Bon Teavant

Bon Teavant tag:bonteavant.com,2009-10-20://4 2012-01-23T20:38:22Z Bon Teavant Movable Type Pro 4.37 chinese new year greetings tag:bonteavant.com,2012://4.252 2012-01-23T20:28:05Z 2012-01-23T20:38:22Z

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com

]]> letting tea settle tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.251 2011-12-15T17:29:10Z 2011-12-15T18:27:31Z

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com

It is the natural inclination to act on your excitement when receiving tea in the mail by opening the package immediately and sitting down to steep it. If you happen to feel mildly surprised or disappointed that the tea is not "performing" as you had hoped, try letting it rest for a few weeks or more, then steeping it again. You will likely be rewarded.

Just as people can often feel a little out of sorts after moving homes or travelling long distances, tea can take some time to re-orient and settle after being jostled over miles of ground travel or pressurized at 30,000 feet during air transport.

I noticed this strongly with my recent shipment of Asian Beauty, which after five weeks of settling in my storage, now offers a rich, smooth, round body and soft mouth feel that were, shall we say, "struggling" when I first received it.

People whose passion is the study of tea will tell you that tea requires careful handling and rest when being moved from one storage space to another, even within the same town or village. Plants are extremely sensitive to change, and just as a person can suffer jet lag or mild disorientation when traveling or moving homes, tea can experience "shock" when being transported or changing venues, and is best left alone for a while to find its equilibrium.

I have experienced this with several teas, and noticed that some teas can take a few months of "regrouping" to reach their fullest potential, particularly when the tea has travelled from one country to another.

If you are willing to be patient and let your tea get over its jet lag, you will often be repaid with a bright, smooth tea that provides the resilience it has developed, as well as the rest and comfort as it has been given.

]]> roy fong on wuyi teas tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.250 2011-11-29T00:19:00Z 2011-11-29T03:05:36Z

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com Imperial Tea Court has been visiting Wuyi Shan (Mountain) in China for thirty years and has watched processing methods change over time. View the Bon Teavant video below to hear what Roy has to say. If you would like to hear the entire 12-minute video, buy a copy of Roy's book The Great Teas of China from Bon Teavant Market and receive a custom download code to hear the full-length video.
(Note: if you have trouble viewing this video, you can see it on Vimeo or try a different browser like Safari)

]]> charcoal roasted teas tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.249 2011-11-07T17:56:27Z 2011-11-07T19:27:11Z

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com

A great tea master once told me that the best tea processing is the processing that cannot be tasted. In the case of charcoal-roasted teas, I would tend to agree. Some people might really like to taste the charcoal, but I like to taste a rounded, balanced, full-bodied tea with sweet notes that add to the tea, rather than a mouth full of charcoal. Just as when one grills meat over charcoal, the objective is to heighten the flavor of the meat, not to taste charcoal or, worse, lighter fluid.

Charcoal-roasted teas have a very distinctive character that is usually quickly recognizable. When the tea is both carefully roasted and brewed optimally, the roasting adds a rich carmelized sweet note that heightens the flavor of the tea and rounds out or balances other notes in the tea. When charcoal roasting (or brewing) is done carelessly, what is left is the flavor of the charcoal which overwhelms the taste of what otherwise might have been a marvelous tea.

Teas that lend themselves to charcoal roasting include Taiwanese Dong Dings, Wuyi varietals grown in China or Taiwan, and Ti Kuan Yin varietals grown in China or Taiwan. These teas are typically brewed in hotter water (190-200ºF), but I notice that if I brew them in slightly cooler water (175-185ºF), the sweeter notes become more dominant, the tea has a smoother mouthfeel, and the charcoal roasting is not as pronounced.

Bon Teavant carries a traditionally harvested and crafted Charcoal Roasted Dong Ding which sometimes has a little more charcoal flavor than I like, so I brew it just a hair cooler and longer, which diminishes the charcoal flavor and still creates a rich, smooth, roasty cup of tea with a terrifically smooth mouth feel. If you are a person who likes to taste the charcoal, that is there for you also. Either way, this special tea provides an extremely satisfying cup that is distinctive and memorable.
]]> professional tea cupping tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.248 2011-09-28T23:14:12Z 2011-09-28T23:41:57Z

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com

There is a common protocol used by tea professionals to judge teas which is called "cupping". When visiting a tea farmer or wholesaler in Asia, for example, the person who is selling tea will put out several white porcelain cups and several plates of tea. They will then weigh four to five grams of tea, and put it into each of the cups. They then pour near boiling water at the same temperature into each of the cups, which contain the same amount of tea. A timer will be set for five minutes, and when the five minutes is up, the buyer then begins sampling the teas, using a white porcelain spoon to dip into the cups, smell the aroma, and also serve him/herself some tea into the sampling cup.

