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Tea and mediation

• Friday, 6 April 2018
• Written by En Jie Rudd
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I grew up in China with tea being a food and a way of life. There is even a term for it: 口粮茶 – staple tea.

I have however often wondered as why tea is associated with meditation and other spiritual practices, in the past and today, China and abroad. After some reading recently, the connection is clear.

Tea and Buddhist diet

Buddhism was first introduced to China during the Han Dynasty and meditation was part of the core practice. Buddhist monks mediated for long periods day and night. Their diet was constituted of vegetarian and none-alcoholic ingredients. Tea was considered to be an essential for the purpose of enhancing the alertness during the meditation, health and well being and even long longevity by many Buddhist monks.

High mountain green teas

After the Buddhism was first introduced to China, the religion was flourishing and many temples were built on remote high mountains as a way of 'entering' an elevated spiritual space. The monks would immediately clear the land around the temples and start cultivating to generate the means for survival in such remote places. Tea was one of the essentials.

For example:

Lu Shan (Mt Lu) of the Jiang-Xi Province was once a major Buddhist centre. The famous Chinese green tea Lu Shan Yun Wu (Mt Lu misty green) is believed to be a speciality of a temple in Mt Lu, where the famous Buddhist monk Hui-Yuan lived for 30 years.

Tea’s other connections to Buddhism and Buddhist activities

1. The most known tea legend Lu Yu was raised in a temple as an orphan since he was 3 years old
2. The green tea seeds were first brought to Japan in 805 AD by a Japanese monk Zui-Cheng upon his return from a visit to the Chinese tramples. This marked the beginning of the Japanese green teas. 

Tea is truly a fascinating product. Its historical significance is far beyond a merely daily beverage.

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A cup of black tea for morning kick start

• Tuesday, 29 August 2017
• Written by En Jie Rudd
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Coffee consumption has been such a phenomenon in the world that many are now depending on it for a morning ‘kick start’ of the day.

For health concerns, some are now trying to switch to a cup of black tea. Questions like ‘I am looking for a good strong black tea to replace my morning coffee’ have been asked repeatedly.

I was a morning coffee drinker like the rest of population until one day not long ago I discovered not only I was not getting the expected ‘kick start’ effect due to long term consumption and desensitisation, I actually acquired a secondary condition called ‘coffee headache’ when I missed a ‘dose’. (I dropped the cup and joined some friends for a bush walk one day and had a throbbing headache all day as there was not coffee available in the bush.)

I decided to give up coffee completely and started drinking black tea in the morning. The black I have enjoyed most for the purpose is the Organic Souchong. It has a full body flavour, fragrant and yet gentle on stomach.

Many of our customers have tried out other black teas. In summary, it is quite possible to replace your morning coffee with a strong cup of black tea. 

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More than a cup of tea

• Sunday, 28 May 2017
• Written by En Jie Rudd
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I have recently read an article about a tea house, a quiet and unique tea house that does not even have a signage, neatly tucked away in a leafy street somewhere among the thousands of Starbucks cafes sprouting up around it. The small tea house under the three aged purple vines is however where the local artists, writers and philosophers gather - their spiritual oasis.

Here is what is says:

With a sip of GOOD tea, eyes shut and soul cleaned;
Have a dialogue with the forest where the tea grew, and the workers who harvested the tea;
Time seems to be remote, same as the buzzy world around;
Leave the ups and downs of life aside and simply enjoy the world of a pot of tea.

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Chinese Pu-erh tea

• Tuesday, 18 August 2015
• Written by En Jie Rudd
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I have ordered some premium loose pu-erh tea for the family recently. My young child has got right into an aged raw pu-erh, describing it as ‘not green, not black, but the perfect balance of the refreshness of the un-fermented tea and smooth texture of fermented tea’. Three kilogram of the loose teas is taking up a box of the storage space, which fortunately is available at our residence. 

A flash of thought came into my mind: it would be only seven cakes if this was cakes. A further reflection of the advantages and disadvantages of pu-erh teas being in their traditional ‘cake’ form came up with following summary. 

Advantages of the cakes: 

1. Less storage space
2. easier to transport
3. less likely to be damage (crushed as loose leaves) 
4. facilitating the post-fermentation

Disadvantage of the cakes:

1. needs to be breakup

Four to one, the Chinese have got it again. 

From many years of tea drinking and trading, I have noticed over and over again that there are little but practically meaningful aspects like these that the Chinese have fine-tuned over their long history of tea consumption, from planting the tea bushes/trees right to the end of making a perfect cup of tea. Call it perfection or obsession, this is how the tea masters were born, a nation full of them.  

 

 

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Is traditional tea due for a makeover like an old phone?

• Monday, 26 November 2012
• Written by En Jie Rudd
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Some products need to be updated periodically and the others the originals are still the best. What is happening to tea after being consumed by human kind for more than 2000 years?

Tea was invented more than 2000 years ago and has stood the test of time for more reasons than one. It has also produced many ‘offspring’, mostly under the umbrella of ‘blends’ or ‘chai’ created through simple mixing but which makes them appear to be exotic and exciting. Caught in the middle is tea itself; it came from ancient times and seems to want to be left just the way it always was: it loves natural spring water, an open fire and unglazed clay tea ware. The modern synthetic products take the real glory out of it. To the younger generation of tea drinkers however, the good old cup of tea somehow belongs to their grandparents’ era. It is simply not flashy enough for their modern life styles. Yet, they are attracted to tea because of the continuing publicity in the media portraying tea as a healthy, carb free beverage which offers many health benefits.

