http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/index/ en alnedra.mofi@gmail.com Copyright 2010 2010-03-20T09:09:13+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/tilting_pot_and_tea_dam_cup/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/tilting_pot_and_tea_dam_cup/#When:14:13:35Z A sharky friend of mine passed me a link to this delightful cup, known as a Tea Dam Cup. I love the different colours and how tea bags (although possibly not finer leaves or tea powder) can be left to drain on the side. Whenever I order tea and a tea-bag comes in the cup, I’m always at a loss for where to deposit the tea-bag, especially if the cup did not come with a saucer. However, at almost £15, it is a little pricey. The cup brought to mind a teapot I have seen several times at the local Ritz-Carlton hotel. The tea-room at the ground floor serves a quite excellent high tea, and the waiter calls their interesting teapot an “elephant teapot” due to the very long spout. I found that it is more commonly known as a Tilting pot and the ingenius part of the design is a little shelf within the teapot. Lie it down, with the spout pointing upwards will enable the tea to steep. Let it stand normally, and the water inside no longer comes in contact with the tea leaves, left high and dry on the shelf. I am most tempted to buy one! Tea Related, Teapots 2009-02-13T14:13:35+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/zhao_zhou/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/zhao_zhou/#When:12:09:23Z The Tang Dynasty Zen master, Zhaozhou Congshen 趙州從諗 (778 to 897 AD), was himself disciple of the Zen master Nanquan Puyuan 南泉普願 for twenty years. He espoused a school of Buddhism that taught that enlightenment can be attained through the careful attention to everyday activities 「平常是道」. The following conversation is recorded in the Buddhist classic of Five Lamps《五燈會元》: 「師問新到：『曾到此間否?』 The Master (Zhaozhou) asked a monk who has just arrived, “Have you been here before?” 曰：『曾到。』 [The monk] replied, “Yes, I have.” 師曰：『吃茶去。』 The Master said, “Go drink tea.” 又問僧，僧曰：『不曾到。』 He then asked another monk the same question, and the monk replied, “No, I have not.” 師曰：『吃茶去。』 To which the Master said, “Go drink tea.” 後院主問曰：『為甚麼曾到也云吃茶去，不曾到也云吃茶去?』 Afterwards, the lord of the manor asked him, “The monk had been here before, and you said to him, ‘Go drink tea.’ The second monk had not been here before, and you said to him also, ‘Go drink tea.’ Why is that?” 師召院主，主應諾，師曰：『吃茶去。』 The Master beckoned the lord of the manor to come nearer, which he did; then The Master said, “Go drink tea.” Zhaozhou believed that the way to enlightenment was through motion and action, not through discourse or argument.  Zhaozhou believed that when you encounter tea then you drink tea; when you meet rice then you eat rice 「遇茶吃茶，遇飯吃飯」: discussing the why’s and wherefore’s of these simple actions is meaningless.  By discarding these distractions, one takes the first step towards enlightenment.  The simplicity of Zhaozhou’s idea caused the Qing dynasty scholar, Shen Yu 湛愚 to exclaim, “these three words, ‘Go drink tea’! So direct! So joyful!” 「吃茶去三字，真直截，真痛快！」.  Zhaozhou’s pre-eminence as a Zen master did much to make the drinking of tea a central part of the practice of Zen Buddhism. Zhaozhou Congshen (in Chinese) Tea Related 2009-02-11T12:09:23+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/set_in_stone/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/set_in_stone/#When:14:39:55Z The recent Chinese New Year festivities brought several merchants from China with interesting wares to sell, such as jade sculptures, distinctive snacks, traditional embroidery and of course, tea sets. Several years ago I bought a stone tea-set. The stone is drilled into and slowly carved and polished into a teapot shape. It can be fairly hard to do since a teapot can’t be too thick, but over-polishing can easily lead to the stone cracking or a hole resulting from the stone being worn too thin. The set I bought this time around was not as lovely as the one I bought previously, but then again, it is more than a hundred dollars cheaper. The surface is unpolished, so it looks like a murky black clay pot under certain lighting conditions. I hope to be able to nurture it into a soft velvety shine eventually. The stone used for making the teapot is reportedly high in selenium, and liquids that have be poured into the pot will be infused with trace amounts of selenium. The brochures that came with the pot extolled the virtues of selenium intake, which includes curing constipation, easing diabetes, helping with arthiritis and numerous other ailments. I would take the health claims with a pinch of…selenium, I suppose! Pictures of the pot will be forthcoming, once I can photograph it in decent way. In my room, it looks like a vaguely teapot-shaped blotch of inkiness. Tea Related, Teapots 2009-02-09T14:39:55+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/algerian_coffee_stores/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/algerian_coffee_stores/#When:12:20:12Z One of the best places to get tea in London is surprisingly, not a teashop, but a coffeeshop: The Algerian Coffee Stores.  