Tea Geek Blogs

I’m back from my trip to Taiwan! Actually, I got back a few days ago but jet lag and catching up at work and home took center stage. We went all over, met some great farmers, drank fantastic tea (and some that wasn’t so fantastic–there’s bad tea even in countries of origin, unfortunately) and learned a lot! I’ll be writing bits here and on the Tea Geek Wiki for many weeks to come. Quickly though, here’s a run-down of the places we visited (some aren’t tea-related, I know, but I figure I’ll give a brief overview here and later posts can be more tea-specific).

30 October: Taipei (National Palace Museum, Taipei City Hall, Taipei 101)

31 Oct: Jiufen (shopping, eating, and a really great teahouse, the Jiufen Chafang, and the Shilin Night Market–one of my favorite days)

1 Nov: Yingge (Yingge Ceramics Museum, teaware shopping, and Free Ceramics with your purchase of Beef Noodles!) and Sanxia (Zushi Temple–another favorite–and the town’s Old Street)

2 Nov: Taipei (Camera Street, The American Club, and failing to get up to see the Grand Hotel because it was heavily guarded for the visiting dignitary from the mainland)

3 Nov: Taipei (Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, rain, Chinese Handicraft Promotion Center, more rain, Longshan Temple, Snake Alley <shudder>, and Ximending Night Market)

4 Nov: Taipei (National Museum of History), Huayuan Xincheng (tea oil noodles for lunch), Wulai (brief drive-through tour), and Maokong (teapot museum, dinner, and a temple complex overlooking Taipei)

5 Nov: Tainan via high speed rail (walking tour of temples and other historical sites)

6 Nov: Tainan (more temples, including Koxinga and Lady Linshui) then to Jiayi (the temple of the City God, and the city’s famous turkey rice for dinner)

7 Nov: Alishan (picking, watching the processing, comparing different days’ products from the same farmer–LOTS of learning experiences and another favorite of the trip)

8 Nov: Alishan (hiking the mountain trails, then back down through the tea fields, returning to Taipei via Jiayi)

9 Nov: Taipei (engagement banquet where we were drafted to represent family members of the groom-to-be who were unable to get to Taiwan) and Bitan (teahouse with yummy snacks and a great view, and dessert at Chocoholic)

10 Nov: Lugang (visiting a tea club, two temples, and more food), and visiting a friend’s family’s ancestral home nearby.

11 Nov: Taizhong, Nantou (studying plant varietals and more at Dong Ding, visiting an ancestral home, visiting a 200-year-old tea plant–shown above–and eating dinner on the edge of a bamboo forest near the base of the mountain)

12 Nov: Pinglin (Pinglin Baozhong Tea Competition entries, tasting tea with another farmer, and the Tea Leaf Museum only because the weather was too bad to pick and see the process in real life)

13 Nov: Northern Taiwan (Yangming Shan, Jin Shan’s Old Street, one of the more famous beaches, Danshui, Ba-Li, and more)

14 Nov: Nangang (Tea Processing Demonstration Facility), Taipei (re-visit of Longshan Temple, and dinner at a friend’s home), and then the airplane home.

The weather has turned cold and so my tea plant, the one that had been overrun with hornets and then miraculously liberated earlier this summer, is now pregnant. And I’ve got pictures. If you’ve got small children, you may want to have them leave the room because I’m going to show off the sex parts of my tea plant.

A little more seriously, though, this gives those who don’t have their own tea plant to get an idea of its flowers, leaves, and seeds.  I’ve read that the flowers are often quite fragrant.  I didn’t find that to be the case with my plante–they smell kind of herbaceous and ever so slightly spicy, but not particularly fragrant.

I’ve included my hand and a ruler to give a sense of size.

Also, there will be a bit of a break in my blog because I’ll be in Taiwan through the middle of November.  Cross your fingers for great tea being available while I’m there!

It’s been longer than I’d like since I wrote a blog post. The main reason is that I was the president of the Puget Sound Tea Education Association (PSTEA) and we just finished the first ever Northwest Tea Festival. Attendees of the festival appeared to enjoy themselves, lots of tea was had by all, and virtually everyone involved said it exceeded their expectations.

A few photos from the event:

Not long after my last post, I was looking at my site statistics and looked at the list of search terms that brought people to my site.  In the month leading up to that date, more that a quarter of the people coming to my site arrived because their search included the word “caffeine.”  Some wanted to maximize caffeine (”how to get the most caffeine from your tea”) while others wanted to minimize it (”how to get rid of caffeine from tea”).  Still others just wanted to know about it (”caffeine tea second brew” or “amount of caffeine in a cup of tea”).  Some didn’t specifically mention caffeine…but I could tell that was the intent (”tea can’t sleep”).

