In Korea, waiting to hop over to Guang Zhou

Greeting to all from Korea. Happy Thanks Giving Turkey Day!

Passionate Tail Ant

Well, happiness has happened twice in just one weekend at Tea Habitat. The 2 love birds in the picture announced that they are getting married to their parents on Saturday. They made their announcement while drinking Passionate Tail Ant Dan Cong - Ni Wei Yi. We were all over joyed!

Today - Sunday, a young lady informed us she's getting married as well while drinking the same exact tea Passionate Tail Ant Dan Cong.

It's a SIGN!

Congratulations to all the lovers who are meant to be together! May happiness with each and everyone!

I will drink the Passionate Tail Ant tea fast! And I will reserve this tree till I die. Perhaps this is the tree calling for my ashes... hahaha...

Leaving next week for China

Got my tickets and Chinese visa, and I am ready to go! Well, not really ready, but ready or not, I am leaving for China on the following Monday.

Agenda:
25th to 30th: Guang Zhou, visiting friends, family and attend the biggest tea expo in the world.
31th to open date: Chao Zhou
After work is done in Chao Zhou, visit Hang Zhou, Tai Yuan, Shang Hai, Yang Zhou, Su Zhou, if time allows, Ning Bo, Wu Xi, Qian Tang, Zhao Qing.

Business will continue as usual, Tea Habitat store is open regular hours during my absence. Web order will be shipped regularly except fragile tea ware items. I'll follow up each order while I am in China. You will have your teas. :D

New arrivals - more Phoenix Dan Cong oolong teas

Lao Cong Jin Si Xian - Old Bush Golden Silk Thread
Cheng Hua Xiang - Mandarin Orange Flower Fragrance
Au Fu Hou Huang Zhi Xiang - Orange Flower Fragrance
Wu Ye - Dark Leaf
Lao Cong Quin Ti - Old Bush Osmanthus Fragrance
Ye Lai Xiang - Night Jasmine Fragrance
Bo Zai Ye
Yang Mei Ye - YangMei Leaf (Taste like plum wine)

菊枕梦

深宵夜探陆游梦
沈园肠断钗头凤
宋人痴心泪犹垂
哀叹今人情意轻
何日圆我菊枕梦
莫待红粉变飞灰

Thought of a man 9 hundred years old... his love, poems, eternal romance....

Lu You is one of the greatest poets in Chinese history, born during the end of Northern Song dynasty, having lived through the down fall of one dynasty and the weak new formed Southern Song, his patriotism for the Song, his ups and downs in his political career, his heart beak were inspirations. Essenes of his love life, his view of current political climate, his despairing hopes for China's unity, expressed through poems. He wrote more than 10 thousand poems, more than 9 thousand of which are preserved today.

At age of 20, he married his cousin Tang Yuan, the 2 were greatly in love with shared poetic ideas. Females were seldom educated in those days. Lu You wrote a poem about them collecting yellow chrysanthemum flowers to make a pair of pillows, expressing his love for his wife and the happiness they shared (This poem was not recorded). Later Lu's mother demanded him divorcing Tang Yuan (later found that she wasn't able to have children). The 2 were heart broken and helpless. Both of them were remarried under pressure.

10 years later, Lu You accidentally ran into Tang Yuan and her current husband in the Shen's garden (Shao Qing, Zhe Jiang Province). Lu wrote a poem on the garden wall (littering :P ) expressing his anger, helplessness, and sadden lasting love for her. Tang Yuan later wrote an other poem pairing with her sorrows, and died soon after. The combined poem is the famous Chai Tou Feng - Phoenix on a Hair Pin.

Lu You spend the next 40 years fighting the Mongols and was dispatched in various provinces and cities during his political career. At age of 63, he saw some one making a chrysanthemum pillow, his broken heart struck him once again, and wrote a poem about his memories of young loving marriage with Tang Yuan. In this poem, can we only know about the existence of his previous chrysanthemum pillow poem written at age 20.

At age of 67, Lu You revisited the Shen's garden, Chai Tou Feng was a spear stabbing his bleeding heart again. An other poem was written in Tang Yuan's memory.

He moved close to Shen's garden at age of 75, every time he's in town, he'd look into the garden from a hill top afar in silence. He wrote one last poem for Tang Yuan a year before he died.

What does it take to receive such life long immense love from a man....

Fall with a day dream

Fall is a dreamy season in its own style, a little sad, a little lost, a bit anxious. Golden leaves drift in between wind, red leaves dance in autumn sun. I thought of driving up north aiming Montreal on a New Jersey turn pike, diving into an oil painting of fall forest in high speed, days when I was young(er) with impulsive excitement. California has more ever green vegetation, palm trees lost its lush green in fall, leaving a sight of dull green and layered with heavy smog on top sliding off the dried edges. A shower would be heavenly, but a luxury in LA.

A friend invited me for a day of tea on a rainy day a couple of week ago. It was too early for rain in LA, but much welcomed. I didn't go to tea, rather enjoyed a day of rain and tea at my store, tranquility, quiet music, warm fire an arm away, a cup of flower warmed my fingers. My mind had crossed the ocean, rain drops smelled as soil of Phoenix Mountain, spring water swam through my bare toes tickling my senses, wild flowers immersed in water fall of rain shower in the forest, tender, vibrant and proud as a child.