The name is strangely misleading: There is only one store and not a chain of stores.  Indeed, the store is arguably not even large enough for one store.  The shop window is non-descript, cluttered, and it is perfectly possible to walk past the shop even when you are looking for it.  It is a cramped, narrow room, half of which is taken up by a bar from which is served freshly-brewed coffee, and the other half is itself intruded upon by shelves stacked high with tins of coffee and coffee cups.  There is standing room only in the shop and most of the business seems to be walk-in customers from the street side, but that said there is a steady stream of customers. The best stuff is not on the shelves, but behind the counter.  You actually have to ask for it from one of the assistants.  It feels almost like buying cigarettes: you have to be over 18 and know how to ask for what you are buying (you can’t just ask for “cigarettes”). While they have a few oolongs, their range of green teas is much more impressive.  I have tried their jade ring tea and that is particularly impressive.  It is a white tea (not really a green tea), shaped into rings, and produces pale sweet liquor.  White tea does not keep, and that means that to keep the quantity that they have in stock, they must have customers!  I admit I have never ordered from them online, but these are their details (caveat emptor). Algerian Coffee Stores Ltd. 52 Old Compton Street London W1D 4PB http://www.algcoffee.co.uk/ Tea Related 2008-12-22T12:20:12+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/midautumn_sweetness/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/midautumn_sweetness/#When:14:58:54Z Last night was the Chinese Midautumn Festival (although some places, such as Hong Kong, are celebrating it today). It is said that the moon on the fifteenth night of the eighth lunar month is its fullest and most beautiful. And just as the moon reaches completion, so does the family. As a rule, all family members must come home to have dinner during the Midautumn Festival, and the children will play with lanterns, while adults may guess riddles that are written on paper lanterns, or stripes of paper hung from the lanterns. Mooncakes are another traditional item associated with Midautumn. Generally made with lotus paste as the filling - although there are many varieties nowadays to tickle the consumer’s fancy, such as ice-cream, durian or even bird’s nest and pearl powder - the mooncake is quite sweet, almost sickeningly so. Some mooncakes may have 1 to 4 (or even up to 9 for the larger mooncakes!) salted duck egg yolks inside, that adds richness to the already rich lotus paste, but also helps mitigate the sweetness. Tea leaves are commonly packaged with mooncakes as gifts, as tea is the beverage to go with mooncakes. The cleansing lightness of tea helps remove the over-satitated feeling that eating mooncakes can bring, and helps bring out the fragrance of the lotus paste. It is a wonderful family gathering where the children run about with their lanterns, while the adults sit back, gaze at the moon, and sip tea in between tiny slivers of sweet mooncake. Tea Related 2008-09-15T14:58:54+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/bai_juyi/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/bai_juyi/#When:13:53:53Z Bái Jūyì 白居易 (772—846) was a poet of the late Tang dynasty. He is considered one of the most accessible of the Tang Dynasty poets. Juyi had a strong sense of social responsibility and many of his poems deal with poverty and the plight of the common people, while satirizing the government and ruling classes of his day. His career was initially very successful: he was made a scholar of the Hanlin Academy (翰林學士) and Reminder of the Left (左赞善大夫), but lost favour for remonstrating too forcefully and was exiled from the capital to become Minister for Works of Jiangzhou (江州司馬). In his later years, he became an admirer of Buddhism (at that time a new religion) and is therefore sometimes known as the “Buddha of Poetry” (詩佛). He insisted on using only simple language, and it was said that even “old women could understand” 「老嫗能解」 his poetry. His most famous work is the long narrative poem, The Song of Eternal Sorrow 《长恨歌》, which tells the story of Yang Guifei, the ill-fated Imperial concubine. Juyi wrote the poem 《山泉煎茶有懷》about the pleasures of drinking tea made using water from a mountain stream. 