For those of you who are unaware, it's the final two weeks of the 2012 fall semester here at Mount Holyoke College. To summarize before I lose sight of how this semester went after my classes finish, my favorite classes ended up being all of them. Haha. I've learned so much and feel that I've grown so much this semester. It's been difficult, and while I don't think any printed letters on my transcripts will show anything stellar this semester I've still learned a lot and have been having a lot of fun. (I'm afraid some of you may be going, "Oh my gosh, what on earth did she do?!" right now, but really, I just bomb-dived in one class and finally dropped it, but not after doing some damage to my work in others. ;^; Haha)
While listening to him today, I'm finally enjoying a sample from Phoenix Tea that I'd put off for a long while. I was saving it for a really special occasion, but I've come to the conclusion that if paid attention to properly, every moment is a special occasion and should be appreciated as such. In other words I was really impatient to try this White Whisper Tea from Kenya (page 9).
When I opened the little sample pack, I initially thought that there must've been a mistake somewhere. If I hadn't seen the leaves, I would've thought there was a dried apricot in there instead. I will be the first to admit that I do not partake in a great deal of white teas (you all know me as a pu-erh and green tea person by now, I hope), but the majority of those that I have drank have never smelled like this before. Usually they're kinda flowery, maybe fairly grassy like green tea even. But like a freaking dried apricot?? On The Royal Tea of Kenya's homepage right now there is a small video about them. One of the things the woman in it mentions is that a story about a friend of the founder, Joy, who upon drinking a tea from Joy's family's tea farm remarks that drinking their tea is the equivalent of switching from black and white television to color. This tea demonstrates that perfectly.
The apricots I smelled was remarkably conserved in the flavor. The flavor was a lot more flowery than the scent though, but just when I thought my cup was done a shocking sweet aftertaste appeared. Immediately I forced my roommate to drink it with me. She really enjoyed it and described it as very refreshing.
Anyways, I've just finished my 6th brew of this, and I'm literally swaying back in forth in my chair while listening to these lovely piano tunes because I feel just so happy and serene.
And there is one last post I'd like to make in this post. I knew that technically making tea was considered a meditative thing, but I never really was conscious of that until today. But really, out of love for the tea and the art of making it, you have to be so aware of your actions when making tea gongfu style. You are aware of every piece on the tea tray, the temperature of the water and pieces, the smell of the tea, the way the stream flows as it's poured from gaiwan into chahai, its appearance in the chahai if you have a glass one like me, how it's poured, more about the scent, and finally how you drink it, its taste, and how it makes you feel. I was just reading The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh the other day (and I should mention here how impressive it is that I'm able to do out of class reading at this school), and all that above is basically like the excerpts from the manual given to the novices he talked about. I'm not directly quoting, but it said something like, "Be aware of everything as you do it. When you're walking, walking." It might sound like overkill, but this is my experience with tea and it makes it beautiful and relaxing.
Have a happy day and enjoy your cup of tea.
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