By using the same weight, water temperature and steeping duration, all of the teas are treated exactly alike. While teas are naturally grossly over-steeped with near boiling water, (which is counter intuitive to making a great cup of tea), this method of employing extremes brings out the characteristics of the teas to the highest degree, allowing the tea professional to quickly assess both the strengths and weaknesses of the tea.

Generally the buyer will be sampling one kind of tea and therefore judging many different options of the same tea. For example, (s)he will be tasting five or six different Lishan teas or Asian Beauty teas (if in Taiwan). From time to time, a seller will also include a sample that is a different kind of tea to the others.

If you want to learn the ins and outs of cupping, hop on over to Seattle this weekend to check out the tea cupping workshops offered by Suzette Hammond at the Northwest Tea Festival.
]]> tea poem: a shared tea ritual tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.247 2011-09-21T19:39:03Z 2011-09-21T19:50:58Z

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com

There are three primary tea traditions that influence Western society at present: Chinese (including Taiwanese), Japanese, and British. From these, other tea traditions have emerged, including Moorish, Persian, Russian and Indian, and what I call "fusion tea", which is the creation of a tea experience that might borrow from traditional tea cultures, but ultimately offers its own unique expression of tea or tea rites, rituals and customs. When you create your own tea ritual, you may want to borrow aspects of traditional tea rituals practiced by Chinese, Japanese, British, or any other tea culture.

Here is A SHARED TEA RITUAL, which you can "practice" with a friend:

Tea Poem Ritual:

•    Invite a creative friend to tea. Tell him or her that you are going to create a tea poem together.
•    Provide a special piece of paper, maybe Japanese rice paper or a watercolor paper.
•    Put the paper and one colored pen on the table in your designated "tearoom". (This can be in your kitchen or dining room, or on the floor of a sunroom or even in an office.
•    Bring your favorite tea to the table and make whatever kind of tea you would like to have. Pour (or whisk, if Japanese matcha tea) a cup or bowl of tea for yourself and for your friend.
•    Enjoy a first sip of tea together. Invite your guest to write the title of the poem on the paper provided. This means your guest begins the poem.
•    Have your guest then hand the paper to you. You will take a sip of tea and then write the first line of the poem. Return the paper to your friend.
•    Continue to take turns writing a line of the poem, one after the other, until you have decided that your poem or your tea is finished. Give the poem to your guest as a gift, along with a small bag of the tea that you shared with him or her.
]]> heating elements for tea tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.246 2011-09-13T16:31:53Z 2011-09-13T22:58:07Z

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com

Many variables play a role in the making of a great cup of tea: water quality, water temperature, and amount as well as the type, quality and quantity of tea leaves, and of course, steeping time. What few consider, however, is the impact of the heating element on the tea.

Some tea people are mindful of this, and go out of their way to find or create just the right heating element. Possible sources for heat include charcoal fire, wood fire, electric coil (stove), gas range, and ceramic heat, among others including electric plug-in appliances.

In earlier times, and still now in some parts of the world, people had no choice but to heat water over a wood or charcoal fire. From experience, I can say this does enhance the pleasure of a tea event, but how does it influence the tea itself? Does it matter if you boil tea over a hot flame or stove or more slowly at a medium high temperature?

According to Lu Yu, author of The Classic of Tea (Ch'a Ching) in eighth century China, "The ancients placed a great store in tea's flavor when it was brewed with firewood that had been cured for a long time." If using charcoal, he said, be sure to use new charcoal so that it does not "give off a musty, rank and greasy smell". He also advised against using "oily wood or worn-out or discarded utensils as fuel."

It is hard to know what he would have thought of a gas or electric range or a Zojirushi, but my guess is that he would think electricity to be too excitable for the best in tea.

In American society, we tend to like the quick fix - the electric kettle or Zojirushi. Some among us still revert to wood fire, but usually when camping, and not on a regular basis. Others use ceramic hotplates, which heat the tea at an even rate, and have high marks among tea connoisseurs for its impact on the tea.