坐酌泠泠水﹐ zuò zhuó lěng lěng shuǐ I sit pouring the cold cold water. 看煎瑟瑟塵。 kàn jiān sè sè chén I see the wind stirring the dust. 無由持一碗﹐ wú yóu chǐ yī wǎn There is nothing like holding a cup 寄與愛茶人。 jì yù ài chá rén of tea sent to a tea lover. Tea Related 2008-08-06T13:53:53+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/far_flung_consort/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/far_flung_consort/#When:06:20:55Z Wang Zhaojun was indubitably an intelligent woman, and it was said that she was skilled in many arts, such as the playing of the pipa, chess and calligraphy. When the Han emperor Yuan was asked by the Xiongnu chanyu (chief) Hu Hanxie for a Han princess to marry, he either picked Zhaojun because she was portrayed by a corrupt Imperial artist as the plainest woman in his harem; or Zhaojun volunteered, knowing that her refusal to bribe her way to meet the emperor would mean she would spend her life alone in the harem.  When the Han emperor first saw who he was sending to the barbarians, he was stunned by her beauty. The artist responsible for marring her potrait, Mao Yanshou, was executed (with sufficient cause - deceiving the emperor in any way is a crime punishable by death). Wang Zhaojun is often depicted departing for the regions beyond the Great Wall cloaked in fur-lined red silk and clutching her pipa. The purple clay Wang Zhaojun teapot is long and slender, its shape reminiscent of the pipa so closely associated with her. The handle is slightly notched, to mimic the tailpiece where the strings are anchored near the bottom of the instrument.It is the only teapot whose lid is not crowned with a knob, but with a half-ring - the top of the pipa is usually a loop or a lingzhi shaped adornment, decorated further by carvings or a jade piece.  The teapot sits squarely and firmly, well-grounded in comparison to the small-bottomed Yang Guifei teapot, or the almost-floating Diaochan teapot. The base of the teapot holds a surprise: Three parallel bars are engraved around the seal of the maker, creating the “strings” for this clay pipa. The top-down view does not do the teapot sufficient justice, as it looks slightly tear-dropped shaped only. In fact, there are two very faint indentations on either side of the teapot. I am not entirely sure why the indentations are there, but it could be to imitate the ripple-like frets that are at the top of the pipa. Like the other teapots, it is surprisingly light for its size, and its generous spout is very fitting with the overall design, as its lines are very strong throughout. Tea Related, Teapots 2008-08-05T06:20:55+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/7_bowls_of_tea/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/7_bowls_of_tea/#When:14:08:00Z “A message of thanks to Meng Jianyi for the gift of new tea” 《走筆謝孟諫議寄新茶》was written by Lú Tóng 盧仝 in the middle of the Tang Dynasty (around 1200 years ago). The entire is 34 lines long, but it is usually only the last 14 lines that are seen. My first encounter with the poem was on a wooden panel in a tea house in Singapore more than ten years ago, and I have since seen it printed on tea canisters and on paper bags. 一碗喉吻潤 yì wǎn hóu wén rùn The first cup moistens my throat. 兩碗破孤悶﹔liáng wǎn pò gū mèn The second cup eases my loneliness. 三碗搜枯腸﹔sān wǎn sōu kū cháng The third cup searches out my withered entrails, 唯有文字五千卷﹔wéi yǒu wén zì wǔ qiān juàn like an essay of five thousand words. (The metaphor is alien to Western thinking. It refers to the intestines as an organ of thought and inspiration.) 四碗發輕汗﹐sì wǎn fā qīng hàn After the fourth cup, I break a light sweat, 平生不平事﹐盡向毛孔散﹔píng shēng bù píng shì Leaching the troubles of my life out of my body. 五碗肌骨輕﹐Wǔ wǎn jí gǔ qīng After the fifth cup, my bones and sinews relax. 六碗通仙靈﹔ After the sixth cup, I entered the realm of the immortals. 七碗吃不得也﹐唯覺兩習習清風生﹗ After the seventh cup, a wind rises beneath my arms. 蓬萊山﹐在何處﹖Péng lái shān zài hé chù Where is Mount Penglai? (Mount Penglai is the mythical abode of the immortals somewhere in the Pacific Ocean to which the Qin Emperor attempted to sail) 玉川子乘此清風欲歸去。 Yù chuān zǐ chéng cǐ qīng fēng yù guī qù I shall ride the gentle breeze (Yuchuanzi 玉川子 was Lu Tong’s courtesy name) 山上群仙司下土地位清高隔風雨。 