Drinking great teas in anyway

Drinking good tea in anyway, even the least attentive way is better than drinking mediocre teas in the best way!  Great tea and clean good water in anyway will guarantee a better cup than lesser quality tea made in the best tea ware in the most desirable environment.

At my early tea years, I felt the best teas deserve time, attention and care in order to maximize the value of the tea, as we all know great teas is worth gold.  So the old belief was we can drink less quality teas when I am busy or outside of my tea domain where everything is there, by less, it is never the bad teas, just less than great, mediocre/good teas with a price to justify.

Frequent travel with a bottle of over steeped teas, I noticed my body automatically dismissed the idea of drinking less than great teas, because there are essences in the great teas are usually lacking in lesser quality teas.  The result of such absence led to unsatisfactory due to lack of energy, and this is pure physical sensation, tastes buds are not satisfied, my body was not effect the way it prefers, warm, soothing, nurtured, and calm.

This comes to the bottom line of the purpose of tea drinking, anything you put in your body, is for the benefit of your health, for your own well being.  When it is working and working well for your body and YOURS in particular, the body sensation takes over your brain, it is not just the taste of the tea or where it comes from or how it's made, and how much it's worth.  It's what you are putting in your body, more nutrients and energy at any time is better than less in the best presentation. 

Wiki Yixing Teapot

I use Wikipedia quite often, it's a quick and easy way to get a glimpse of a new subject. And I believe in the contents, blindly, until I got to the Yixing clay teapot page.

Quoting from   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yixing_clay_teapot:

Use with tea

Five Yixing clay teapots, in styles from formal to whimsical.

Yixing teapots are meant for use with black and oolong teas, as well as aged pǔ’ěr tea. They can also be used for green or white tea, but the water must be allowed to cool to around 85 °C (185 °F) before pouring the water into the pot. Yixing teapots absorb a tiny amount of tea into the pot during brewing. After prolonged use, the pot will develop a coating that retains the flavour and colour of the tea. It is for this reason that soap should not be used to clean Yixing teapots. Instead, it should be rinsed with fresh water and allowed to air-dry. A studious tea connoisseur will only steep one type of tea in a particular pot, so as not to corrupt the flavour that has been absorbed.
Yixing teapots are smaller than their western counterparts as the tea is often brewed for only a few seconds before it is served to guests.^{[citation needed]} Reusing the same tea leaves multiple times, the first brew of the tea leaf is usually used only to clean tea, teapot, and cups and is not to be consumed. Chinese people traditionally drink from cups that hold less than 30 ml of liquid and are simply repeatedly filled so that they may cool rapidly but can be ingested before the tea becomes cold.


I find it insufficient and misleading in more ways than it led on.  While other aspects are all debatable and mostly personal preferences.  One thing most tea drinkers find it fascinating but so wrong for one's health is the concept of a yixing teapot captures the flavor and color as a coating, so far as it can make tea without using any tea leaves.  It became a game to build such coasting, while it is acceptable to coat the outside, but the inside?  Well, the BIG question is, will you drink it????

It's nothing more than poor hygiene.   We first need to know what that layer is.  Clay teapot are porous, higher temperature fired, less porous, lower temperature fired, more porous.  Clay is a combination of many varieties of minerals!  The pore is where it traps tea and react CHEMICALLY with the elements in tea, later oxidize in dry condition, which means there are tiny residues film the wall and tugged inside the pores in the teapot.  Year after year, it adds up, we call them tea stains, so by adding water alone, it will stain the water.  The visual effect might become an indication of a time investing hobby, but again, is it something you want to put in your body??? 

Things happen, like a film of tea stains over the years, you are the one to determin is it good for your health!

Chaozhou clay teapots are back in stock at Tea Habitat

Pots pots pots

Chao Zhou Clay Teapots are back in stock!

Less than 20 pots 

Get them before we run out again

Travel with tea in style! 

This delux kungfu tea travel kit comes with one teapot, two tea cups, one tea boat, one cotton towel, one bamboo clip,  two padded carry cases stacked into one stylish pack.

There are two styles of tea pots to choose from

 

Free Single Old Tree Dan Cong Tea up to $90 value

For a limited time, we are giving away free teas. 

2017 Yin Hua Xiang - Honeysuckle Flower Fragrance Single old tree Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong Tea ($90 value, only a few ounces left)
Free with purchase of $200+, one ounce per order.

