Author Archives: artandtea

Saturday Morning Tea

This is a perfect tea for a gray, drizzly day like today. Or, for that matter, an icy winter day. In my cup this morning is a garden bouquet – a white tea that has been delicately scented with jasmine blossoms. It is called Jasmine Silver Needles.

I have read that it is customary to serve jasmine tea to guests to welcome them to your home. What a lovely way to welcome someone.

The tea buds are plucked in early spring and processed as white tea. The buds remind me of little pea pods. Once the jasmine plants get ready to bloom, the flower buds are plucked in the early morning and kept cool all day. As early evening approaches, the flower buds are mixed with the tea buds. As the night blooming jasmine flowers open, the tea buds absorb their scent. This process is repeated every day over the course of a week. So, a lot of work goes into creating this beautiful, unique tea.

I steeped the tea for 3 minutes in 180 degree F water. Another name for this tea could be Jasmine Silver Swords. What do you think?

A candy sweet, floral aroma greeted me the moment I lifted the lid of my glass teapot. The pale, straw-colored liquor is quite sweet and softly floral, allowing the mellow whisper of white tea to come forward as well.

As I sat quietly and sipped my tea, I thought about how many times we can get lost in our thoughts and, at those times, we aren’t really fully inhabiting our bodies. You know that spacey, kind of out of it feeling you can get? Yup, you’re not fully in your body. You’re off somewhere else, in the inner space of thought energy.

There are many ways, exercise being one of them, that can bring us back into our bodies and away from the hamster wheel of thoughts running through our minds. Sipping and appreciating a delicious cup of tea is another way. What do you do to bring yourself back into your body? I meditate and do yoga and have even been learning T’ai Chi again. And, of course, I drink tea!

Have a great week, dear tea friends!

“And the day came when the risk [it took] to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” 

~Anais Nin

A Lizard Tail Goddess

First of all, I’d like to extend a big thank you to Julie Picarello for all of her inspiration in creating this necklace. And her inspiration continues with the arrival of her eagerly anticipated book in my mailbox this week. More about that later…

A little over a year ago, I was excited and honored to attend a weekend workshop with Julie, one of my polymer clay/color heroes. The first word that comes to my mind whenever I look at her work is…..yummy. Her use of color, design and texture all flow together in such an amazingly vibrant way. As part of her workshop, we made these nifty little polyclay pieces that Julie calls “lizard tails”. As much as I love Julie’s work, I didn’t want to duplicate her jewelry pieces but put my own artistic voice into my piece. So, being true to my style, my “lizard tail” became the body of a bead embroidered Goddess.

Many moons ago before I started creating jewelry and beadwork, I loved to embroider. I remember my Hungarian grandmother teaching me how to carefully lay stitches down on a tablecloth when I was very young even before I started going to school.  I continued embroidering on into my teen years, creating colorful designs on t-shirts, denim shirts and pairs of denim jeans so ripped up that I transformed them into purses. Ah, happy memories! I loved taking an everyday object and embellish it with colorful stitches. Years later when I discovered that I could sew with my beloved beads, well, oh my, I was in heaven.

This beautifully serene, bone face cabochon was purchased years ago at a bead show in Providence and has sat patiently in my studio stash waiting to be included in its own unique piece of jewelry. I beaded the face and body separately on Lacy’s Stiff Stuff and then sewed them together before adding a final beaded edge to the whole pendant. I thought about adding some fringe or a bead drop but decided finally to just keep this piece as simple as possible with no embellishment.

The choker is beaded in my favorite beading weave, herringbone stitch, with tiny size 15 beads. In seed beads as with wire gauge, the larger the number, the smaller the bead (or wire). I then beaded small gold caps to finish the choker ends and added a gold-filled filigree box clasp. Despite its long pendant, this necklace is so lightweight and such a pleasure to wear. It is backed with soft Ultrasuede.

I thought it wonderfully synchronistic that I finished this piece the same week that I received my copy of Julie’s new book, “Patterns in Polymer: Imprint and Accent Bead Techniques“. If you’ve never had the opportunity to take a workshop with Julie, this is the next best thing and is filled with eye candy inspiration and instruction on creating your own unique mokume gane pieces.

Next up on my beading table is another component made in Julie’s workshop, my “lazy river” pendant. Stay tuned, dear friends…

Saturday Morning Tea

Remember my post several weeks ago where I revealed that I once didn’t like green tea? Well, there’s another tea that took me awhile to, shall we say, appreciate for its unique quality. A China tea which is processed in a way very different from all other teas. Can you guess what it is?

If you guessed China Pu-erh tea then you are absolutely correct. So, in keeping with my goal of being open to all of the different kinds of teas, this morning I introduce to you China Organic 1st Grade Pu-erh tea.

Because of fermentation during its processing, this is the darkest tea I know. To look at it in my tea bowl, one would almost think that I’m having a cup of coffee instead of tea, it’s that dark. You can read more about this type of tea and its processing here and here.

