October 22, 2004

In honor of Wolof's new daughter (sort of), a quick look at Chinese tea.

The link between the Chinese religions and tea has been well-established for a thousand years, and the same can be said for Japan as well, although they are far more formal about the whole affair. Apologies for all the links, but they're mostly fairly brief.

posted by Alnedra 19 years ago
  • ah, tea mind and yet at the moment, i'm weaning off hard core caffeine never lose perception of your altered states it's just a waste double bergamot anyone? i may have ressurected shelf space for stash in the midwest oops someone find the link for the fresh herb teas before i do could be days or months
  • ethylene, if you're trying to wean yourself off caffeine, you might want to go down the scale, from Wulong (or Oolong) tea (partially fermented), to green tea(non-fermented, only dried), and finally white tea (also non-fermented, only teabuds, not open leaves). White tea has such negligable amounts of caffeine that I've known people to drink it just before they go to bed - it seems to help them sleep better and for a few ladies, stopped those pesky middle-of-the-night bathroom trips. However, I've learnt that people who like coffee, stick to coffee; people who like tea, stick to tea. Coffee gives me stomach problems, and for friends who are coffee addicts, tea keeps them awake at night. Strange, but true.
  • Huh. For some reason, I was under the impression that green tea actually had more caffeine than black. Every day's a school day.
  • Inspired me to brew up a pot right now. Not, however, to perform any elements of the ceremony. Just a lazy American, what can I say?
  • thanks but, no, i have no problem stopping anything not a habitual anything smokers hate me just don't wanna go totally focally nonfunctional yet as i need this little edge like the little 20 min of focus from a good cig to help me manange pain right now miss my mormon tea but i finally have a wholesale holistic hook up via the amish heh
  • nedra: i do have to say, a little earl grey in normal coffee is very nice and to all double bag caffeinated tea but remove before tannic acid output milk does void some of the antiox properties but with milk yummy yummy same with steamed milk and honey "pooh's delight" a tramp told kerouac of this and standing on his head cured his phlebitis
  • sorry to go on but: green tea has more antioxidants, little caffeine i have some white/green but haven't tried it yet while milk will neutralize some things, it compensates with calcium caffeine removes and can help balm the effect of the acids and irritants honey has lots of vit e, etc. rituals of a good cuppa take up that pesky load up time on your comp looks more productive than java games when you multitask i'll shut up now
  • Oh, yes, I do enjoy an Earl Grey with milk and sugar/honey myself. When I drink tea, it's either without any additives whatsoever, or lots of milk and sugar. Earl Grey's my favourite English tea. An Englishman once told me "you'd be crazy to want any other kind of English tea!". Perhaps he was right ;)
  • Alnedra - I can drink coffee as a warm bedtime drink. What you can drink before bed is largely a question of tolerance for caffiene.
  • I wonder if it's as simple as that, rodgerd. I have friends who can take coffee just before they sleep, but two cups of tea makes them insomniacs. I can drink as much as several liters worth of tea in a day, and not have any problems, but one cup of cappucino in the evening makes me lie in bed, eyes wide open.
  • Earl Grey is my favourite, also like jasmine, chai, and lychee. Think it's time to go brew a pot ...
  • I myself go for the trusty PG Tips. Brew up a pot each morning since I gave up the bean. Tea is easier going up and coming down from the caffine buzz. Besides, my breath smells better.
  • Alnedra- have you tried Yorkshire Gold tea? I prefer that to Earl Grey. Of course, I prefer Lady Grey tea to Earl Grey, the citrus notes improve the bergamot flavor. YMMV. (currently drinking a tisane, honeybush leaves to be precise)
  • I also like Lady Grey. If you add a little honey, it smells like Froot Loops. Right now, I'm also going through a Darjeeling phase. Mmmm, tea.... It helps me get through the cold, cold winter.
  • Darjeeling is great - "the champagne of tea". I got turned on to Lapsang Souchon (sp?) in England, too. I'd been trying to figure out forever how much caffine green tea has. I love tea, but need to stop drinking it before bed, and was wondering whether green would be a good alternative (I have a fair bit around, too). I was having trouble sleeping before, but I was drinking it by the pot (6cup pot).