Japanese tea ceremony relies on the ritual making of a charcoal fire in a pit as well as the cleaning of same. There are even special procedures for placing and removing particular pieces of charcoal as part of the ceremony. For the making of the fire to be a part of such an important tea ceremony, the quality of the fire must have impact on the quality of the tea and the tea experience.

Some people think electricity disturbs the energy of the tea water and that a wood or charcoal fire lends a natural element which cannot be duplicated by nuclear generated power. Whether these enhance the tea itself is up for speculation. Any comments?
]]> dong ding tea pickers tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.244 2011-08-24T23:04:16Z 2011-08-24T23:16:45Z

Thanks to the women of Dong Ding for plucking tea so beautifully so that we may imbibe! In this video, Bon Teavant features the tea pluckers in Nantou County, Taiwan, where Dong Ding tea is grown, harvested and processed. Please...

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com Dong Ding tea.

]]> why not flavored teas? tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.243 2011-08-03T19:29:22Z 2011-12-30T18:35:39Z

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com

Lu Yu, one of the original tea connoisseurs and author of The Classic of Tea, a treatise on tea in the eighth century, advised against mixing teas with other ingredients. "One must guard against...adulterating it with other plants or herbs," he wrote.

The tea plant, Camellia sinensis, provides a bounty of different teas, ranging in the thousands, and each unique in flavor because of the terroir, varietal, harvesting methods, and processing that influence it. Truly good teas need no flowers, fruits, sweeteners or other flavorings to enhance them, and in fact, may even have a negative impact on them.

Many tea merchants, including Bon Teavant, will offer at least a small selection of "adulterated" teas for the tea person who craves jasmine or chrysanthemum in their tea, but the connoisseur will generally seek out the essence of a tea in its pure form. Snobbery aside, the tea aficionado will moved toward single estate, single lot, even single trunk teas (which come from only one tea bush or tree), rather than blends, and rarely, if ever, teas mixed with fruits, flowers, herbs or spices.

There is something really special about knowing the flavor and other characteristics of one plant on its own. If you want to know rose, drink rose; if lavendar, drink lavender; but if you want to know tea, drink just tea!

I love a great chai and also love flower/herb tisanes. But to really undersand and appreciate tea at its finest, you will want to seek out unflavored, unblended teas that are processed at a level that produces an incomparable taste and experience that cannot be duplicated or "improved" with the inclusion of other plants and spices.
]]> morning tea tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.242 2011-07-27T18:23:11Z 2011-07-27T18:30:02Z

I have found no better way to spend the early hours. JLS...

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com

I have found no better way to spend the early hours. JLS

]]> antique teaware: use and appraisal tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.241 2011-07-13T18:15:55Z 2011-12-30T18:34:23Z

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com

Vintage teaware invites the imagination. A Song Dynasty tea bowl or a Qing Dynasty
gaiwan (as above) brings history to the tea table and invites the sharing of legend and lore.

So too does the incorporation of teaware previously owned by those we love or admire.
When writing my book on San Francisco tea culture, for example, I met with famed Zen priest and cookbook author Ed Brown, who shared tea with me using the special tea cups given to him by Zen Master Suzuki Roshi. This gave me an opportunity to ask questions about Suzuki Roshi and the personal relationship he and Ed shared for so many years. It also gave me goose bumps to drink tea from the same cup that touched the lips of such a great man.

Aaron Fisher (Wu De) serving tea

When visiting Taiwan, The Way of Tea author Aaron Fisher (aka Wu De), created some fascinating tea gatherings with his very nice collection of antique teaware. Watching him pour hot water water from his silver Japanese tea kettle into Song Dynasty tea bowls created an amazing ambiance. This rare and special privilege inspired an even deeper interest in teaware for me and encouraged me to seek out more experience of how teaware effects the taste and feeling of drinking teas.

Sipping tea from such old and rare pieces made me feel as though I were somehow absorbing something of the past and bringing it to the present. This feeling of timelessness is one of the greatest attributes of any tea gathering.

Old tea ware can be challenging to find, particularly at reasonable prices, but it is out there. Sometimes it is of benefit to seek out information from experts as to the authenticity of a piece before purchasing. Here are some suggestions passed to me as I sought out information on the vintage gaiwans I recently bought in San Francisco (which will soon be available at Bon Teavant Market).
antique gaiwans at bon teavant market
First, the San Francisco Asian Art Museum offers a Contributors Consultation Day the third Friday of every month, inviting contributor level members an opportunity to consult with curators about asian art works (each member is allowed one consultation per year). If you bring several pieces, the $150 membership pays for itself in the consultation alone, and provides other special benefits to the museum as well. You may want to check Asian art museums or Asian departments of museums in your area for consultations.

