How do I see tea

18/07/2009, posted by Cha in journal

I love tea and I love to brew #tea. I do not think at tea only as a beverage, but as a skill and  a passion that takes a lifetime to learn.

I prefer Chinese teas, and I use the kung fu method to brew my tea. Kung fu is not a way to describe a  fancy tea serving ceremony,  but a synonym to  great dedication and work , which are required to  become a tea master. I practice martial arts (wing chun) , and I can say , masters in any domain take years to produce . Skill comes trough hard work(kung fu).  You simply can not be a tea master by reading 3 books and repeating some steeping times. A tea master is much much more and I can only  hope that in my fifties I’ll become one.

Tea grower Hong Ming-Chung says if we pay proper attention & respect, #tea can help “cultivate your character” touching “your true nature.”

This  tweet is from  @TheMeaningOfTea and I find much truth in it. For me , the soul part comes from the brewing process.  It has a relaxing effect on me and all my attention is captured by the moment. The smell, the steam, the sound of water , the taste of tea,  the look of my teapot , the after taste and so on.  When I reach the second and third infusion , my daily worries are long gone. There is nothing left but the tea.

I rarely use the recommended times and quantity. I can only describe this as brewing the tea according to my mood.  The kung fu method is of great help. Basically , I take the first infusion as a guideline for my second one. And so on. The taste is slightly (or greatly) different.  The first infusion is always short (10 seconds). A note of bitterness will signal me to keep the infusions short, while a weak taste will make me want to have a longer infusion time.  And the process goes on until all infusions are gone. Slightly variations of quantity and infusions time are of great help when learning about tea.

I find that guests are much more content than they notice that their tea changes its taste on each infusion than serving the ‘perfect cup’ at each infusion.   The teas I love most are those which change a bit on each infusion.  Good quality black teas don’t even need separate infusions . They start bitter and with each swallow , they become sweeter and sweeter. I find that really awesome.

The mood thing I mentioned means that sometimes I brew my tea stronger , and  some time weaker. There is nothing wrong with that. For black tea for example , If I decide on a weaker tea, they gain a yellow color, while brewing a stronger tea , a red-ish one. I can’t decide which one is best, it’s a mood thing.

Thank you for reading this , I realize that my english is not good enough and for some educated people reading a text like this one can be painful.

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