  • Wow, more tea people! I live around the corner from this place. It is one of the most amazing tea-houses in the USA. Their Imperial Green Oolong is tsublime. I've also recently been discovering pu-ehr pressed tea-cakes--an incredible mystery and new world in tea.
  • Mmmmmm... tea. I am rather partial to Ahmad's blends. At Christmas, though, stick a stick of cinnamon in your brewing coffee and feel that good Christmas coziness surround you.
  • oops tsublime=sublime
  • Black tea for me! Preferably with a bit of milk. No sugar, thanks. Smoky Lapsang Souchong is a superb black tea, but not to everyone's taste. It has a somewhat bacony whang to it -- O I could live on the aroma alone! Rather to my surprise I really like the tea these folk sell: especailly the Russian Country Blend, which most guests seem to like, too. Buy it in the tin cannisters, it stores well. Teabags are OK but detestable in restaurants. In the US, you are sometimes brought a teabag plus a small metal pot of (usually) tepid tapwater. Metal teapots loose heat rapidly and are utterly useless! And no, re-using a teabag is an imbecilic and chintzy idea! Bring me a second teabag and some HOT water when I finish the first cup. My hackles really go up at this. Americans seem to be under the illusion that plants other than tea plants are acceptable as tea. Well, they're NOT! Steeping mint leaves and hibiscus blossom and orange peel in luke-warm water does NOT result in a cup of tea! Yes, I fling poo at these fools! And...um... Authentic Tibetan tea is ... ethnic. The rancid yak butter gives it ... character. Drinking a cup is good for one's spiritual practice (teaches patience). Drinking a second cup is even better.
  • I can't find the reference online now, but most of the caffeine in tea is released early on in the tea-making process. So, you can mostly decaffeinate tea by pouring the boiling water over the teabag (or tea leaves), letting it brew for 30 seconds, and then pouring it out and starting afresh with new water. By the way, I'd really love to find the tea-selling equivalent of a good wine shop--a place with all sorts of different brands of tea, and knowledgable sales staff and maybe even teatastings. I live in London, and you'd think such a thing would exist here if it existed in any Western city--but I haven't found it. Any suggestions?
  • Oh, here is a reference to the 30 second decaffeination thing, along with other tips on tea appreciation.
  • Tea of the momen: Darjeeling Accoutrements: milk Turbinado Butter (and salt) in tea is excellent for cold-cold days. I haven't had yak-butter, but I suppose it would be somewhat "goaty".
  • Yaks are bovine critters. Nickdanger, thought it was, as best I now recall, more along the lines of chicken consumee that has gone a bit off but not quite reached the point of being outright sour. All the sharp, hard edges I tend to associate with black tea (broken black tea was used) were rounded off by the butter, so the overall effect was salty, almost cheesy. Once I began to regard it as soup found I got on much better with it -- just needed to reframe my expectation. (The aroma was deceitful, though, and kept insisting "I am tea".) Not a great description but the best I can manage after a hiatus of decades.
  • Monkeyfilter: I am tea.
  • the Dushanbe Tea House in Boulder, Colorada, is pretty amazing.
  • Has anyone been to the teahouse at the Japanese Gardens in San Francisco? It's one of the things I never got around to while I was there.
  • No, got too absorbed in seeing the garden whenever I went there.
  • I've been to the SF tea garden a couple of times, both years ago. (About 1960 and 1974.)Then, they served Chinese black tea with almond cookies or Japanese green tea with rice crackers, though that seems to have changed slightly. The attraction there is really the gardens. And the rest of Golden Gate Park - especially the de Young Museum, which, unfortunately is closed while they construct a new home.
  • I've lived is SF for 10 years now, and I still haven't been inside the teahouse. Everytime I've been in the area it has been the wrong time. I'll make a point of going as soon as I can. On a related note, I also plan on visiting here, as soon as I can arrange the time.
  • Tea-parties should all be mad as that wet dormouse the Hatter and the time-crazed Rabbit tried to cram headfirst into the teapot. Fie on cucumber sandwiches! Let there be ones made with jam, lavish jam to slather on, jam not by pots but by the hogshead barrel, for endless jamming perks up any gathering. And since he insists, tea with a whiff of dormouse -- for Himself at the far end of the table seated, Mister Carroll in company with a sea-sloth, a hiccupping bear, a duck, and a squirrel. At Himself's elbow, a gilt box -- not too enormous -- resembling a small gold palace, and actually the bedchamber for a snoring dormouse who prefers to sleep atop a heap of missing lucky socks. Now, that's my idea of a mad teaparty, the kind should suit a wordy bee -- or a tea-craving monkey.
