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all in this tea

Posted: Apr 13th, '09, 13:43
by irish13
If anyone is interested there is a documentary on the sundance channel called all in this tea.It is also on at 830 est. tonite

Posted: Apr 13th, '09, 13:46
by Janine
Thanks Irish, I'll look for it

Posted: Apr 13th, '09, 14:30
by irish13
Your welcome

Posted: Apr 13th, '09, 15:36
by Chip
Thanks for the heads up!

Posted: Apr 13th, '09, 19:20
by woozl
Very cool!!!
Looks like it will be on again for those who miss.

I love the scene when he is handed a big sac of tea, gives a sniff and immediately is no sorry, chemicals.....

Posted: Apr 13th, '09, 19:57
by horsencl
Definately a must see. I watch my copy of it quite often.

Posted: Apr 13th, '09, 20:03
by scruffmcgruff
I thought this movie was dreadful. He spends half the time talking down to locals for not making their teas right, and the other half talking about himself! I would like to see him determine which tea was made with chemicals in a blind test. Just another self-righteous aging hippie if you ask me.

I do agree that the red tape involved in buying tea that was demonstrated was pretty ridiculous, but that has changed a great deal since the film was shot so it is only relevant if you want to know about the system over a decade ago.

Posted: Apr 14th, '09, 00:04
by Salsero
I am with Scruff ... though it was worth watching once. And the guy was building a cave to hold his puerh!

Posted: Apr 14th, '09, 00:15
by Chip
Did someone say "TeaCave????? :evil:

Posted: Apr 14th, '09, 15:01
by wyardley
I'm curious to watch it, whenever Netflix starts carrying it, but after seeing clips of it online, I'm really afraid that watching it is going to make me very cranky. In the clips I've seen and the interviews, DLH comes across as really arrogant and obnoxious, as well as not that knowledgeable about / respectful of Chinese culture (for someone who's spent 'years in the backwoods of Asia' or whatever they're claiming). And I think the claims of his I've heard that he can tell whether a tea has been treated with pesticides by smelling it are ridiculous. Acting as if he's going to school the Chinese about organic agriculture seems a little obnoxious too.... the Chinese have been picking, processing, and cultivating tea since before anyone else (and since the existence of pesticides) for thousands of years... somehow, I don't think all that know-how has gone completely out the window.

I am a little skeptical of the claims that he's some sort of pioneer, because I'm pretty sure people besides DLH were bringing good Chinese tea to the US before him, just maybe not catering to the same clientele (i.e., white people), but maybe I'm wrong.

I'm really hoping that I'll be forced to eat my words once I actually see the movie, but I'm not holding my breath.

Posted: Apr 14th, '09, 15:45
by gingkoseto
I have a videotape of this film given by a friend. I liked it very much. But by the time I watched it, I didn't know many crazy tea loving westerners yet. Now knowing so many teachatters around, the film might not look that phenomenal :P

Worth seeing anyway. I like the part he was talking about finding some green tea with good flavor and mediocre appearance. That's actually a nice way to get good deals on tea :D I also like the how he is devoted in raising earthworms for organic fertilizer. It was amusing scene that he was talking about it enthusiastically to a few local officers and those people didn't seem to care about it at all. I really hope this earthworm thing could work in tea production.

And I don't know what other people think about the tea performance at the beginning of the film (and probably in the middle of the film as well, I don't remmeber). The tea performance in China is usually carried out by pretty girls. The performers are cute and elegant, but very often I just couldn't bear with seeing this kind of pretty girl tea performance - it makes me get goose bumps all over :twisted:

Posted: Apr 14th, '09, 16:43
by Janine
I met him once but very briefly. He came into Imperial Tea in Berkeley to check it out - he wanted to see Roy Fong (the owner) but Roy wasn't in. He just left word that he liked what Roy had done. He had this complete entourage with him. Rather impressive in that sense. But then again I'm not big on acolytes :-)

I haven't seen the film - I recorded it so I'll get to it. It's kind of interesting that people here talk about organics. Roy is now starting an organic farm for jasmine blossoms in addition to organic tea farming... it's quite an adventure always in tea it seems.

BTW I have met others who claim they can smell chemicals and additives in tea, who are taken very seriously. I have no verdict on these abilities myself. I suppose it depends on the person. But I do think honest skepticism is always a healthy companion.

Posted: Apr 14th, '09, 17:39
by iannon
The earthworm farming is actually pretty interesting. I have actually done it at my house in barrels. The castings from the worms are wonderful natural fertilizer for your garden.

Posted: Apr 15th, '09, 11:31
by Janine
Hi again - just wanted to check in to say that I have watched about half the movie and I really enjoyed it. I didn't think he was talking down to anyone - he was really talking about the difficulties of bureaucracy and the Communist system. What's interesting is that now so many people are doing just what he advised - working together directly with the farmers. Right now I know that Roy Fong (of Imperial Tea) is actually producing/selling his own "probiotic" organic fertilizer so that the tea farms he buys from grow organic products that he feels will be better teas. As I said above (I think) he's even starting a farm in China to organically grow jasmine because he feels the quality in the scent of jasmine blossoms has deteriorated to where it is no longer the same tea it was decades ago.

I also was surprised that Winnie Yu of Teance is in this film (I just didn't know she was), also I think James Norwood Pratt was involved somehow? I have to watch more.

One more thumbs up reason: my husband actually enjoyed watching and was really interested... a well-done film by respected documentary film maker. I look forward to seeing the rest of it.

Posted: Apr 15th, '09, 21:54
by horsencl
My boyfriend also gave it a thumbs up. It even helped me convince him that we should take a tea tour of China. :D