2nd Tea Ceremony at Guitian's Tea Club

We broke the ice by broke the table. It was my fault, and it meant to be. That's why we connected each other quickly and we lasted our ceremony until 12:30am. 

We tried 4 kinds of tea plus White cockscomb. We shared the tea poems and discussed them, we talked about the water, the steeping, the beauty, the way of drinking, the tips of choosing a good tea and eating cherries, egg cakes, cookies, France's Chocolate. And more... I know it is kind of boring to list it all. 

However, I gotta some nice photos to share. Enjoy them! And I will specifically address how water effects the taste of tea in a separate post.

At last, special thanks to Mani, Niilartey and Stephen.

With the wonderful friendly tea savors and gentle music, I was enjoy making tea.

 I was trying to use the tall porcelain pitcher, but I noticed that the pitcher got a smell of the cabinet. Sorry, guys, this was only one time use although it is pretty and holds the aroma for a long time.

 

 

We got a professional artistic and fashion designer to film our enjoyment. It will posted soon.

We were having a Puer with the first mushroom sharped clay teapot I connected. The guests complimented that it was so cute and in fact that's why I bought it. The chubby body of the teapot is good for puer tea to expend the flavor and the thickness of the wall is great to hold the heat.

The value of tea brought an awesome group of people at the ceremony:

 The respect of tea, the sincere to the people, enviroment and ritual directly from her eyes. Thanks again!

He sipped the tea though his taste buds, extended it to his mind and took it to his heart!

 

The attention to the tea doubled the pleasure of the tea!

 The elegance of drinking is fully displayed!

The delightful spirit of her delighted the ceremony. 

 Calmness and mindfulness of him is the purpose of savoring tea.

 

He was amazing! I was so impressed by his knowledge of all the fine things: wine, cooking, coffee, chocolate, tea and the life. Thank you for your generous sharing, it created great conversations!

The understanding of the Chinese culture (specially like the way he tapped his legs to say thank) and tea (Thank you for cleaning your nose first, took a deep sniff and second sniff to immerse into the aroma of the tea) from him gave me a lot of pleasure and appreciation.

Beauty, health and peace in each cup. When I see how people enjoy their tea, how beautiful the tea itself is, I feel the life is meaning and I wish I were the tea and tea were me.

 

Serving tea is one of my favorite habit.

 

 

  

I am grateful that tea brings us together and happy to watch how tea brought this sweet couple together.

I got so many photos and posted some of them on Picasa Web Albums, please feel free to click here to see more.

Soon, I will share the video as well.

Birth of Guitian's Tea Club

Finally, it happened, and yet successfully and delightfully! I have planned this since last year. Until my dear friend couldn't wait for it any longer, he came over to me, and said, here is the place for you, start it now. Yes, I didn't know what I was waiting for. He is right, if I never give myself a space, there is always a tomorrow, tomorrow.
No excuse any more.

Drinking a lot of tea with an empty stomach could upset the stomach, so the ceremony started with some fresh lychee fruit, sesame balls, red bean cakes and other snacks.

I carefully selected three types of dark tea, and each one has different character. The first one was the Ice Mountain green Puer

cake. The big fat buds and leaves were  compressed consistently with very evident layers. The aroma was surprisingly floral and
more floral than any other puer teas we all experienced. The delicate bright golden color of tea soup lifted our mind up. Here
comes the first sip of the first infusion, it was like a delicate young lady enjoy dancing with her new silk dress. It was flower, subtle, clean, bright, fresh, and delightful. It was a taste of the floating
leaves in a serene clean stream surround by mountains full of flowers. Personally, I love the aftertaste most. The refined sweet aftertaste was gently stimulating my entire mouth, from the mid of my tongue to two sides of my cheek and extended to my throat. After the 3rd infusion, my guests complimented that it was getting more and smoother. When the 4th infusion started, the dancing delicate young lady became a mature educated lady, the complexity of tea was expressing in each sip and sniff. The bitter sweet taste was like the lady went through a lot of tough times, and afterward she overcame the difficulties, the sweetness arrived. After 7 times of infusion, the tea still presented very well balanced. And yet, the beautiful fat consistent wet infused tea leaves were like a pleasant
song in my heart, it tempted me to want to touch and feel the wet leaves by my fingers. So I invited all of us to sense the softness, tenderness and elasticity of the tea leaves.