Why this obsession with caffeine?  Is that really why Americans drink tea?  Some to get more caffeine and some because it has lower levels that soda or coffee?  I’m not so sure.

To my mind, there are three basic reasons to drink tea.  Perhaps the most pedestrian and simple reason is because you want a beverage.  Thirst-quenching is something tea can do, and so people drink tea.  Leaves, hot water, and a cup/bowl/mug/trough/etc. is all you need.  Guzzle it down like a water buffalo or sip daintily with your pinky extended, it’s all “beverage.”

The second basic reason to drink tea is for a “reason.”  You can drink tea “because it’s good for you.”  Or “because I need a pick-me-up in the morning.”  Or “because I feel sophisticated having tea with my friends.”  This is a deeper category of tea drinking.  It requires that you’ve thought about tea a little bit and have decided that because of some criteria, tea is the best choice.  I think the caffeine-obsessed among us fall into this category:  “because tea has lower caffeine” or “because tea doesn’t make me jittery like coffee.”  However, it can still be somewhat one-dimensional.  Isn’t tea more than that one criterion, really?

Finally, the third basic reason is as an experience.  This is the spirit from which tea ceremonies come from.  It’s where people get their intellectual or spiritual kicks from.  When people speak of the “spirit of tea” or the “way of tea” it’s in this category of drinking.  Here, subtleties and variation are paid attention to.  Environment and teaware are important.  The chosen company and chosen leaves have great weight.  It’s perhaps the most sophisticated of the three basic reasons.  At the very least, the tea drinker needs to be somewhat self-aware and centered in the present moment to enjoy tea in this third way.  Additional study and experience only enhance tea-as-experience, because it allows for the experience of “I didn’t expect such-and-such flavor from this particular tea!” or “Oh, I’m excited to try that–I didn’t know they made so-and-so in that country!”  The more you know, the more you can detect, express, and enjoy.

Are any of these reasons for drinking tea wrong?  Absolutely not.  However, I think lots of conflict about tea comes from not understanding that other people drink tea for other reasons.  “Beverage” people see “Experience” people as tea snobs.  “Reason” people see “Beverage” people as doing it wrong.  To someone who want so experience the subtle flavors of a particular award-winning batch of wulong, adding milk and sugar may seem like sacriledge –an outrageous violation of teaness.  To a person who wants a comforting drink, milk and sugar in grocery store teabag tea may be the perfect thing.

It’s very easy to get caught up in your own reasons and assume other people should drink tea for the same reasons. But for different tea-drinking reasons there are different “better” and “worse” ways of going about it.  If you’re a Beverage person, Chinese gongfu cha probably isn’t a very good choice.  Lots of fiddling with utensils and very tiny cups of tea at the end.  On the other hand, if you’re an Experience person, the fiddling becomes a way to play with a particular tea and see how many different flavors you can get out of it–perfect for getting a full experience of a particular batch of leaves.

So next time you’re thinking someone’s doing it wrong, or is snobby, or can’t pick tea, take a moment to think of whether you’re imposing your own reasons for drinking tea on them.  And remember that drinking tea is good, no matter what your reason.

Recently, I heard another iteration of something I find fascinating. A person complains that they can’t drink tea in the evening because the caffeine keeps them awake, but they don’t like the taste of decaf teas and herbals don’t suit them. What are they to do?

Then a tea shop eager to sell them some tea tells them that all they have to do is do a quick 30-second steep, which removes most of the caffeine, pour that out, and re-steep the recommended length for a great low-caffeine cuppa for the evening. The customer follows this procedure and voila! Evening cups of tea AND sleep ensue. Victory!

I’ve heard this story on a number of occasions and it always makes me laugh a little, as well as getting curious. Because as I’ve mentioned on other posts and in the TeaGeek wiki, the 30-second decaf thing is a common tea myth. A majority of the antioxidants come out in the first 30 seconds, but perhaps less than 10% of the caffeine. This is based on the results of a couple of tea studies (which, if you’re interested, you can find references to via the links earlier in this paragraph).

Why do I laugh and become curious? Because if you put the customer story and the tea science together, you have to ask a question: Given that the customer slept well after a process that as been shown NOT to remove much caffeine, what’s the explanation for this phenomenon?

