The Way of Tea to be presented on 2010 Ohio Chinese Festival

I have accepted, with honor, an invitation to perform "The Way of Tea" (茶道 or "Tea Ceremony") at the 2010 Ohio Chinese Festival. Not only I'm going to demonstrate the traditional way of tea, but also I intend to introduce some easy but proper ways of enjoying tea on a daily base (in other words, occassions such as when you are working at your office, or on the way to go).

Session I. Tea in the Way of Tradition (Modified Kongfu Cha style)
Here you will see how teas are prepared and shared with friends in a more traditional manner. Such an event is called a Tea Gathering (茶會/茶席). Aesthetics is revealed through the communication with tea, tea wares, and with people. Calm down and awaken your mind in the dialog with tea! We are demonstrating something called "modified kongfu cha" style. As the name applies, we will use tools adopted in the 功夫茶 kongfu cha traditions, but with add-ons and changes.

Session II. Tea the Easy Way
Tea is not only for leisure. Tea is first a healthy beverage. But the point is how to drink tea in a healthy way! We will bring some modern tea utensils designed for convenient tea making. These utensils are widely available at the market. Using these tools, we can enjoy a cup of tea any where any time, and receive the health benefits of tea with ease and with grace! Improper manners of tea making and some heath concerns in tea drinking will also be discussed.

A Green in the Name of White

It's been a while I have not reviewed any teas seriously... but this doesn't mean that I'm out of teas. In fact, I keep getting new teas, many of which are gifts from friends, like this one I'm trying today.



This a tea named Fuwei Bai Cha (富伟白茶) or Fuwei White Tea. The word "bai" means white. But, a look on the dry leaves revealed to me the truth that it is actually a type of green tea. And to be specific, it is a type of green tea in the category of chao qing (炒青) or "roasted green" so to speak. You may get confused for why a green tea is named white tea? To decode the "white" part in the name, we have to take a look on what it really means by "white" in the terminology of current industry as well as its historical meaning.

The terminology white used in "white tea" is ambiguous. It refers to two different entities: (1) The color of the tea leaf which is "white" or pale green, or is ivory colored (when the leaf is young) -- this is probably the original meaning; and (2) The "simplicity" in the process of the tea leaves, which means merely letting the leaves wither and then dry and pack them up.

In today's tea industry in China, among the five types of tea named by colors [1], it is in the second sense mentioned above that the White Tea is definied. An example of White Tea in this system is Bai Mu Dan (白牡丹) or White Peony.

In the ancient time (especially in Tang and Song Dynasties), White Tea is definied differently from that of the modern tea industry. It is more straight forward referring to the color of the leaves, and has nothing to do with the processing method. A tree that grow "white" colored leaves is considered a specialty. The taste of the tea made out of the white tea tree is said to be supreme [2]. In the ancient time, the procedures in tea manufactury is way more complicated than today's.

Back to today's tea. I did a small online research and found out that this tea is in one of the series of new products developed in the last couple of years, noticeably all from the west region of Lake Tai (太湖). Tea growers there claimed that they have re-discovered the ancient "White Tea", because they found a type of tea tree growing in mountains there which sprouts unique ivory colored leaves, similar to that described in ancient tea classics. And therefore, they call it "White Tea." Obviously, this naming has a great marketing purpose!

However, the tea is processed in the method of green tea. Therefore, by definition of modern tea industry, this type of tea is still a green tea. One of the most polular products in this series which has made a big marketing success is Anji White Tea (安吉白茶).

A search for the manufacturing location of this particular product I'm reviewing today results in a neiborhood of the Anji White!



In conculsion, we have been dealing with three types of "white tea" so far

1. White Tea in the ancient sense: a special type of tea tree that grows white leaves. In Song Dynasty, teas are manufactured into tea cakes, and grinding the cake into tea powder is required before it can be consumed.


2. White Tea in modern Chinese tea industry: tea leaves are picked and let withered simply by itself (without shaking or twisting as that in the process of Yellow or Oolong teas) and dried (under the sun or by heating); light fermantation occurs during the process of withering.