I also learned of Jan-Erik Nilsson, an expert in porcelain who offers an online forum http://gotheborg.com for those interested in Chinese and Japanese porcelain. For $25, you can become a member, or for $20, you can send photos of your piece to Nilsson for an assessment.

At Bonham and Butterfield auction house, there are three locations in the United States where complimentary appraisal clinics intended for those who wish to consign their pieces are offered. The San Francisco branch hosts such a clinic the first Wednesday of each month; Los Angeles offers one the last Wednesday of each month, and New York offers one every Wednesday. Consultations are free, and you may bring up to five pieces. You can also find an area of their online site that offers consultations by uploading photos of your items.

Finally, you might be lucky to know tea people who are adept at appraising the age and value of vintage tea ware.

Fakes and frauds are rampant, however, and you are best off finding a skilled professional to evaluate whatever you might want to purchase. Bon Teavant is having recently acquired pieces evaluated for our collection and for sale, and we look forward to sharing our special finds with you. Stay tuned!

]]> world tea expo & the japanese tea master tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.240 2011-07-02T02:02:59Z 2011-07-02T02:57:07Z

In the coming week, I will be offering stories and interviews from the 2011 World Tea Expo, but today, at the end of a long week of travel for tea and pleasure (how could they be separate?), I want to...

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com
The Expo was busy, with more than 200 exhibitors and approximately 6000 visitors thronging the large Las Vegas Convention Center last weekend. As with any trade show, there is a vibrancy and buzz, and at this special expo, a celebration of reuniting with fellow tea people.

But in a flash, I was taken aback when the casual and jovial invitation to try tea was suddenly upended by an unusual sight. A saddened Asian man stands with his eyes cast downward, as he holds out a tray of several small samples of two different kinds of tea. He is motionless, almost like a mime, and if he were not so distraught, I would think he was doing something akin to performance art with a tray of tea.

I watch him quizzically, as, barely meeting my gaze, he bows and gently moves the tray toward me in invitation. I take a small cup of the pretty golden tea liquor and prepare to sip. "Shizuoka tea," I hear him say softly.

His eyelashes flutter and lift softly to me, revealing beneath them a tender glance that seems to question: "Are you going to drink this....still?" The news of radiation-tainted tea from Shizuoka, Japan's largest tea exporting province, has arrived just weeks before the largest North American tea trade show, and the spring harvest, which fetches the bulk of the year's revenues for Japanese tea farmers and exporters.

In his crestfallen gaze are tidal waves of sadness and plumes of anxiety. I read the horror of losing loved ones, homes, and perhaps the only means of livelihood his friends, colleagues, and family have known for decades.

I absorb the meaning of his grief, and in solidarity and respect, I answer with a sure and intentional first sip. I nod my head. "O-ishi- desu" (It's delicious), I say to him in Japanese, and mean it. "Tell the tea master, tell the tea master," he implores, while pulling gently on the jacket of an older man standing behind him. When the tea master turns around, I repeat in Japanese: "Thank you so much. It really is delicious."

The old man drags his wrist across his glistening forehead and sadly nodding, he bows and says "Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you." He is still bowing as he moves away though facing me, not knowing if I will cry first or if it will be he. His eyes are fixed on the ground.

Neither of us break the barrier of formality, but when he momentarily meets my gaze, I try to impart the only message I have for him in a soft glance rather than words: "I'm sorry."

I take another sip. "Yes, delicious, O-ishi kata desu," I say. And with a low bow, I leave both the tea master and the young man, who also in a bow and with downcast eyes, remains alone on an invisible stage, making an offering.

]]> culinary tea with cynthia gold tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.238 2011-06-20T21:42:00Z 2011-06-22T20:04:54Z

Culinary Tea by Cynthia Gold is a favorite book of Bon Teavant, who interviewed Gold at the Boston Park Plaza, where she is employed as Tea Sommelier. Culinary Tea is not only very elegantly designed, but filled with more...

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com

Culinary Tea by Cynthia Gold is a favorite book of Bon Teavant, who interviewed Gold at the Boston Park Plaza, where she is employed as Tea Sommelier. Culinary Tea is not only very elegantly designed, but filled with more than 100 recipes using tea as a prime feature, and tea information that tea lovers will gobble up or sip page by fascinating page for hours with delight.