The market somehow has managed to create various ‘creative versions’ in a short time to meet demands and these are called blends. A fancy label is usually attached under the brand of the company. Mankind consumes tea for several reasons: to relieve thirst, for taste enjoyment and more recently because it has been advocated as a beverage that offers many health benefits. There are no apparent reasons for the new ‘blends’ to offer anything additional apart from in the area of ‘taste’. As democratic as we are, we do believe that ‘everyone has a different taste’. It is only fair to allow the space for creativity and experimentation.

My personal experience so far however has led me to believe that the original is still the best. Tea is similar to wine to a large extent, the art of growing and processing is highly specialised and there is a strong culture associated with its consumption. In China, there are sub-cultures associated with individual teas, in relation to their production and consumption. For example in the green tea family alone, there are more than 300 Chinese green teas. They are produced in different areas, using different species of tea plants, cultivated under different climate and soil conditions and produced for a harmonic match with the local diet. There is one thing that the Chinese do NOT do, however, which is to blend/mix the premium teas. These teas are naturally balanced in their aroma, flavour and texture and are there to be enjoyed but not covered or converted.A good cup of tea is described as dew from heaven. Teas of low quality are handled differently; they are often turned into teabags and used in blends. Generally speaking, the low quality teas are bitter with a rough texture, they need a ‘face lift’.

Finally, traditional teas do not necessarily stay as fossils forever.  They are often regenerated and fine-tuned by the specialist tea masters for further developments. This art requires special knowledge and experience in the area of tea processing.  For example, a Chinese premium black called JinJunMei has recently been developed on the back of the traditional black tea Lapsang souchong. Its unique high class quality has been acknowledged and accepted by the tea drinking community almost immediately and it has very quickly made it to the top selling tea list in China.

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Chinese tea was discovered for enjoyment first

• Sunday, 21 August 2011
• Written by En Jie Rudd
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Chinese tea is an enjoyable beverage first, health benefits second.

The discovery of Chinese green tea

Tea was discovered by the Chinese more than 2000 years ago. It is believed that the Chinese emperor Shennong was resting under a tree while travelling, when some leaves fell from the tree above into the pot in which his servants were boiling water for him to drink. The brew turned out to be immensely refreshing and thirst-quenching and this marked the beginning of human tea consumption. Tale or not, there was one thing for sure, tea consumption did not start as a result of the health benefits reported by laboratory studies today; such as it being high in anti-oxidants and able to reduce blood cholesterol levels etc. The ancient Chinese needed a drink, and this leaf brew happened to serve the purpose. A supply met a demand and a new product was born.

The varieties of Chinese teas are a result of various drying processes

To preserve these leaves for later use, people started drying them. The various methods of drying have since produced hundreds of varieties of Chinese teas, beginning with the unfermented green teas. Chinese teas have always been categorised according to the level of fermentation during the drying process; for example green teas are not fermented; Oolong teas are semi-fermented and black teas are fully fermented. Through the modification of tea making skills, numerous tea varieties have been developed, taking many factors into account such as climate conditions, soil conditions, tea bush/plant variety and local diet etc.

Chinese tea was born to be enjoyed first, health benefits second

During the history of tea consumption in China, the Chinese have made a connection between tea drinking and better health. Part of my fond memory of my grandmother was that she always made a strong cup of tea first thing in the morning, often followed by the comment: ‘tea is good for you’, although she did not know how and why. There is no doubt that Chinese tea was born first as a drink to be enjoyed.

 

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The new comeback of green tea culture world wide

• Sunday, 21 August 2011
• Written by En Jie Rudd
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The tea culture has returned in the 21 century, not only in China but worldwide.

The recent history of Chinese tea consumption

The history of tea consumption in China is long.  Its path is, however, not at all straight. As a young child growing up in China during 60s-70s, tea and water were the main beverages available. During the 80s when I was a new university graduate, I remember China’s tradition of tea consumption was overshadowed by coffee, coke and bottled drinks with the younger generation looking to the west for inspiration and ideas of freedom and modernisation.  This was during the period that China was opening up to the west. The beverages coming from the west were considered to be ‘cool’ and tea was an old fashioned drink that was out of date. Tea’s market price was low and the main demand for it came from the ‘older’ generation. This phenomenon lasted for a couple of decades. 

Reasons for the ancient green tea’s phenomenal comeback

The tea drinking culture, however, returned with a vengeance in the late 90s, attracting a bigger numbers of enthusiasts, both in China and worldwide. One of the reasons for this rebirth is that after a couple of decades of ‘opening up’ to the west, the younger generation adjusted their views of the world and started to think: ‘hang on, there may be something that we, in China, can offer to the world instead of simply copying what the rest of world is doing’. This re-adjustment in thinking also came on the back of the younger people being more health and culture conscious than previously.  The drive in the renewed interest in tea in the developed countries came mainly from societies which had become burdened by the so called ‘life style related health conditions’ such as obesity, cancer, high cholesterol and cardiovascular diseases. Western medicine seemed to be running out of answers to these serious and growing threats. When modern scientists turned their attention to the ancient beverage green tea about 30 years ago, they discovered that not only is it calorie free, but also a preventive to all these conditions, plus many other health benefits.

Over and above green teas

Following the green teas’ overwhelming positive results, the researchers also started studying other categories of Chinese teas, including white tea, yellow tea, Oolong tea and black tea. Most of the dieticians believe that here are more overlapping than differences in their benefits. They all have high anti-oxidant contents and are beneficial to human health.

 

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