Tea Outdoor

01/09/2010, posted by Cha in journal

Another month, another tea carnival from the Association of Tea Bloggers.  This month, the carnival is hosted by  Brett at Black Dragon Tea Bar and the topic is Tea Outdoor .

Last week was a week without tea, but spent outdoor. Initially I planned to have a lot of tea outdoor, but I decided to make a (big) pause.  However, sometime the missing element, tea in this case, is obvious when absent.  I have found so many beautiful places for tea and I felt so many times ” Ah, a **** Tea would be so good now” .

I usually have tea outdoor while I am at my parents.  Some teas are better under certain circumstances. For example, I feel that the best time to have a Tie Guan Yin is during summer evenings, near a lot of flowers. Most of the Tie Guan Yin  I tried have a floral taste, so it seems natural for me to surround me with flowers while drinking it.   And,  I can feel that this tea is best during evenings.

The first time I tried Tie Guan Yin outdoor I also learned that Gongfu cha doesn’t need a lot of fancy and rare items. You can brew tea with the tools you have at hand.  I understood that being okay with yourself  is the most important thing. The human element and the environment are key aspects to tea. We can’t always choose the environment, but , it has a deep impact on how the tea is perceived.

The whole Tie Guan Yin experience is better described here .  I just want to say that if you choose your tea well, all the outdoor experiences are memorable.  I feel that the environment has the capacity to enhance the tea. Choose the tea well, and you will stop to admire the surroundings and start to become part of it.

Home, episode 1 – Tie Gua Yin

16/06/2010, posted by Cha in tea

During the last weekend I visited my parents. That was the last place I expected to improve my tea education, but  it seems every place and opportunity is great.  Not having somebody to teach me, I rely on internet sources  , my small travels to Hong Kong  and lot and lot of brewing sessions. From time to time  I make small accidental steps forward, like this one, using the knowledge I gathered until that moment.

I went home with two teapots, one for tie gua yin, and with a small generic teapot. I also had some small cups and that’s it. I took my tie gua yin teapot with me because I wanted to maximize my tea experience. I perceive  that tea as a floral tea. It’s smell and taste always reminds me of flowers.  It so  happens that my parents have a lot of flowers. And by lot , I mean a lot. I didn’t included all the pictures here, but you can see more on flickr.

I chosen the evening for this tea.  I started by day and ended by night. The smell surrounding me changed as some flowers became more active and some  inactive. This was also in sync with how the infusions changed their taste. It was some how complementary.  I think it’s the best way to enjoy tie gua yin and the best time so far.  This was also an experiment for me ( the time , the surroundings) and I payed attention to the effect it had.

I  think I also understood how gongfu tools progressed in time.  Not having a tea table, I used a regular plate . It was actually nice and felt very comfortable.  In the next sessions I made a better use of it, and I started to understand the practicality of the old style gongfu sets . It was really instructive.