Personally, I think it’s psychology. First off, I think that most people first blame any sleeping problems on any caffeine they might have had. Tea and coffee come first as perceived sources of caffeine, even though some chocolate desserts can have more caffeine than a cup of tea, and are regularly enjoyed in the evening.

Next, I think that the 30-second decaffeination ritual invokes a kind of placebo effect. The customer believes there is no caffeine in the tea. Maybe it actually helps decrease the effect of the caffeine that is present, in a similar way that college students get impaired reactions when drinking alcohol-free beer that they believe to be normal beer. Or perhaps it just helps the customer choose other reasons for troubled sleep–that chocolate cake, or stress, or noisy neighbors. After all, it couldn’t be caffeine because it had all been removed in the 30-second rinse.

Either way, it becomes easier to think that the caffeine-disrupted sleep problem has been solved. And this could happen even if nothing had changed at all.

Another thing to look at is whether something besides caffeine has changed. For example, I have had evening tea and slept like a baby (last night for example). Other times, I’ve had evening tea and slept poorly. It’s easy to remember the times when you sleep poorly after having tea, but there’s no reason to pay attention to whether you had tea late in cases where you sleep well. So the poor-sleep nights stick out in the memory, seeming to get a prominence not warranted by their actual frequency.

(There’s a term for this particular flavor of cognitive bias, but I can’t recall it at the moment. I do know it’s mentioned in Stumbling on Happiness by Dan Gilbert. It’s a fascinating read even if you’re not a tea geek. This same bias is why it seems that your line at the grocery store always goes slowest–when the line goes quickly, you don’t pay attention to it, but when it goes slow it sticks in your memory.)

Now, I’m not a psychologist and I don’t have the facilities to carry out the research that would be necessary to verify my hypotheses (sleep studies, testing caffeine extraction rates, etc.) but it seems likely that psychology plays a big role in how we perceive caffeine and its effects in ourselves.  Of course, I’m open to other ideas about why so many people’s perceptions and experiences are at odds with the scientific evidence in this area.  Leave a comment if you’ve got one!

Well, it’s official.  Tickets have been purchased.  I’ll be in Taiwan for the first two weeks of November.  If you’ve got a hankering for something Taiwanese, especially tea or teaware, let me know.   Itinerary isn’t set yet, but I’m hoping to make at least one or two major growing regions (probably Pinglin, Wenshan and then perhaps something in Nantou county).  I’m hoping also to get some experience picking and/or processing, so stay tuned.

Of course, if you’ve been there and have suggestions on places I need to see or things I need to experience, I’d love to hear them as I set up the trip.

Well, Lu Yu (陆羽) the so-called “God of Tea”, must have been watching over me.  Strangely, without a sound in the night, the hornets’ nest vanished.  Well, not vanished exactly…something or someone took the nest away without damaging the tea plant at all.  The only evidence left was a few trampled irises and a short trail of wasp-paper flakes.  Strange, but I’m not going to look a gift wasp-free tea plant in the, er, mouth?

Many a tea geek has found themselves introduced to the world of tea through in one of the tea books of James Norwood Pratt, either the original Tea Lover’s Treasury or its second edition, New Tea Lover’s Treasury. He has been interviewed on radio, TV, and in at least two films: “All In This Tea” and “The Meaning of Tea” (both of which will be shown at the upcoming Northwest Tea Festival). Now it’s Tea Geek’s turn to interview him!

TG: What’s your favorite tea?

JNP: I must have several dozen favorites at any given time. This year it’s even more, because of the fine crop everywhere. I’m enjoying wonderful First Flush Darjeelings from Goomtee and Makaibari, Ceylons from Lumbini and Pettiagala, Nilgiris from Chamraj and Korakundah, half a dozen great Taiwan oolongs from Hou De, Teance and others, and half a dozen superb China Green Teas which have just arrived– Longjing, TianMu, Lushan Yunwu and an amazing Gu Mao Jian from Hunan.
This is before I even BEGIN to answer in depth or detail!

TG: How did you start on the path to tea geekdom? Briefly describe your history of tea exploration.

JNP: I came to tea after writing a book about wine–the ideal preparation. My first tea book appeared in 1982 and actually helped spark the Tea Renaissance that began that decade. So I’ve been eagerly exploring every new avenue to open up since then.

TG: What aspect of tea do you find most fascinating?

JNP: Everything about tea fascinates me, but nothing more than the spiritual aspect, if that’s what to call it. Field-Marshall Montgomery of El Alamein said the British soldier would do anything asked of him as long as his officers provided mail from home and plenty of tea. Japan’s proto-shogun Hideyoshi had said pretty much the same thing about his soldiers four hundred years earlier. Quite apart from the caffeine, what is it about tea that keeps us going even under hellish conditions? What is it about tea that opens our hearts to beauty and closeness? How does it manage to make us always feel a bit more civilized?