With this book in your library you don't have to be a trained chef to create a Vegetable Tart with an Assam tea crust, for example, nor recreate the wheel to prepare a Fresh Tea Vinaigrette on your dinner salad, not to mention the delectible Flourless Keemun-Cherry Chocolate Torte to top off your meal. Are you salivating yet? If not, the gorgeous photos (both color and black and white) will help you along.

The book is very well organized, with Part One offering valuable information and insights into many aspects of tea from tea storage to the cultural roots of culinary tea. Part Two serves up recipes and techniques for cooking with tea, and is sorted into Starters, Entrees, Desserts, and Tea Beverages (including cocktails). The book also covers information on pairing teas for drinking with different foods.

Many readers will appreciate the further categorization of each segment, for example, Entrees are grouped into Vegetarian, Seafood, Poultry, and Meat dishes. If you happen to be vegetarian, this book will not disappoint. The vast majority of dishes in this book are meatless, and the great information on tea history and culture is worth the cost, even if you don't cook.

According to Cynthia, "In each culture, there is a wonderful tradition of cooking with tea, but for some reason, these historic dishes are looked at as something very distinct and tend not to be replicated, to not go through modern variations within those cultures; so to me, those dishes are beautiful as-is, but they also should be inspiration for a wide variety of other techniques and uses." In Culinary Tea, Gold offers the results of her inspiration, with a wide variety of dishes and even a series of tea cocktails.

If you are simply a tea lover searching for hard-to-find information on how tea is used as food by different cultures throughout history, Culinary Tea is a great reference. The book also features a number of stunning color and black and white images of the dishes as well as of tea farms, tea ware, and tea growing regions around the world.

Check it out and feed your ravenous appetite for inspiration, beauty, inventiveness and, of course, the ravishing deliciousness that is Tea.
]]> tea commandments tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.237 2011-06-15T22:51:00Z 2011-06-15T22:57:04Z

Borrowed from the "Ten Indian Commandments", these seem to apply to a life with tea:-Remain close to the Great Spirit -Show great Respect for Your Fellow Beings-Give Assistance and Kindness Wherever Needed-Be Truthful And Honest At All Times-Do What You...

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com
-Remain close to the Great Spirit
-Show great Respect for Your Fellow Beings
-Give Assistance and Kindness Wherever Needed
-Be Truthful And Honest At All Times
-Do What You Know to be Right
-Look After The Well-Being of Mind And Body
-Treat the Earth and All That Dwell Thereon with Respect
-Take Full Responsibility for Your Actions
-Dedicate a Share of Your Efforts to the Greater Good
-Work Together for the Benefit of All
]]> japanese tea news - shizuoka tag:bonteavant.com,2011://4.236 2011-06-10T22:36:23Z 2011-06-10T23:18:19Z

Bon Teavant http://bonteavant.com

Just today I received a couple of links from different people which disappoint and concern me. It appears that some Japanese tea from Shizuoka is tainted with radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant disaster which followed the earthquake and tsunami.

Here are three links:

1) Japan Today states that authorities in Shizuoka Prefecture suggested to a tea retailer that (s)he not publish news of tainted tea, for fear that people will overreact.

2) Japanese news giant NHK announced that "radioactive Cesium exceeding the legal limit" was found in Shizuoka tea at levels beyond what is considered safe.

3) The Wall Street Journal reports one incident of Japanese tea in Shizuoka Prefecture testing above the legally permissible limit of radiation.

Note that Shizuoka prefecture is approximately 300km from the Fukushima Daiichi Plant, where several nuclear reactors continue to be compromised. Approximately 50-60% of Japanese tea is grown in Shizuoka Prefecture (County), and much of the tea grown in this region is Sencha. Keep in mind that this is only one incident, and It is hoped that much of the tea grown in Shizuoka and other areas further south will be spared, providing a healthy and delicious crop for tea drinkers worldwide.

How do you know where your tea comes from? Ask your local tea retailer or online tea store administrators.

Keeping readers informed, whether the news is good or bad, remains a priority. Yet, while it's important to report the news, it is also important to remain optimistic. As far as I have heard, most Japanese teas growing in southern regions of Japan are still considered safe to drink.

So many continue to suffer in Japan, whether from loss of loved ones or loss of crops. Let every morning tea ritual begin with loving thoughts of health and healing for our friends in Japan, remembering that in tea, kinship is universal.

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