White Whisperings of Peace at the End of the Semester

Hello, everyone! I'm sorry that it's been so long since I've last posted. Things became very hectic this semester at school. It was very stressful for a while and somehow that made me put off tea a little (still drank, just not as much). But I've made some changes and am very happy to be reunited with drinking tons and tons of tea and being much more stress-free.

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)

Right now I'm listening to the song on the left, Tears of the East by Phillip Wesley. I absolutely love this pianist. He artfully manipulates my feelings through the delicate and thoughtful way his fingers travel the keys.

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.

What a Gem I Found!

So as you know from my previous post, I've been having a hard time finding new tea sources in Portland, Oregon. This is extremely depressing to me, and so I resolved to head directly in to Portland, hoping that some small tea-shop owner just didn't know how to use the internet. Brett from Black Dragon Tea Bar Blog was kind enough to point me into the direction of the Portland Tea Enthusiasts' Alliance and J-Tea in Eugene, Oregon, but for anyone who doesn't know Oregon geography, Eugene is not very near to Portland at all, and even the Portland Tea Enthusiasts' Alliance is on the other side of the Willamette river (making it more difficult to get to). I intend to get over to the Alliance eventually, but this week I really just wanted to check one more time that there wasn't anything in Portland.

First, let me tell you a little bit about Portland. Portland is a generally large city full of hippies and hipsters and emos and punks and steampunks and gay people and intellectuals and activists and animal lovers and bicyclists and tech geeks and comic geeks and book lovers and... Okay just go watch an episode or two of Portlandia and you'll know what Portland is like. Hahaha. It's really wonderful here. But there is like no options for tea! That is not to say we don't have any good tea available at all, we actually have one major brand that's very good: The Tao of Tea. They are a tea importing company based in Portland and spread all throughout the Northwest. I had the opportunity to meet some people from that company when I went to the Northwest Tea Fest last year, and was pleasantly surprised by how small and friendly this company is. They offer a HUGE variety of teas, and essentially every store stocks their teas. Honestly, if you want a good shot at getting a good tea without too much hassle, just hit up a store and get some of their tea. My only problem with just buying from them like that is that I really like to connect to the tea shop owners or workers and join a community of tea drinkers.

I don't know if any of you have realized this yet, but tea is much more than a simple beverage for me. It's a science, an adventure, a process, a refuge, a comfort, an entry into a community, and an international connection. Oh, and of course it's also a SUPER DELICIOUS beverage. Haha. So I'm not just looking for a new source of tea, I'm looking for new people and places to go and things to do.

In terms of tea, I am new in Portland. So maybe it's not as bad here as I basically feel like it is. But either way, I spent the entire day in downtown Portland, and even though I went up and down EVERY STREET in Chinatown, I only found ONE very small tea shop.

But! This was a super cool tea shop.

In all honesty, this tea shop is almost a perfect model for how I'd want my tea shop to be like if I ever had one (which I'm beginning to want as I get more and more into tea). The place is called the Red Robe Tea House. I did find it in my initial search online, and I think they need a better description of themselves on their website, because I was not expecting what I got when I went in. The super cool thing about this little tea house is that they are essentially a restaurant. They have a full menu of food selections, and most people I saw that went in there were there for the food. But in addition to their food, they have a tea selection menu! And not only can you just buy a cup of tea there, you can get them served Gongfu style!

In a normal tea shop, I'm used to this being almost complementary, but it was also really nice to have this in a restaurant setting instead of a tea shop setting. What this included was a tea tray with a small yixing pot, a fairness pitcher, a cute filter and holder, and a pot of hot water with a candle burner underneath to keep it warm for longer. An employee washed the tea and woke up the leaves for us, telling us about the tea we'd chosen and the method of brewing for Gongfu style and then poured us our first cup. From then were able to simply pour the hot water ourselves and just chat the entire time happily. When we ran out of hot water she would replace it for us. I think this provided my friends in particular a much more relaxed first Gongfu style tea tasting because they didn't have to have the added stress of meeting someone new and being in front of someone trying to sell you something the entire time such as when I go tea tasting at tea stores in Seattle. Since I've been to them all it's not stressful for me, but this was a much more relaxed and comfortable setting for all of us it seemed. I think it's a better model for the store too, since the whole service costs something so they don't feel the pressure to have to try and sell us anything more. This also provides the opportunity to give many more tea tastings than a regular tea store can do since it leaves the tea and water with the customers, giving the employees the time to pay attention to more customers. This shop is only 10 months old apparently, and unfortunately their area doesn't get the most traffic ever, but it seemed like they already had several regular customers and were obviously getting new ones very easily.

Now of course, all of this would be useless if the quality of their product was horrible! But oh my~! The tea is DELICIOUS there. I chose a 2006 Menghai Imperial Pu-erh (2006 勐海宫庭普洱), and this happens to be a higher quality tea than I realized apparently after looking it up online. So freaking delicious!!! I forgot to mention, but the other reason this trip was so imperative was because I'd just ran out of the cooked pu-erh I had for consumption this summer. Technically I have a few I'd left at home for storage until after college somewhere, but I really wanted to keep those safe until after college. I also really wanted to find a tea store nearby to support. This tea house completely has my support; I bought more than I usually buy of loose leaf at a time. It's really, really good tea. I think the Long Run 2898 that I love so much is very similar to it, being similarly thick and dark and smooth. But I think that this one's age gives it an advantage and has made it even smoother than my 2898. I think I want to put a 2898 in storage and see how it is after college too. But seriously, this '06 Imperial goes right up there with the 2898, Moon White, Dan Cong, and Gyokuro as one of my special favorite teas. It's really just lovely.

They had about 3 other teas for drinking in store, and then they also had a nice set of bricks for sale too. I was tempted to get one of them as well, but I'm such a picky buyer that I am just going to wait for now, I think. Also, they're super expensive because they're already mostly at least 6 years old, so I think I'd rather find similar ones that are younger and therefore cheaper instead. I guess I could get one and just be super happy with it, but I also don't know how they taste, so I don't know which one I'd want. Anyways, yadda yadda I just stuck with what I tried because I loved it. I will definitely go again one day with friends again and try out a different one. If they're all very good then maybe I will trust that store's tastes more and splurge for my birthday or something. Or ask someone to splurge for me for my birthday. Hahaha. (My 20th birthday is coming up in 22 days!)

Good job, Portland! You may not have the biggest selection ever for me, but you certainly have provided me with a great first try selection! 

By the way, if any of you guys have any questions about tea in any shape or form, just let me know! Please feel free at all times to comment on any of these posts pretty much whatever you want. Haha.