AncienTrails

Spring                                                                        New (Rushing Waters) Moon

Friend Bill Schmidt knows me well. A while back he noted I’d not yet written anything about tea while here in Colorado. He was right. Two or three years before the move out here I’d somehow gotten to making tea the Chinese way, gong fu cha. This was after years of tea from tea bags and the occasional loose tea steeped in tea infusers.

The impetus may have been my favorite object in the entire collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, a Song dynasty tea bowl. I don’t recall now.

Gong fu cha involves various implements and techniques that differ significantly from British/American tea preparation and drinking, but also from the Japanese chanoyu, which is a direct descendant of gong fu cha.

Gong fu cha inspired visiting Japanese monks to introduce tea to their Buddhist compatriots as a way of staying awake during long sessions of meditation. The Japanese tea ceremony grew out of this cultural exchange beginning in the 12th century.

Over a period of years I acquired several yixing teapots, many different teabowls (including one with a leaf embedded), tea scoops and picks for tightly compressed chunks of pu’er tea, a bamboo tea tray and, of course, several varieties of tea.

The Zojirushi is my favorite tea appliance. The Zojirushi, a Japanese model, boils water to a particular temperature and has a large reservoir so water at the right temperature is always available. Water temperature, the teapot and the quality of the tea itself are the critical variables in gong fu cha.

I considered making tea in the loft a final flourish to the work on it, so I waited until everything else was finished: book cases, art table, things put in their places. Why? I don’t know. Gong fu cha became, in my mind, a symbol that this space was ready for serious work.

Right now I’m drinking Master Han’s loose leaf pu’er from 2000. Very smooth and smoky. I guess that means I’m getting serious about the work.

Bill knew me well. Now I’m truly here. Yixing pot in hand.

 

Winter                                                                      Winter Moon

My holiseason present came today.  It’s a yixing teapot from the Chinese Teashop based in Vancouver, British Columbia.  That brings my collection to three:  one for black and pu’er teas, one green and oolong teas and one for white teas.  Eventually I’ll have a yixing teapot for each of the varieties of tea, but it takes a while to get there since they’re not cheap.

My gong fu cha chops have increased over the last few weeks and sitting above me and to my right are these teas:  Master Han’s Looseleaf 2004 Shu Pu’er, spring harvest Laoshan green, Phoenix Mountain dancong oolong, Wuyi mountain big red robe, Qilan Wuyi oolong, Silver Needle.

This tea journey I’m on now is another ancientrail, a side path from an interest in Asian art and culture.  It allows me to have a bit of Asian culture right here, on a regular basis.

With gong fu cha I infuse tea leaves for times ranging from 4 seconds to the very longest 25 seconds, pouring hot water over the teapot while the tea infuses, a different temperature for each variety of tea.  This requires a teapot and my Zojirushi.  The Zojirushi holds three plus liters of water at 175 degrees.  It’s perfect for white and green teas.  The teapot gets water to the 205-208 degree temperatures best for the oolongs, blacks and pu’ers.

There’s a good deal of puttering with it, fussing and that’s all part of drinking tea.  It takes me, at least for a minute or two, into a world of long ago and far away.  When I return I have about half a cup of tea, which lasts a good while since I drink it out of my Chinese teacups, smaller and shallower and wider than the tea cups we use.

Having added it to my working day gives uniqueness to the beverages I drink and links me to a worldwide culture of tea drinkers.  It’s a hobby, I guess.