I steeped the dark brown leaves for 8 minutes in boiling point  (212F) water. The tea liquor got so darkly translucent that I could hardly see the leaves as they steeped.

I’m wondering if any coffee drinkers enjoy Pu-erh tea even though the only thing they really have in common is their dark color. The aroma and flavor are worlds apart. Are you a coffee drinker who enjoys Pu-erh?

The aroma is sweet and reminds me of an autumn walk in the forest and the smell of newly fallen leaves. Very earthy.

The tea liquor is incredibly sweet, like the intense sugars of dried fruit, and silky smooth. There is a Keemun-like burgundy/smoky note but it takes a supporting role to the predominant earthy flavor. This is a tea that you need to approach with absolutely no expectations, set those aside, or comparisons to your other experiences with tea. You may find, as I have, that this is a tea that draws you in with its sweet, dark nature and you want to experience and discover more.

“All you need is deep within you waiting to unfold and reveal itself.  All you have to do is be still and take time to seek for what is within, and you will surely find it.”  ~Eileen Caddy

Saturday Morning Tea

In one week, we’ve made what feels like a light speed jump from cool and rainy to hot and hazy. From one season to the next just in time for the outdoor holiday activities planned for this weekend.

Today we travel to the Wah tea garden which is located in the Kangra Valley near Dharamshala in northern India. I am enjoying their first flush tea in my cup this morning.

Similar to a first flush Darjeeling tea, this tea’s leaf is quite green, the first plucking of the spring.

The Wah tea estate was established in the late 1850s, where some of the first China tea bushes were planted in India. To this day, this tea growing region grows only China cultivars. You can read more about the history of Wah and that region here.

I steeped the leaf for 3 minutes in boiling point (212F) water. The wet leaf has a distinct aroma of fresh greens.

The luminescent amber liquor gives off a hint of lemon along with an inviting toasty note. The toastiness follows into the flavor along with a refreshing pungency which cleanses my palate with every sip. For those of you enjoying a sweeter tea, the addition of a sweetener would soften the astringency.

While I did not find the depth of flavor notes that most first flush Darjeelings have, this tea has a very pleasant flavor that makes me want to go brew up a second pot and explore it further.

As I lazily sit and sip my tea, I start a wonderfully relaxing 3-day weekend filled with family, friends and, of course, my garden.

Happy Memorial Day, dear friends!

“Oh, the fun of arriving at a house and feeling the spark that tells you that you are going to have a good time.”  ~Mark Hampton

Saturday Morning Tea

It’s been raining here all week in New England, in fact, the whole northeastern part of the country has been wet. We seem to be stuck in one of those circular weather patterns that just keeps spinning round and round. Much like life when we can get stuck in a certain belief or thought pattern and it keeps going round and round in our mind.

Ah, you wonder….now what the heck does that have to do with a cup of tea? Well, as with anything else in life, we can also develop certain opinions about different types of tea even if we haven’t fully tried them. I’m guilty of this myself.

When I started working for my company back in the mid 90s, I didn’t like green tea at all. Yup, that’s right. I didn’t like green tea. I thought it had a “funny” taste, one I wasn’t used to, one that didn’t match with what I thought of as the beverage “tea”. As with a lot of Americans, I had grown up with just black tea and then pretty much only had a cup when I wasn’t feeling good. And yes, there was a string and a tag sticking out of my cup.

All that changed when I started working at a tea company that has the philosophy of providing the finest loose leaf teas to its customers. I slowly learned to appreciate all of the different types of tea for what they were and yes, I finally opened my mind and my heart to green tea. I learned to stop comparing its flavor to black tea and love it all on its own. I invite you to do the same.

This morning I introduce you to a green tea from China called Green Mao Feng Imperial. “Mao Feng” translates to “Fur Peak” or “Hairy Mountain”, referring to the downy white hairs on the leaf when it is plucked and also to the location where it is grown and harvested. During its processing, the full leaf is rolled into long, thin strands, characteristic of this style of tea.

And just look at the gorgeous intact plucking of this tea. Wow! I find it amazing how the leaves can stay together like that despite all of the rolling around during their processing. I would guess that this leaf has been entirely hand processed.

The tea liquor is a pale straw color with a slight tinge of green. The aroma is sweet and floral which carries on into its flavor.

More sweetness bloomed as the tea cooled, making this an excellent choice to explore as an iced tea. This tea is only slightly vegetal.

As you can see from the reflection in my teabowl, the clouds are finally parting to reveal patches of blue sky. That makes this gardener very happy.

Have a wonderful weekend, dear tea friends!

“Today a new sun rises for me; everything lives, everything is animated, everything seems to speak to me of  my passion, everything invites me to cherish it.”  ~Anne De Lenclos

Unless otherwise noted, all text and photos are the property of Karen Park Art and Tea, copyright 2007-2011. Please do not “lift” any of my photographs or blog posts for use on your blog or website. Thank you so much for your respect and kind attention.