Tea as Connection and Inspiration
In an attempt to connect with some of you out there in the Steepster Universe I am going to share a few of my own best joys with Tea and hope you will be willing to gift us with your own experiences. : )
Some recent ‘conversations’ out here—and with my wife—have got me to thinking, wondering, and pondering about how Tea seems to have a magical way of connecting each of us with—not only with one another but—something deep within us. I have also read amazing descriptions of how a tea connects us with something so hard to articulate, or so bizarre, that it takes a description just as imaginative to even attempt to explain it. Spoonvonstup gave a great example of it here—search on “You know what?" after you follow the link http://steepster.com/discuss/2487-need-a-tea-mentor
I am hoping to give BOTH those experiences that have already been voiced, AND those that have yet to be, a place to be heard, right here. Certainly the reviews of the teas themselves are one place for them. Still, some of them may be nestled so quietly within our reviews (or within a long ago posted and now lonely thread), waiting patiently, that they may go forever unread (have you ever gone back to read a person’s very first reviews only to find there are no Likes because no one was Following them at the time! I have, and I’ve read some pretty cool stuff.) Here is a chance to give them the spotlight, even if only for a brief moment, before they go back to their quiet place (if that’s where they were, that is), satisfied that they were finally able to share their joy (or share it yet again).
If you want to simply provide a link to a review then that’s great! Or, retell it to us. Or, best of all, tell us something you have never told anyone before.
I have one review of my experience with Anji Baicha green tea that so inspired me I wrote a little piece which I’d like to share (you can skip to the last paragraph, where the piece I was inspired to write is in italics) http://steepster.com/teas/harney-and-sons/6005-anji-baicha
I also have an example of a connection that I haven’t written for a review yet, which follows.
I brewed up and drank my first cup of Yerba Mate a few months back and, admittedly, have yet to review it (I know, I know, I’m not the best at writing reviews right away). I will tell you I had my expectations about what the tea would taste like from what I had read about it. So, after brewing it up, and pouring it, and drinking my first sip, I thought, “Hmmmm. Dirt.” It turns out that is pretty much what I heard about it. Then I thought, “That’s not being fair to the tea, you can do better than that!” Ok, so I drank some more, and thought some more, and drank some more, and slowly I began to realize that it reminded me of something, but I couldn’t quite place it; it was something that was related to water and dirt and heat. Hmmm, still not really anything significant or note-worthy there; my concept of the flavor of this Tea is still too raw and unformed.
Then I went in to talk with my wife, coaxing her into trying it (she was VERY reluctant, based on what I told her I had tasted so far; yeah I know, big surprise). I can’t remember exactly what she said, but it was some description that had a forth elemental word in it, like smoke. Suddenly something clicked, and an image flashed in my mind—an image of something familiar to me, and I said, “Ah ha! That’s it! It reminds me of the sweat lodge!!”
Although I have sat in many Native American sweat lodges, it has been a number of years since I last did. I have very fond memories of them: sitting with friends on the damp earth, in a nearly pitch-black, low, canvas-covered ‘hut’, experiencing the heat come in waves from the rocks as each ladle of water was poured on them, some water rising as steam, and some running down to mingle with the earth in a pool around the red hot glowing rocks. There’s a unique aroma created by all of this born out of our sweat, the smoke from the fire just outside the lodge, the sizzling wet debris on the surface of the rocks in the center of the lodge, and the aroma of hot, newly wet earth. It’s a smell that’s hard to describe, but that tea CAPTURED it for me. I tasted in the Yerba Mate what I smell when I sit in that Lodge. What an amazing connection that Tea made from me to those wonderful memories sitting around those hot rocks, in the dark, with my friends gathered all around me, in a place where we felt safe enough to honestly share who we were with each other.
I know there are other such stories out there. The question is, are you willing to gift us with them?
This is a wonderful thread! I hope to add my own connections to this sometime. I mean most everything here is new to me. I guess the one tea note that strikes me the most would be this one: http://steepster.com/teas/rare-tea-republic/25100-chamong-sftgfop1-tippy-131
The reason being is that it reminds me of a time and item in my life. Back in the day, when I was younger, my mother and I would shop at a small boutique called Natural Way. This tea reminds me of not only the way the place smelled, but also a specific oil perfume we would ALWAYS purchase, or have our old vial refilled. It was called Rain. Granted you can buy Rain oil now days, or China Rain or any multitude of “rain” scents but nothing smells JUST like THAT Rain oil smelled. Maybe it does, maybe the smell was not just the perfume but the time, the things we did together back then, the place, etc but to me that is what this tea reminds me of.
Not to mention I ADORE a summer shower and the smell of the air before and after a rain shower. This tea … yeah its that for me.
:)
Yes! Thank you! What you shared is EXACTLY the kind of experiences I was hoping others would share; they are different than the descriptions of the more easy-to-describe and easily relate-able kind of flavors and aromas we may find in Tea, like chocolate-y, woodsy, grassy, a hint of the sour taste of a granny smith apple, or even something like, drinking this tea feels like soft grass gently caressing my taste buds on a lazy afternoon in the sun.
Tea is very powerful in it’s ability to invoke strong emotions in that it can create a connection to some long lost memory deep in our subconscious, a memory that—without the Tea—may be lost forever.
I’m glad, Azzrian, that you seem to find this to be that case, too, given the experience you shared with us. It sounds like the Tea connected you to a memory of your mother, and the Rain. I too love that smell after a good rain—the smell that makes it seem as if everything was washed clean.
Thanks again for sharing your story! : – )
I remember when I was first getting into tea, I tried a Li Shan fresh, high-mountain oolong from Taiwan and it was… amazing. I couldn’t describe it, I still can’t really, but the combination of aromas, flavours and feelings that washed over me in the first few cups of that tea reminded me of childhood and coming home after a long trip away.
Whenever I get a new stock of the fresh oolongs annually, I await with anticipation the first few cups of that tea because I still get that feeling. Tea can be, as you’ve mentioned, an incredibly personal experience and allow us to glimpse our own respective pasts.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us.
I like your use of the phrase, ‘… washed over me … ’. I get the impression that the experience engaged every fiber of your being; it also invokes a sense of cleansing. I think the feeling of ’coming home’ can be very powerful; I sometimes feel like I reside in a safe and familiar place such that I am connected to All when I practice Yoga.
Based on what you shared here, I can understand why you would eagerly await the fresh new oolongs. How great you have found (or maybe it found you) something that is continually able to connect you to a meaningful place within! I don’t think I can say Tea has quite done that for me yet, but in time it may (it took many years of practicing Yoga daily for me to feel the way I currently do about myself).
Thank you again for gifting us with your experience!
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