Saturday Morning Tea

Dec12

Hello dear tea friends. I hope you had a marvelous week. I had a glorious sleep in this morning. That is definitely at the top of my list of ways to get your balance back during a busy, frenetic holiday season. A lovely way to start the day, if a bit of a late start…

This morning’s tea is a wonderful aromatherapy experience. Conjuring up images of gardens and armfuls of just picked fragrant blooms, it is a green (pouchong) jasmine tea called Jasmine Mao Feng. The long tea leaves are twisted into wiry threads as they are processed as a green tea. Mao Feng means “Fur Peak” or “Hairy Mountain”, a reference to where the tea is grown and harvested. You can read more about another Mao Feng tea here.

The leaves look like a black tea when dry and then lighten up to a gorgeous olive green after steeping. I steeped the leaves for 3 minutes in 180 degree F water.

The tea liquor is the color of a golden sunset.

Once the jasmine flowers bloom, the flowers are plucked, in the case of this tea, all organic blooms. They are laid out with the dry tea leaves so the leaves will absorb the scent of the flowers. Mmmmm…

When I first opened the packet of tea, it smelled candy sweet with a strong aroma of jasmine. However, after steeping, the aroma changed in favor of the green tea’s fresh, vegetal fragrance with just a whisper of floral scent.

The flavor is sweet and lightly jasmine with an interesting pungency that causes the floral taste to linger in my mouth. A very pleasant sensation.

As I have been packing up more of my things this past week, I came across my gratitude journal. Picking up my pen every night before bed, I have returned to this practice of writing down 5 things that I am grateful for. I can’t begin to describe how this one simple act can so change your perspective and thus your day to day life. I’ve written about my gratitude journal before in this post.

See what happens when you change your focus. The above 2 photos are identical save for one thing. I changed the focus on my camera.

It changes everything.

Have a wonderful week and happy tea drinking!

“Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.”

~Henry Ward Beecher

Saturday Morning Tea

Jan17

jasminedownywhitedry0117091

Yesterday on my birthday, a colleague brought in a blooming periwinkle colored hyacinth as a gift for me. As it was the coldest day on record in years and springtime seems so very far away, it brought hope and a beautiful fragrance to my day. Thank you Rebecca! With the memory of that heavenly fragrance still permeating my being, I have chosen a white jasmine tea for my morning cuppa. It is called Jasmine Downy White Pekoe.

jasminedownywhitesteep01170

A white tea is scented with jasmine blossoms to create the ethereal beauty of this tea. Early in the springtime, tea buds are gently plucked from the tea bushes. These buds are so new that they are still covered with the white down of the just emerged growth. They are newly born. The tea buds are dried and then heated to halt the oxidation process that would turn them dark.

jasminedownywhitesteeps0117

I steeped the delicate leaf in 180 degree F water for 3 minutes.

jasminedownywhitewet011709

It is important to remember that this tea is not flavored, it is scented. Since the tea leaf is so sensitive to picking up the scents and aromas to anything that is placed by it, it is perfect for scenting with flower blossoms. Once the jasmine is blooming in the summertime, the leaves are laid out and the jasmine blossoms are laid over them. This process is repeated until the tea master is satisfied with the level of scenting. There are no dried blossoms mixed with this tea. Its fragrant jasmine aroma and flavor come directly from the scented leaf. The delicate herbaceous quality of the white tea blends perfectly with the jasmine. Truly an aromatherapy experience!

I treated myself to a big bouquet of orange carnations this week. In my healing process, I am trying to bring as much warmth into my life as possible to thaw out this frozen shoulder of mine. The beautiful salmon orange color of the flowers brings color and sunshine to my spirit.

As I focus on healing, I have been, unfortunately, away from my studio and my artwork. I yearn to feel my materials in my hands, weaving them together to express what is present in my soul. I am hoping to return to my studio soon and my Studio Wednesday posts as the pain heals and I regain more mobility. A big thank you to all of my readers for their patience as I continue to step back from my creative side just now.

Of winter’s lifeless world each tree

Now seems a perfect part;

Yet each one holds summer’s secret

Deep down within its heart.

~Charles G. Stater

Saturday Morning Tea

Mar22

Officially, today is the third day of Spring. However, when I opened my window, a frigid blast of cold air flew in. The last remnants of winter are holding on tight. It feels like the weather will never turn warmer but I know that it always does. To coax it along, I’m sending a big invitation for Spring to settle in by sipping a cup of jasmine tea. The sweet fragrance warms my heart and brings feelings and images of an overflowing armful of flowers fresh from the garden.

All beings are flowers

Blooming

In a blooming universe.

-Soen Nakagawa

The tea leaves are plucked and processed as green tea in the springtime. Then they are stored to patiently wait for the jasmine to bloom. We are like the green tea leaves waiting for the air to warm and the flowers to bloom. Just as the jasmine flowers are about to bloom in the summertime, the flowers are picked during the day. That night the flowers will open and then be laid out with the green tea leaves which have been humidified to soften them. The leaves then absorb the scent of the flowers.

When I opened the bag, the aroma of jasmine softly greeted me. I steeped the leaves for 3 minutes in 180 degree F water. The liquor is sweet with a subtle jasmine fragrance and flavor. It feels smooth and silky on my tongue.

Oh, welcome Springtime!

Saturday Morning Tea

Jan19

And precious the tear as that rain from the sky,

Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea.

-Thomas Moore

I have been thinking about pearls lately and the wonder surrounding their creation. I invite you to join me in my thoughts for a moment. What starts out to be an intrusion, an irritation, is transformed into something beautiful. In meditating on the life of a pearl, we can use it as a metaphor in our own lives. In our day to day life, challenges arise and in the process of dealing with those challenges, we are transformed as well. In honor of my “pearl” musings, this morning I have chosen a pearl jasmine tea, Dragon Phoenix Pearl, for my cup of tea.

Steeped in 180 degree F water for 3 minutes, I watched in fascination as the little spheres unfurled themselves, reminding me of hermit crabs reaching their legs out of their shells. Gorgeous full green leaves are revealed as I remove the pearls from the water.

The journey of the tea pearls. After green tea processing, the leaves are laid out with blooming jasmine flowers so they will absorb their intoxicating scent. This process is repeated and then the leaves are steamed and hand rolled into little pearls. I deeply feel that the pale straw colored liquor in my cup has been steeped from little works of art in themselves.

The tea is so pale that you can see the wonderful texture inside of my tea bowl. This is one of the bowls I purchased at the Kaji Aso studio. The aroma is delicately floral and not overly perfumey. The taste is sweet jasmine, smooth and subtle.

I have not yet laid down a single bead for my January journal page but there is a lot of inner gestating going on. Being guided by my meditations on pearls, unfurling spiral shapes and turning 50 the other day, it will be called “The Journey to Myself”.