        

Second one was a special block of Fuzhan 茯砖-one of a the famous dark teas in China. This particular Fuzhun is in gratitude and memory from the Hunan tea industry to the author of Hunan Dark Tea. This book is the first and the only one book which specifically introduced the full content of Hunan dark tea. The author is a very well known tea master in South of China, is also my tea professor in the Hunan Agricultural University. This special tea has a very limited amount in Chinese market. The best thing to show my respect and
gratitude to my professor is to keep the tea for another 30-50 years and even pass it to my next generation. And, I am very bad about it, because I could not wait any longer. I could not wait to share it with tea lovers. Here it is! The tea was very well compressed.
Breaking the tea was a part of The fun process of making tea art which I do enjoy, like cutting the food before cooking it, it is a part of art. The tea got a unique steamed lotus leaf with a hint of ripe rice flavor. I was trying to explain that it smelled like Zongzi 粽
子 which is a Cantonese lotus leaf rice dumpling. My guests didn't know what Zongzi was and they described it is leafy and earthy. The tea is from 2008 with a mid-body and has a unique distinctive flavor, the complexity of it was hard to describe. After the fourth infusion, the tea became more pronounced, the mouth-feel was more balanced, more smooth, and the aftertaste was more refined as well. And yet, I heard more happy and satisfied gentle voices from my guests. That was a very good sign to me.
 

The third tea was a 1992 aged ripe puer cake. It sent me to a clean ancient rainforest with wild dry flowers and dry fruits. It started as a rich smooth mouth-feel right at the first infusion which is pretty impressive. The typical puer tea generally starts to have this character after or on the 3rd infusion. The aroma of deep earth and complete around silky mouth-feel are my biggest pleasure for this puer. I felt like as if I were lying on many inches of dry falling leaves from ancient trees on the ground in a far away forest and communicating with the mother of Earth. The mellowness of tea absorbed us, it mellowed our bodies and minds. We were melting with tea, with friendship, with nature and peace. We were drinking, we were laughing, and we were celebrating our lives, our joy, and our relationships...

I was so much enjoying seeing the relaxed joyful faces from my guests. To me, seeing people appreciate tea grants me a great pleasure and the value of tea, art and myself. I decided to share my favorite Big Red Robe with them although it wasn't the plan. I was so happy about my decision. It was a perfect ending and conclusion of this ceremony with our purified minds. The aroma was amazingly vivid and the length of bouquet was incredibly long, especially when I used my new tall pitcher. The pitcher kept the dark chocolate fruity fragrance for more than half hour. We were enjoying sniffing the joy of tea aroma therapy and sipping each drop of bliss and harmony.

I smile, of course,
And go on drinking tea.
"Yet with these April sunsets, that somehow recall my buried life, and Paris in the Spring.
I feel immeasurable at peace, and find the world 
To be wonderful and youthful, after all."

                                                   —T.S.Elliot

  

Drink tea and nourish life; 

with the first sip, joy;

with the second sip, satisfaction,

 with the third sip, peace.

A New Home of Tea

The rain was like cats and dogs. My thoughts were like cats and dogs too. I was sitting on the bus waiting in traffic and so worried that I wouldn't arrive at my new "home" - a family teahouse called "Three Fate Hall" (三缘堂) - on time. It was my second visit there. Every minute when we shared tea together was so wonderful and precious that we all agreed on my first visit that our meeting together in this space was a family gathering.

