Archive for January, 2010
Spirituality of TEA
January 24, 2010 has really been a remarkable day for me that’s why I have to share this with you.
My association with tea is always material because it is my bread and butter. Marketing, writing, promotions and trying to prove myself seemed so small from what Tea gave me this day. I received two great ‘Darshans’.
Yes, Jason you are right on ‘Spirituality of TEA’. Tea brings you closer to Grace.
Mr.Nielsson, an elderly man, a retired professor of Chemistry from Copenhagen visited our Shangrila tea room, in Goa. He has been drinking and enjoying tea for more than 50 years.
While we were brewing and tasting he became ‘very very’ emotional about a particular variety. The Margarets Hope Muscatel variety. He revealed that he had tasted such quality after a long time and his emotions really touched our soul.
This was just another sale for me but later when I put myself on his boots I found out how important this experience was for him. Mr.Nielsson had blessed us which we realized only after he left.
I have slurped tea since I was quite young to actually enjoy drinking it. But now I like it because I enjoy it more.
I am still making a career with tea while also indulging in producing and tasting teas, learning the fundamentals and later the components of each tea that I get a chance to work with. This has really helped me build up experience and expand my knowledge, both that I lacked earlier. I am saying this because a White Tea review requires a certain degree of expertise and a tuned palate to really appreciate it.
I have heard good tasters from good tea brokerage houses from our tea growing world label white teas as ‘pale’ or ‘plain’, technically. Generally, I agree with them because tasting 150-200 set of cups in a hour or more and archiving records after the job makes their palate go bizarre. But when they represent a J-Thomas or a Carritt Moran, we’ve got to take their word for it.
The moments that make me garner my strength to learn more about this variety of tea is when I hear my customers (mostly ladies to whom I try to serve with my own hands) say uhhm… after their first sip.
White teas are synonymously referred to be a Chinese variety and to categorically genderize it, if Bai Hao Yin-zhen is the King of White teas then it will be fair to proclaim this Phoobsering Darjeeling Silver Needles to be the Queen.
When white teas were in a mere conceptual stage in Darjeeling, I was probably a trainee then in a remote plantation. I admit that the coming of White teas in Darjeeling is fairly recent, but as anticipated, it came up with a unique character of its own.
Most Darjeeling White teas are: air dried, for few hours with cold and then gradually with warmer and hot air. Minimal alteration of the process and choosing the right material is the secret and the reason that elevates it to the grade of a herb more than a tea to the health conscious. See my ezine publication for health benefits of Darjeeling White Tea.