2017 Mi Lan Xiang - Honey Orchid Fragrance Single old tree Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong Tea ($42 value)
Free with purchase of $100+, one ounce per order.

Discount valid while supplies last.  

Fire and water

Xu Ci Xu, Ming dynasty scholar, author of the book Cha Shu – Tea Sort.

One section is dedicated to boiling water.  Literal translation:

Best choice is hard wood charcoal.  Charcoal may not be fully carbonized, smoke may be present when burning, odorizes the water, hence water is not good.  Let the charcoal burn to amber, rid of smoke, the heat is at prime, water is fast to boil. When the charcoal is amber, put on the kettle, fan with fury, the faster the better, do not stop. If stop, discard and start a new pot.

Tea is nourished by water, water is placed by kettle, boiling water is succeed by fire, 4 essential elements in tea making, one falls short will fail all.

I can see why I speak broken English now! :D

The old Chinese text are precisely concised, but incredibly poetic and expressive, however direct translating to English is a whole different presentation, not quite as eloquent as it sounds in Chinese.

So what it means is that use hardwood charcoal, because the density of the wood, it burns longer and the heat is higher in temperature. But most charcoal still contains organic materials residues other than carbon, smoke will be released at burning initially. Allow the charcoal burn to red amber, until smokeless, at this point, the heat is at prime, it can bring the water to boil fast. Only put the kettle on the fire when the charcoal is amber with flame, continue to fan the stove, faster the better and do not stop until the water boils. If fanning is interrupted, the water is no longer good enough, start a new pot. Momentum! Momentum! Use full force whole heartily! Use up the water one boiled kettle at a time, also do not reboil cooled off water. This is why Chaozhou Sha Diao are made to contain only a couple brews worth of water volume. One reason why I didn't like water boiled from large kettles, tea made from it taste sluggish and muted, in other words, lack of livelhood, lack of vital energy.

There is tea drinking, there is serious tea drinking, and there is optimal tea drinking. The best possible way to make an ideal cup of tea has been documented centuries ago. We may have all the elements, however we must know how to operate them to get the best results.

The serious tea drinkers may know the tangibles such as tea selections and tea wares, but it is the intangibles we must learn from experience, either from our own practice, perceive with our own body, our own senses and mind, or learn and digest from others. It may take a long time to reach the optimal, but it's an understand and sensation one can not forgo once the practice becomes apparent and with ease.

Laying out all the elements, the materials and the operating method, the picture clearly puts everything into track, once again law of nature, the fundamental of universe, transformation of energy! In this case, maximizing the energy and its effects between earth/metal, water, wood, fire and human!

Small Yixing Clay Pots for sale

http://www.teahabitat.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_5&products_id=486

http://www.teahabitat.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_5&products_id=485

http://www.teahabitat.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_5&products_id=497

Find more teas pots on http://www.teahabitat.com/store/
This new batch of small teapots are excellent in clay quality, some of the best tea enhancing teapots we have had.  Thanks to our pot maker in Yixing Ding Shu, and our reliable shipper in Hong Kong!

Water and its relation to tea.

Water being the most essential part of tea brewing next to good tea.   In my opinion, the role of water is more important than the tea leaves itself in tea brewing.

Water is important because it directly influences the outcome of a cup of tea, it can enhance a tea and it can destroy a tea.  Tea leaves are given, whether good or bad, they don't change until the water hits them.  Ordinary tea drinking under subconsciousness does not center around maximizing the potential of a tea leaf, as everyday life goes on, we are more focused on other activities and less on more important things such as what we put in our body.  We the tea maker/drinker have the choice and control, although the tea leaves do not.

All the years, I have encountered many different sources of water, Chinese old text documents about water properties, various regional tea wares that are capable of enhancing water flavor.  My own experiences came to a statistic summary after my final once missing piece of tea ware is now no longer missing.

The first type of water, available conveniently without alteration.  Tap water, spring water from natural resources, filter water, human-engineered/formulated water.

The second type of water is enhanced water with purifier and minerals etc.   Additional water treatments being done on available water, charcoal added to further purify water, minerals added for flavor.  Imitating the nature, aquifer underground spring water went through the crust of the earth, sandstones, gravel, coal, etc. that purifies the surface water.

The third type of water is altered by tea kettle materials.  The kettle material alters water contents hence changes the taste of water.  Stainless steel, raw iron, silver, plastic, various regional clay, porcelain, glass kettles, used on various heating sources, gas burner, electric burner, wood/charcoal burner.