Three Fate Hall was the first place I really sat down to drink tea in Changsha. I found it by coincidence while I was looking for a qipao (a type of traditional Chinese dress) although I was crazy about looking for tea houses during my trip in April from the USA to my homeland China.

A simple classic hand-crafted tea set in the warm light of sunshine from a window first attracted my eyes, and the beautiful view caused my feet to follow. Simple cups with an authentic look expressed the richness of culture and history. Seeing them felt like meeting old friend that I hadn't seen for years. After the appreciation of this tea set, I turned around to see other items in the store. A combination of traditional and modem tea-wares with their distinctive but equally beautiful designs filled shelves around the room with an occasional bonsai nestled among them.

A bookshelf with volumes of Chinese calligraphy and a small collection of calligraphy brushes on its left corner added a flavor of literature. Old, dark, natural wooden furniture returned me to the old days of China. The sound of  a little stream of water running over stones next to a tea table provided a reminder of nature. The steam of hot tea was surrounded by a few people and their compliments and laughter were calling my mind, my palate, my feet and very soon my entire body. Without any hesitance, I headed directly to the people who were drinking tea together. As I walked closer, the bouquet of tea was delighting my nose and the enjoyment on the faces of the people was calling my heart louder and louder. My mouth even started to water and I felt like I hadn't had tea for ages! It made me laugh at myself because in fact, I had just returned from a tea expo. Evidently, the unique design of the tea-wares, the setting and atmosphere were lighting up my spirit, to provide an environment I found particularly enticing.

They were having a three-year-old, big-leaf, white tippy raw puer. I invited myself to join them. The host was a friendly young gentleman. He said, we have tea, but we don't have a cup for you, do you have your own cup? I couldn't wait to tell him that I had a cup in my bag, but he continued by telling me I first needed to get a cup in his shop. I was a little disappointed because I sensed that he was trying to sell his stuff. I couldn't believe that he was so materialistic. It didn't match the store and the kindness I sensed from him. Another man came over and introduced different cups to me. The cups no longer looked as refined as I first imagined. I couldn't find any I felt a deep desire for. On the left side of the tea table, there was a very long wooden stool, with a man was sitting on one side. He was drinking his tea from a tiny cream-colored cup with a delicate handle on a little square bamboo tray. The cup looked so comfortable and happy in his hand, and the satisfaction and peace in his heart showed in how gently and carefully he picked it up. Somehow, the cups I had examined became gorgeous again. I chose a cup similar to the one he was using. The host labeled my name on the cup and arranged for me sit on the other side of the long stool, right next to the person (whose name turned out to be Tony) who was using the same style of cup I bought. "From now on," the host said, "this is your cup at our place and there is always tea for you." So simple! I never imagined I could get free tea any time so easily. I was surprised again and felt flattered and of course grateful.

As we sat together, the way I taste tea, and my knowledge, understanding and appreciation of tea opened more and more conversation with the host and the tea drinkers. We started joking, laughing, discussing, and sharing. I shared some of my best purchase from the tea expo, a high-grade Big Red Robe from Fujian. I could see the happiness in their eyes, their relaxed muscles, the lines of their faces, all of this accompanied by the contented sound of slurping. During our conversation, the distance between our seats remained the same, but our hearts walked closer and closer together... We drank, we opened ourselves, we celebrated, we laughed, we illuminated one another. We were drunk from the tea and the people. 

That's why I got so frustrated when I was stuck in the traffic on the bus on the way to Three Fate Hall. Finally, I got off at my bus stop and ran to the place. My heart ran faster than my legs and the rain was so heavy and I didn't have a umbrella. I was so wet, like a poor wet chicken. I knew everything would be worth it. Yes, everything warmed me up after having a cup of tea with my new tea family members. 

Worldwide Pronounciations Of Tea

Chinese character tea (茶cha) in 108 different ways 

‘Tea' and all its worldwide variations in spelling and pronunciation come from China. There are two pronunciations have made their way into other languages around the world. 