3. A type of green tea called "white" in name only! Picked from a special type of tea tree that grows white leaves, processed in the manner of green tea, which means zero fermantation!

Now comes the actual review part....

The tea is well processed, the package looks nice, too. The dry leaves are flat in shape -- could be a major difference from Anji White which are not flat. The color is also more greenish in comparison of Anji's dull green. I made four infusions, the first one is done in the manner of throwing leave onto hot water (上投), which means you first pour boiling hot water into the gaiwan, and then throw the leave onto the water and let them slowly infused into the water. This is the way often employed for green teas of tender leaves. I used 4g of dry leaves to suit my 120cc gaiwan.




The taste is pretty decent as for a good green tea. It presented a little astringency which you will not experience with Anji White. Usually, astringency indicates the tea possesses less amino acid but more poly phenols. To me this is a good news, because more poly phenols means more EGCGs or the antioxidant element.

The spent leaves demonstrate the tea's specialty for which it is named: the pale greenish with a tone of ivory!


Notes

[1] The five types of tea are: Green Tea, White Tea, Yellow Tea, Oolong Tea (or Greenish Black), Black Tea.
[2] The supreme quality of White Tea is described in a Song Dynasty Tea Classic 《大觀茶論》.

Bibliography of Extended Readings

On 易經 Yi-jing (I-ching), The Classic of Change

• 易學今昔/余敦康 广西师范大学，2005
  -- 分析中國儒道思想天人合一, 自然主義與人文主義的中道

Animitta sabda gandha: A visit to Zizaiyaji

Literature review on tea culture and tradition

明代几种茶书成书年代再补 / 安徽农业大学中华茶文化研究所 丁以寿

Materials for research on the tea mthods reflected on 2 scroll paintings

傳為初唐閻立本的《蕭翼賺蘭亭圖》今存世的有兩卷, 一藏於遼寧博物館, 另一藏於台灣故宮博物院. 據學者考證[資料?]此二均宋代的摹本, 其中遼寧博物館所藏的是北宋摹本, 台灣故宮博物院所藏是南宋摹本.


遼寧博物館所藏


台灣故宮博物院所藏

Literature review

李豔婷 遼博本《蕭翼賺蘭亭圖》作者考辨(天津美术学院学报 2007年第3期)

浩更 《蕭翼賺蘭亭圖》重現唐代煮茶風情(文化交流 2008年第5期；又转载于拙风文化网) -- 論點可質疑處頗多

Pine needle motif on Japanese tea wares

The first time this motif caught my eyes was when I bought a tetsubin with kanji 松風(wind through pine trees) on one side and some "strange" design on the other. At that time, I wasn't sure that the needle like leaves are pine needles and the fruit like thing is a pine cone. Later on I learned that this motif is called 松葉絵 matsu-e(drawing of pine needles). Sometimes, pine cones, called 松ぼっくり(松毬), are also accompanied.

Two things we can learn from this motif. First, as the pine leaves are depicted not on branch but as separate pairs of needles, this motif indicates the season to be late autumn, when the pines shed some leaves on the ground. The falling leaves, just as the falling of sakura flower in Spring, give a sense of the transient beauty. Second, as the needles are paired, or in fascicles of two, we can tell that the dominant pines trees in Japan are probably those similar to Red Pines or Scots Pines in Europe. Or, at least these are the pines that caught the artists' eyes...

The following are a few more examples of the pine needles motif on Japanese tea wares. Note the first one, a tea caddy, has both needles and pine cone, similar to the tetsubin. The second one, a red tea caddy, has bamboo leaves and plum flowers -- thus it makes another popular motif Sho-chiku-bai (松竹梅 pine-bamboo-plum), or Saikan Sanyuu (歳寒三友), literally, "the Three Friends of Winter."





This is a 松葉絵銘々皿 (matsuba-e-meimeizara; "meimeizara" are small plates for individual helpings of food) and it has a more realistic depiction of the pine needles --