Shān shàng qún xiān sī xià tǔ dì lì qīng gāo gé fēng yǔ To the mountain-top land of the immortals that is separated from the mortal realm by a clear wall of wind and rain. The poem describes the occasion of a gift of tea leaves from his friend, Meng Jianyi (hence its title), but for obvious reasons, the poem is more commonly known as “The poem of seven cups”《七碗茶詩》, or as “Yuchuan’s Song of Tea” 《玉川茶歌》. This poem, along with the Tea Sage Lu Yu, are the most commonly seen references to classical literature in Chinese tea houses. The complete poem may be found at AnxiTeaCo.com. Tea Related 2008-07-30T14:08:00+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/sable_and_cicada/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/sable_and_cicada/#When:14:42:00Z Of the four beauties, there is one who is arguably a fictional character. While she plays in important role in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国演义), Diaochan (貂蝉) is not found in any historical accounts or records of the Three Kingdoms period. Morally too, she seems an ambiguous character, as her seduction of the foster father and son Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu in order to cause conflict between them was primarily motivated by her filial piety towards her own foster father, Wang Yun. However, there are later accounts of her death by the hand of Guan Yü, a righteous general who served Liu Bei, when she attempts to seduce him. As Diaochan is somewhat a cipher in history, I find the teapot named after her somewhat puzzling too. Of the four teapots, the grey clay Diaochan teapot is the heaviest and most angular. From certain angles, it has a light grace, seeming to float a little off the surface of the table, and its notched ear hints at feminine curves . But from other angles, it seems squat and awkward, perhaps to hark back to Diaochan’s humble origins; she was a peasant, supposedly nameless, until sold into Wang Yun’s household. On the other hand, she had seduced both Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu with her dancing, her singing and music playing, so she could not have been too clumsy a girl. My friend A. speculated that the grey clay and squatness hint at the animalistic qualities of her name, lending a primeval and primitive air to the teapot. There are 2 qualities of the teapot that I love, though; it is the smoothest of the four, as it feels like a river-worn stone, and the grey hues make it resemble a natural object even more. The other is that despite its angularity, it sits very comfortably in the hand. The handle is generously large enough and the wide lid allows for a relaxed hold. It feels robust enough that I do not fear breaking it if I held it too tight, as I do the other teapots, although I do not quite consider that a point in its favour; after all, it is named after a graceful dancer, and should have a certain level of delicacy to it. Nonetheless, its somewhat contradictory qualities make it stand out, and it is worthy of the equivocal lady herself. Tea Related, Teapots 2008-07-28T14:42:00+00:00 http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/tea_joy/ http://www.leavesofjade.com/index.php/tea_blog/tea_joy/#When:14:02:00Z There is a tea shop in Singapore, at North Bridge Centre, opposite the National Library. Their name in English is “Tea Joy”, and their name in Chinese is Cháyuè 茶樂. Their name has always confused me, because yuè 樂 means ‘music’, and lè 樂 (same character but different pronunciation) means ‘joy’, which suggests that they can’t read their own name, but that’s probably just me being rude. The setting is a little cramped (or “cosy”, as they call it in the rental market). The shop conforms to the Chinese stereotype of a xuān 軒, which is a traditional long narrow shop (the word “xuan”, also means corridor), with the shop counter running along one wall and canisters of tea leaves along the other. A selection of tea pots, porcelain and other tea paraphernalia line the shop window. There are four closely placed tables between the two walls each of which seat four, but I have never (thankfully) been to the shop when it was full. Perhaps because I am only ever there in the evening, I am almost always the only person there. It probably says more about me than it does about the tea house, but the thing that made a lasting impression on me when I first visited the tea house many years ago is this: On the wall, there hangs a scroll with two thin lines of Chinese calligraphy written in one corner of an otherwise empty sheet of silk: 客來茶當酒 kè lái chá dāng jiǔ 閒眠亦如仙 xián mián yì rú xiān As with all these things, it loses something in the translation, but my attempt reads, “[I serve] tea instead of wine to my guest; and when the time comes to rest, we shall sleep the sleep of the immortals.” The first line refers to a poem titled 〈寒夜〉 by the Song Dynasty poet, Dù Lěi 杜耒, that speaks of a bamboo stove and plum blossoms on a cold spring evening. The second line is startling, because tea is more usually associated with wakefulness instead of sleep, and is recommended as an antidote to the effects of alcohol. Needing tea as an aid to sleep is therefore probably the sign of a tea addict. Tea Related 2008-07-23T14:02:00+00:00