard rinse. For the first brew; pour 195F water in a fine stream aimed at one spot near the wall, until full.
9. Cover with lid and pour out after 30 seconds. Rest the cup onto the bowl. The knob on the lid and the bottom of the cup should sit nicely on the bowl.
10. After 15 seconds, empty cup completely by dipping motion.
11. Repeat above to 2nd brewing. You can either use a spoon for tasting or transfer liquor to serving cups.
12. After the brewing session, display the spent leaves for their visual appreciation.

How-to use a Gaiwan

Gaiwan brewing for Pre-Ming Longjing Green Tea.

The Mandarin's Tea Room

Pure Premium Artisanal Teas. The Mandarin's Tea.

The Mandarin's Tea Room is officially open for business. Come and experience its time honored rituals and passion for the superiorly crafted tea.

AllThingsArtASIA

Thanks to the great team at The New York Asia Society, Michael, Yoshie and Fran, my deep bow to you. The Tea Event at the New York Asia Society was a huge success, with over 260 guests attended. After the screening of Tea and the World: The Meaning of Tea by Scott Chamberlin Hoyt. There was a book signing for Mr. Hoyt's tea book and a tea tasting reception. We celebrated the soft launch for The Mandarin's Tea Room. Michael and Dae from the Tea Gallery helped me to present a Kung-Fu tea tasting ceremony using a light Anxi Tikwanyi and a traditional roasted version, both harvested from Fall 2009. Although our guests had a split decision between my light TKY and Michael's heavy TKY. We did have a positive demonstration to our new tea lovers how diverse a same kind of oolong could be, with different processing and brewing methods.


Very nice meeting all of you who came by to have a sip, and thank you to everyone who I know for your support. I am looking forward to introducing more fine tea to my new and season tea friends.

Brewing Wuyi Shui Xian Oolong with Yixing Teapot

5g of a 50 years old, aged Yancha. The tea master who roasted it 50 years ago brewed it up using a gaiwan, just to show me the tea foundation. But I prefer using a yixing to further enjoy the rich yet subtle moment. 

Preheating the teapot with heated water in this brewing method is very important. All vessels should be cleaned and preheated. Here is the Step-by-Step how-tos:


1. Fill the yixing pot with fully boiled water, replace the lid.
2. Pour out the water into the fairness cup (serving vessel). After any remaining moisture has evaporated off the pot surface, pour the water from the fairness cup back over the lid and the exterior of the pot.
3. Fill the teapot up to 1/3 of it's volume with the tea leaves. Softly tap the body of the pot with the palm of your hand to settle the tea leaves to create an even surface. Please remember the teapot will be hot and this step requires quick but gentle movements.
4. The heated leaves are ready to be rinsed. Slowly pour more water (fully boiled and left to cool) into one corner of the pot until it overflows.


5. Replace the lid and immediately pour the rinse into a fairness cup.
6. Fill the drinking cup with the rinse. Pour the remaining rinse back over the pot, avoiding the air hole in the lid.
7. Once the pot has dried, slowly pour more water into the pot for your first brew.
8. Fill until the water level rises above the teapot opening and use your lid to skim off any foam.


9. Replace the lid. Pour water over the pot to seal in the heat. Discard the rinse from the drinking cup at the same time.
10. Steep the first infusion for about 10 seconds. Pouring into a fairness cup from a little height to help oxygenate the liquor.
11. Serve the infusion from the fairness cup into the teacup.
12. If there is any remaining liquor, pour it over the pot to build up the patina.

Brewing Light TiKwanYin Oolong with Gaiwan

7g of top grade Anxi Xiping TikwanYin harvested in OCT 2009. How do tea masters brew it in Xiping? They mostly use a Gaiwan.


Here is the step-by-step how-tos:


1. Use a Standard (3 oz) / 4 serving Gaiwan set. Bring water to a boil until the bubbles are no larger then fish-eyes.
2. Fill the gaiwan with the heated water.
3. Pour the water from the gaiwan into the drinking cups. Once the cups have been heated, empty them and discard the remaining water in the gaiwan.
4. Place 5g of tea leaves into the heated gaiwan.
5. For the rinse; use fish-eye boiled water that has been slightly cooled. Pour a fine stream of water into one corner of the vessel, letting the leaves get rolled and tumbled by the water.


6. Pour out the rinse from the gaiwan immediately into all cups and then empty the cups.
7. For the first brew; pour slightly cooled down water in a fine stream (around 6 inches height) aimed at one spot below the rim until the leaves are just covered.
8. Cover with the lid and pour out after 5 seconds.
9. For the second brew; pour in a fine stream at a lower height then the 1st brew.
10. Use the lid to gently turn and loosen up tangled leaves.