  • It's mad! Mad, I tell you, MAD!
  • Bees? What about the lemmings? *sheds tear
  • They, in all their multidtudinous glory, are coming for desert, BlueHorse. This is why Mr Carroll insists on all these chairs.
  • Will no one rid me of this extraneous D?!
  • For those who haven't seen my lovely new daughter, check her out here.
  • Beeswacky: I' take it. Yerba Mate for me.
  • Wolof, she's beautiful. Congratulations and cigars, you lucky poppa.
  • Wolof - that's obviously someone who will light up your life. How lovely!
  • Yea for you, Wolof! She's a lucky girl.
  • Wolof, can i have her? Pretty please?!!!!
  • Somebody's cute enough to have Daddy wrapped around her little finger. Momma, too. Lops the d offa da' Bee.
  • Well, congratulations Papa Wolof and a German cigar-banana for everyone! (Is that a tooth I see peeking out?)
  • Thanks for all the nice comments, folks. Very kind.
  • Have another. Yes, it is very doting-like of me and more than a spot indulgent. Unlike, say, 68 posts about socks.
  • Your daughter is very lovely, Wolof. In both her thinking and her wondering modes.
  • I love that face - she's very sweet. Is that a tank she's riding?
  • She will defend the Great Homeland at any price.
  • the tea cup on the stump holds a skim of cloud rolling on my tongue the taste is milky yet astringent a ring of porcelain frames the small space where now and then I glimpse your smile above Darjeeling
  • my god that was beautiful
  • *dries eyes*
  • Very moving. I'm switching to tea. Tomorrow.
  • Ah, bees! *Bows to the master.*
  • Wow, bees. Just... wow!
  • I'm printing and putting that up on my wall. *applauds*
  • I'm off to China on Dec. 4th. Gee!
  • Interested in how the web will look from over that way, too. Wonder if I can keep up with this site? If it's not too fuckee-about-ee, I'll try to blog it a bit.
  • Yeah! Good luck to you, Wolof :)
  • Wolof, that's great news! Less than a month to go.
  • Bees, are you related to that guy that sold insurance?
  • Congrats, Wolof! That's exciting news!
  • Mazel tov.
  • Can I be your blog fangirl?
  • I'm already bees' blog fangirl.
  • Afternoon Tea
    Seated with her swollen belly always trying not to flip her little lid but just stay cozy within her depth of fellowship the darling's pale -- she's finest porcelain smooth as spoons on ancient linen but confidences do crop up and how she spouts above each cup!
  • ran across some info on chinese names that I figured should be shared with Wolof and his adorably sweet new daughter(!), as well as any curious monkeys. Common questions about Chinese names. I recently learned the name of the child I'm adopting from China. Can you tell me what the name means?
  • For any of you who want to play the Chinese name game, Wolof's daughter's name is Claire Mao Huang Bin.
  • Not that that means anything, since we don't have it in Chinese characters.
  • It means something like "colourful joyous". The Chinese person we showed the characters to said that it's a ver ver posh and educated name, as it's apparently something of a triple pun. The "Mao" bit (her surname) is because she comes from Maoming.
  • Thanks, Wolof. I wondered if "Mao" was related to "meow." Though "Cat" wouldn;t be a bad thing.
  • Before I head off to classes, jacobw, if you're still in London, try The Algerian Coffee Store on Old Compton Street. Not too hard to find, and it's got a nice range of teas and coffees. I actually stumbled across it on the last London Mofi meetup, and went back again a few weeks back to buy their teas. There are cheap and interesting black teas (I bought a packet of violet scented tea as a gift), all the way to cherry scented Japanese ma-cha, and in between there are several varieties of white tea which are pretty decent. Try the Jade Ring white tea, it's appealing both tastewise and visually. Of course, they also have good coffee, and surprisingly nice chocolate! I bought a bar for a police officer who directed me back to the shop after I got lost. Is that considered bribery?
  • No, just a kind gesture. That place sounds good - is it near King's Cross Station?