I have longed to smell the soil of Phoenix mountain again, each time I sip a cup of Dan Cong, the more I needed to be near. Once I am there, my will may be captured and surrendered, I may no longer wish to return. Every time I walk at the edge of Pacific ocean, looking far into the other edge, there lays the culture of my blood, soil that once nurtured my bones and flesh, soil that nurtures tea trees that nurtures my soul today. My feet are standing on soil of LA, my spirit is already in Chao Zhou. Wish I could make an impulse decision as I was young(er), pack up and go as wish. Impulse or not, the excitement is still within, going to China next month is the plan. One might wonder why Winter instead of Spring. This trip is a personal trip, business on the side. The purpose is not to watch how teas are made. I am there to cultivate my root and connection. Also, my battery is running low, hence recharging is necessary. I need to soak up the rains on Phoenix mountain, I need to wander the ancient streets of Hang Zhou city, submerge in the romance and pain of ancient poets. Not one person in time could be exempted from pain, and every one in any time are included in seeking happiness. Pain is a magnifier of happiness, a guide to our eternal longing for happiness. Indulge it and be happy!

Perfume

This is an off topic yet closely connected to tea, especially to Dan Cong teas for its renown fragrances.

Thi the writer of the LA Times article about my tea shop and Dan Cong teas is extremely well versed in many subjects. So naturally his friends are similar contributing even wider versed interests. I had the honer and privilege to become part of his group, expanding rapidly in my own horizon and every one else's in the group.

The US is an allergy swamp! I never heard of the term allergy during my childhood years in China. We had regular seasonal rains in the south, defined seasons, a lot less pollution than today. I was happy as a bug on a bamboo tree after a Spring shower. Soon after we moved to the states, 2 years was all that it took for my allergy to develop in full swing, the serious kind that crippled my social ability for many years. Living with such sensitivity, I avoid scent, wash my hands every 30 minutes, would not touch my own skin after 5 minutes of washing them or after touching anything else. A few perfumes I had purchased out of curiosity and impulse shopping, a few were gifts, most of them are still in the bottles aging like brandies with sealed packages. Mint condition antiques you can refer to one day. I hate strong scents worn by others, they put me out like chloroform I swear. Strong perfume and tea don't mix of course. So to sum it up, I did not like perfume, I did not wear perfume for over 20 years, and I refuse to date anyone showers with cologne.

SP introduced me to hundreds of her perfume collections, most of which are not over the counter perfumes. You can find them at :
http://www.cbihateperfume.com/perfume.html
Definitely not an average joe perfume collection. Those who lives in Brooklyn New York, lucky fools! CB has a gallery in Brooklyn.

It has been a few months since I first met SP and sniffed her perfumes. I did not attempt to put any on until a few weeks ago fear of my allergic natured being. Under some fine liquor influence, I tried a few on at various spots of my arms. Next day woke up with my nose next to my arm, good morning I said in a happy liquefied mood. I then sniffed both my arms in an outward reach order, it started with sweet water with an innocent love affair for 4 inches, musky smoked Russian Caravan without milk and sugar for the next 3 inches, wet stone of the north east forest extended toward my lower arm, fresh snow and fir was where I lost before a mushroomy aroma stopped me before my palm. The memories, imaginations, sensuality are all part of these scents, alarming in a gentle but profound way. ALL of these perfumes are so light and airy, one can not smell you from a distance. They can only be smelled about 1/2 inch away or less, so delicate you want to chase your nose down beneath the skin. This is the quality of some Dan Cong teas, fragrance is in the golden liquid sipping down your throat, scenting your entire breathing system, tracing all the way deep into your lungs.

These scents combined with my own scent and had modified itself from what they were in the bottle. Upon reading more about CB I hate Perfume's website, my mind was blown away, a part of life I blocked off due to my health condition. During many tea drinking sessions with Thi, SP and his (mine too now) friends, I kept mentioning if there was a natural perfume smells exactly like any of my Dan Cong teas, I'd wear them everyday! How sensual and divine that might be! I might be able to market that in Chao Zhou. :P

I'll get a ginger flower scent for Christmas! It's a present for myself... I'm currently in love with the water #5 accord - gift from SP, it works very nice with my skin and chemistry. Accord means single scent. Go get lost in these scents! Male, female, natural, floral, dirt, smoke, leather, dried leaves and mushrooms, scents of the 60's and 70's, the possibilities are endless, and they smell very nice despite the names. Let there illusive scents illuminate your senses!

Most human have expression complication, some are introverted, some are verbal, some through music, writing, etc. Scent is another catalyst to open one's mind, imagination, express in ways one finds comfort. Tea has been a great catalyst for many as a social medium, chit chatting amongst friends, even strangers through a cup of tea. Some teas are more expressive than others. I found my expressive tea, Dan Cong. Perfumes from CB are the new addition, opening channels I intentionally shut off. It makes me feel whole, or more whole than previous.