TG: Who have you learned the most from?

JNP: For millenia now, Tea is Something Handed Down. In Asia they have a keen appreciation of each “Way” or tradition, and a keen awareness of each lineage transmitting the Way down to one’s own time and self. My very first teachers in tea were Karen and Augie Techeira, proprietors of Freed Teller Freed in San Francisco, and Michael Spillane, their importer and owner of G.S.Haly Co. Outstanding among the many teachers I’ve had since are Devan Shah in India tea, Roy Fong in China tea, Manik Jayakumar in Ceylon tea, omitting any mention of many others.

TG: What tea resource (book, website, person, etc.) would you recommend for a tea novice?

JNP: Well, I wrote JNP’s NEW Tea Lover’s Treasury to fill this very need–an in-depth Tea 101 for newcomers which should repay regular re-reading every year or so by the more experienced. But a little experience beats a lot of reading. Find a fellow tea enthusiast with better connections than you have and start comparing!

TG: And what’s your own favorite tea resource, potentially for more advanced tea geeks?

JNP: Unfair Question! How can I mention one friend and omit a hundred? We now have a large and savvy enough list of internet sources to explore on our own—the hunting is good and gets better every year!

TG: What does tea mean to you?

JNP: Let me suggest you see “The Meaning of Tea,” the film by my friend Scott Hoyt (in which I appear briefly, by the way, but it’s first-rate anyhow).

TG: Name your biggest pet peeve in the realm of tea and tea drinking.

JNP: It continues to annoy me that people call anything “tea” whether it comes from the tea plant or not. If it’s not from the tea plant, it’s an herbal of some sort–NOT tea!

TG: If you could let everyone in the world know or understand one thing about tea, what would it be?

JNP: No pleasure is simpler, no luxury cheaper, no consciousness-altering substance more benign–if I may quote myself.

TG: What’s the craziest/weirdest/most obsessive thing you’ve ever done in pursuit of your love of tea?

JNP: Avoiding the purely personal now, Michael, let me admit to tasting a particular Darjeeling every year since 1986. That year in Paris I bought this magnificent Jungpana Second Flush from Mariage Freres. The package got lost for a while when only half-consumed. When I rediscovered it, I found the tea still wonderful and wondered how long it would stay that way. So every year I carefully make myself another pot. It hasn’t gone bad by any means, but it’s definitely fading. I guess you could say it’s a measure of aging, mine and the Jungpana’s, but I think there’s enough left to last at least til 2020!

TG:  Thank you, Norwood!

It’s harvest time in my back yard. Tea harvest. Or so I thought. (It’s never that simple, is it?) I’ve been growing a tea plant in the back yard for a couple of years, letting it get established before I really start to pick in earnest. When we bought it, it was a couple of years old, too, which gave us a head start on the typical 7-or-so years it takes before a tea plant can be put into production. Last year I did some trimming to encourage branching and to start training the bush. (I have another bush but it’s still inside because I didn’t get it in the ground soon enough for winter. That’s another story altogether.)

Anyway, I went out today because it’s supposed to be sunny and warm today and I want to let the picking wither in the sun. I picked four leaf/bud sets when the wasps (bald faced hornets, perhaps) that had set up shop on one of the lower branches got upset. I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I’ve got my four budsets in the sun, but that’s not enough for a single cup of tea.

I’ve done a little research on bald faced hornets (which is what these guys look like) and supposedly they’re not aggressive. Unless you get close to, or disturb, their nest. They apparently like to sting people in the face. If only I could pick the leaves without jiggling the plant so much.

Now I know what bears must feel like.

Well, someone out there had a great idea.  My local public television station (KCTS-9) recently aired “The Complete Jane Austin”–dramatizations of all of Austin’s works.  Now they, and the Daughters of the American Revolution, are doing a tea to support public TV.  Next month, they have an event called Afternoon Tea with Jane Austin, in which there will be entertainment, costumes, etc., all recreating the environment of an afternoon tea from the Regency period.  In order to get tickets, you need to pledge to public TV at $150 or more.

Good for them for coming up with a fun way to get financial support, and good for them for using tea to do it!  Maybe some Jane Austin fans and/or PBS fans who don’t drink tea will go to this event, have a lot of fun, and get interested in this most wonderful and tasty drink!