The available sources are wide and abundant, the combination of the water, kettle and heating source furthers the selection.   The relationship between a tea leaf and water is amazingly homogeneous to human relationships.

Tradition share one thing for certain is the concept of such tradition has been tested and proven to be effective as better if not best options.  Chao Zhou Gong Fu Tea is the most comprehensive when it comes to tea, with a simple principle in mind, maximizing the potential of tea, any grade, any time, anywhere, any how.  Consider all parts and elements in Chao Zhou Gong Fu Tea making, live fire, local clay, size of the kettle and its relation to the stove and boiling time, type of charcoal for vitality and aroma of water, not only scientific but naturally expressed in an understated extravagance.

Silver kettle is popular in British tea service, in fact, anything related to food and beverage, and then some.   A sign of status for its value.  However, silver has not been a popular dinning ware choice in Chinese culture, including tea wares, alcohol wares.   One thing I learn from history is that you can always find answers to why something exists and some don't.  And if you can't figure out why, like why swimming pools do not exist in Chinese homes before modern day, just follow it, do as so, you can't go wrong.  Take silverware for example, after a few days of testing many teas with silver water, the overwhelming result leads me to conclude, it is in fact not the best choice for tea in general.  It is extremely unforgiving to the point of brutality.  It can empower a good tea by 10 folds, it can also destroy a salvageable tea, one flaw can be blown up 10 times harsher.   As some old wise man said, utilize the best function from a matter, utilize the best skill from a man.  It does not mean that matter or man is the best of its kind, even the lowest ranking of such matter can reach its own best.  All meaning the same fundamental principle, maximizing the potential of a being!  Obviously, silver kettle does not serve that purpose well.  A silver teapot serves a purpose only if the tea is excellent, one can enjoy 10 times the pleasure, but not necessary to magnify the discomfort 10 folds.

Let's get back to Chao Zhou Gong Fu Cha, silver kettle is not a constant choice become apparent, it has nothing to do with the cost, Chao Zhou business men are the Jews of China, the area is filled with money for a long time.  The only reason is that the local red clay pots boiled water can enhance most teas, not only a few privileged selections.  Majority of the tea productions in the world are bad to good teas, rarely excellent teas.   All of which deserved to be reached its best potentials with good water and skills.

In recent days, I begin to advise people to read classic books of Chinese philosophy, medicine, Daoism, they concluded the universal truth of human, earth and beyond.  Tea being a small part of nature, viewing from bird's eye view so to speak, it becomes obvious in all aspects of its existence, history, mutation, migration, cultivation, changes with human touch, in relation with time, climate, seasons, man, water, earth and its impact in human at last.

Philosophy of tea

A constant friend from my close tea friend group, as his wife puts it "the Imen's tea family", came to me after the Pasadena Tea Festival event was over, said something heartfelt to me.

Tea operation is about business, selling a product.  So is my goal, everyone has a family to feed even if a family of one.  But as we grow with the business, the knowledge of the product contents separates the business itself from personal growth.  Knowing all the paper worthy info about a bunch of teas, region, geology, season, cultivation, processing, maker, grades, etc is fundamental.  All of which are hard facts, researchable.

With the convenience of being in the industry, a tea operator usually have more access to other related information which can further enhance tea enjoyment at a social setting or personal level.  The extensiveness of such understand and living in part in a broader horizon sets one from the pure professional operation.

The only way to do something well is when one is doing it for oneself, from within, not an outward show-off.   Like the essence of a tea leaf, quietly unleashing the richness only when we need it.  The richer the essence, the shinier it will be, physical being cannot conceal the wealth of such substance.
Tea has long been a philosophical subject in Chinese culture, it's beyond Zen, it's beyond tea ceramony, beyond any form of ritual.   It's a way of living, which is the most fundamental of human philosophy.  It is the law of nature, a universal Daoism.   The interaction between men and a leaf is a very basic exchange of energy, creation and consumtion in industrial terms.  Taken away the desire of ownership, the end result of any relationship between human, or plant, animal, water, verbal or physical contact are all universally nothing more than exchange of energy, good and bad energy,  whether consciously or subconsciously aware of such exchange.   Conscious awareness can magnify and intensify the experience,  be it positive or negative experience.  It takes conscious awareness to choose what is good for you, the right diet, the right tea, the right partner.  The sensation should come within, processed within, even inspirations comes externally.