11. Use the edge of the lid to skim off any foam
12. Cover the gaiwan with the lid at a slight angle creating a 0.25 inch gap.
13. Use your thumb and middle finger to hold the very tip of the gaiwan's rim, and index finger to hold onto the lid.
14. Pour out in a continuous stream. The 2nd brew should be steeped no longer than 20 seconds.
15. After the brewing session, display the spent leaves for their visual appreciation.

James Norwood Pratt: A Respectful Friend.

To me, tea is the fabric of Culture and Traditions. It's woven with different times, places and minds together as a whole, through a tiny cup. Although it was a disposable plastic cup, Indeed it was a very good cup that we shared. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Pratt, it was such a pleasure for me.

Expectation from a 80's Pouchong Oolong

Drawing wisdom from a recent tequila tasting in Mexico.... I am surprised how difficult for us to unlearn or undo our own experience in taste and senses. Expectation is one of the darkest enemy, and raw perception could end a good tasting session prematurely. The fact that most people are unable to understand new information, without the inherent bias of previous experience, a sort of made-believe knowledge to which ones have been exposed. Not only I saw the frustration on the tequila master, when he passed around a 7 years aged 100% blue agave to us and half of the group down the whole thing in record time: "It's only tequila, we drink the finest Patrón without all this fuzz in the States...." The cold reply from the Master was: "Patrón is a blend made in the US. It's the same as drinking a bottle of Vintage Champagne from Mexico."

We often embrace ourselves based on the raw perception we inherent, and it is very amusing to see how it carries in a group tasting. Seeing people changing from an arrogant attitude to disbelief and finally to humble. Of course, only a small percentage of people in the right mind could taste the humble but enlightening result. For me, it took many years to even step into the disbelieve stage. Luckily tea is one of the most forgiving gifts from the nature, along with the tea lovers who continue to rediscover and understand it.


Tasting this Pouchong from the 80's is one of those experiences that I had to completely reset my expectation. It has nothing to do with the aroma nor the taste, even the structure is not important. Notes of floral dry hibiscus with hint of orchid and plum seem out of context. I sometimes question myself as if I was involved in a perfume judging competition? Naming the right combination of a male Moschus moschiferus or a Female Biziura musk could win you a free spa vacation.

This tea sits on my palate for a good 30 sec. letting the whole mouth getting used to the taste and it's temperature, then rolled around for another 5 sec., so the saliva is reacting with the brew to create sweetness. Slurping exhibits more character and lets enough oxygen to let it blossom. Finally after a min, not drinking but letting the less than 20 ml of liquid dissolved downwards. It took 3 mins before the clearing of the mind and the minty refreshing wave that kept coming over and over again from within. Meanwhile, looking at the water to come to a full boil for my forth serving.... it helps to create a state of mind, without judgment and anticipation from the tea, the vessel, the water, or my brewing skill. A total surrender to the tea and its spirit.


Most of the aged tea that I come across including puerh and oolong share the same kind of quality, like a novel or a good play. Nothing matters from what the surface might bring but the result after an hour or even half a day. I missed out a lot of this fine Cha Qi moment in my early tea days, now I have the time to reflect on them. Often judging on some old treasure in less than 3 mins and giving conclusion to the host how this tea should be such and such.... I wish someone back then could have asked me about how good Mexican Champagne might be....

Giving an extra hour for a fine aged tea to speak for itself is the least we can offer, letting the expectation of those shallow perception go is one of the truly humbling experience.


Vendor:
Hong Kong Yixing Collector

Brewing Parameter:
40ml '80s Yixing / 3 grams of tea / full boiled 2 weeks aged spring water.
Flush rinse / sit 60 s. /1st - flush/ 2nd - 5s / 3rd - 5s / sit 1 mins / 4th - 20s / 5th - 30s. All boiling crab-eye temp.

Liquor Color and Aroma:
Clear and oily burnt amber with golden rim. Earthy dried shitak, flower, aged plum, sea salt, citrus peel. Clear refreshing minty character of clean, chewy and sticky mouth feel followed with long lasting sweet sandalwood on the palate.

Ending Notes:
Calming Cha Qi, complex and relaxing. Similar to an 20 years aged raw Yiwu. The cooling effect on the throat lasted for an hour plus. Warming effects on the forehead, palm, cheek and numbing the lips.