1). Derivatives from cha-the Mandarin pronunciation of the character “Tea” (茶 chá) 

One common pronunciation is chá, used by the Cantonese dialect spoken around the ports of Guangzhou (Canton), Hong Kong, Macau, and in overseas Chinese communities, as well as in the Mandarin dialect of northern China. This term was used in ancient times to describe the first flush harvest of tea. 

 

Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name
Albanian	çaj	Amharic	ሻይ shai	Arabic	شاي shāy	Aramaic	pronounced chai	Assamese	saah
Azerbaijani	çay	Bangla	চা cha	Bosnian	čaj	Bulgarian	чай chai	Capampangan	cha
Cebuano	tsa	Croatian	čaj	Czech	čaj (2)	English	chai	Hindi	चाय chai
Tagalog	tsaa	Georgian	ჩაი, chai	Greek	τσάι tsái	Gujarati	ચા cha	Khasi	sha
Japanese	茶, チャ, cha	Kannada	ಚಹಾ Chaha	Kazakh	шай shai	Kyrgyz	чай, chai	Malayalam	ചായ, "chaaya"
Konkani	चा cha	Korean	茶,차, cha	Lao	ชา, saa	Macedonian	чај, čaj	Uzbek	choy
Marathi	चहा chahaa	Mongolian	цай, thai	Nepali	chiya चिया	Oriya	cha	Pashto	چای chai
Persian	چای chai	Punjabi	چا ਚਾਹ chah	Portuguese	chá	Romanian	ceai	Russian	чай, chai
Serbian	чај, čaj	Slovak	čaj	Slovene	čaj	Somali	shaah	Swahili	chai
Sylheti	saah	Tagalog	tsaa	Thai	ชา, chaa	Tibetan	ཇ་ ja	Tlingit	cháayu
Turkish	çay	Turkmen	çay	Ukrainian	чай chai	Urdu	چا ٔےchai
Vietnamese	*trà and chè	Tamil	*தெய்னேர்/டே theyneer and tee	Kenyan language	cai kikuyu	Khmer	តែ tae

2). Derivatives from tê - Xiamen (Amoy) Fujian Dialect "的" (tey)            

The other common pronunciation is tê, which comes from the Hokkien dialect, spoken in Fujian Province, Taiwan and by expatriate Chinese in Indonesia, Malaya and Singapore. It reached the West particularly from the Amoy Min Nan dialect, spoken around the port of Xiamen (Amoy), once a major point of contact with Western European traders. This pronunciation is believed to come from the old words for tea 梌 (tú) or 荼 (tú).        

 

Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name
Afrikaans	tee	Armenian	տե te	Catalan	te	Czech	té or thé (1)	Danish	te
Dutch	thee	English	tea	Esperanto	teo	Estonian	tee	Faroese	te
Finnish	tee	French	thé	West Frisian	tee	Galician	té	German	Tee
Hebrew	תה, te	Hungarian	tea	Icelandic	te	Indonesian	teh	Irish	tae
Italian	tè or thè	Javanese	tèh	Korean	茶,다 da [ta](2)	scientific Latin	thea	Latvian	tēja
Leonese	té	Limburgish	tiè	Low Saxon[disambiguation needed]	Tee [tʰɛˑɪ] or Tei [tʰaˑɪ]	Malay	teh	Malayalam	തേയില Theyila
Norwegian	te	Occitan	tè	Sesotho	tea,chá	Scots Gaelic	tì, teatha	Sinhalese	තෙ thé
Spanish	té	Scots	tea [tiː] ~ [teː]	Sundanese	entèh	Swedish	te [tʰeː]	Tamil	தேநீர் thenīr (nīr = water) "theyilai" means "tea leaf" (ilai=leaf)
Telugu	తేనీళ్ళు tēnīru	Welsh	te	Khmer	តែtae	Vietnamese	chè [cɛ]