Friday TeaDay 5/7/10 TC for TeaCeremony?

[Chip]

Welcome to TeaDay. Sip TEA, share your cup with fellow TeaChatters, see what other TeaChatters are sipping as well. Everyone is welcome to TeaDay.

Remember, members with less than one year's membership. Post the most teas cupped in TeaDay this week, top cupper will win a prize. You must post each tea in order for it to count!

Yesterday we slurped, sipped, gulped, and chugged tea in TeaDay. You can still vote and discuss yesterday's topic.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic centers on the question of whether you are ceremonious or ritualistic in your preparation of TEA. In your posts, let us know if you are, to what degree...and how. As always, I hope this will be a fun discussion and I hope we get to know each other a little more.

Have a great TeaDay, TeaChatters!!!

[karmaplace]

I have a couple different "rituals," well they're more like habits, when I make tea.

Usually when I make tea, I make a lot of it at once, especially now that the weather's getting warmer, and I crave lots of iced tea. So I'll usually brew several different cups and types of teas in several different pots and vessels (16oz beehive, 24oz tetsubin, 12oz travel coffee press that I use for herbals, rooibus, and unflavored whites, 8oz porcelain infuser mug, and a general Pyrex measuring cup that I pour over a strainer once the tea is done brewing) to ensure that I'll have several different kinds of tea to choose from throughout the day. I'm so happy when I'm brewing that my whistling annoys my housemates! The kitchen ends up looking like some crazy tea scientist's laboratory. I've even started steeping small cups of triple strength brew and pouring them into ice cube trays for mini teasicles that I like to suck on, especially while I'm waiting on tea. I've got some mini mango greens in the freezer as we speak, yummy!

I spend even more time when I brew tea for a gallon size container I keep in the fridge. I usually spend about an hour in the kitchen listening and dancing to music or watching my favorite tv shows on the computer while I'm timing several different pots and pour them all into our largest cooking pot to cool.

All in all I feel like most of my life revolves around tea, like it's one unending tea ceremony.

[omegapd]

Like the above poster- "habits" seem to fit me better than rituals too.

I normally use the same pot, cup, strainer and tray for when I drink tea by myself. The pot is an old Yixing, the cup a thick porcelain one that holds 3oz. and a sterling silver tray my family has had for years. I can make it in the kitchen and then carry the tray to wherever I feel like going- the computer, the TV, reading chair, etc.

[CynTEAa]

All in all I feel like most of my life revolves around tea, like it's one unending tea ceremony.

Nicely stated!

When I need more than a caffeine fix - I crave the calming, centering focus of a tea brewing ritual. Favorite gaiwan, Yixing or kyusu... admiring the vessel, waiting for the steep. Awesome!

[LauraW]

I'm going to have to ponder this some more, but my instinct says "no" - over half of my tea drinking is at work, which definitely limits my ability to do... anything. I don't have anything fancy at work, which probably doesn't help. At home (on weekdays) it's pretty much come home, heat water, go do something while thinking about what tea to have (usually change out of work clothes), go fix tea, start making dinner. I don't get nearly as much time to sit and really enjoy the process as well as the tea itself... except on weekends.

Not leaving home without the Fujian this morning. Off to work!

[artmom]

I checked - Sometimes.

At my four o'clock (or thereabouts) TeaTime, I usually have a snack with my tea -- English biscuits, some cheese and crackers, etc. I also usually am not in a hurry; so I pay much more attention to the choice of tea, the aroma, the whole "busi-ness" of heating the water, measuring the tea, etc. .

In order to carry the tea cup and snack, I have a little basket that I keep only for transferring the tea and snack safely with one hand (I use a cane in the other) back to my lift recliner. I place the basket on my Air Desk in order to read TeaChat, or the local daily paper (which is offered online) or just to sip and remember those with whom I have shared a four o'clock tea ritual.

The rest of the day I just drink my tea in accompaniment of whatever I am doing.

This morning, Black Pearl from Adagio in my cup.

[olivierco]

No rituals for me. Just pouring hot water on tea leaves using nice teaware.

Kanro gyokuro this afternoon.

[debunix]

Morning tea time is my most ceremonial: finally get out of bed, creep to the kitchen, fill the kettle and turn on the stove, give the spinning, churring, shrieking guinea pig his morning treat on the treat towel by the fridge, spin up the laptop and start surfing, measure tea, cool water, brew tea.

Usually it's sencha, but this morning after some discussion in the topic I opened on sweetness/umami in gyokuro vs sencha, I started again with the kuimei gyokuro from Dens, trying a little lower leaf-to-water ration, and wasn't satisfied--very rich, strong umami, again not a strong sweetness as I wanted. Tried again with a fancy sample of a competition tea from Dens--an anniversary special sample--and same thing, rich deep briny umami. Had to do a quick infusion of An Ji white tea to restore confidence and finish the morning of this TeaDay.

[Chip]

I can carry ritual to an extreme, I must confess. I have tried to lighten up however, while keeping certain aspects that I do enjoy. But I have definitely reduced the amount of ritual and have tried to relax and enjoy more.

I am probably most ritualistic with Japanese greens. OK, definitely!

Ceremony, not really.

Speaking of ritual, I emptied the TeafFridge yesterday and fully defrosted it. I do this right before I expect Shincha to arrive.

[David Duckler]

My thoughts on tea ceremony later. It's an important subject for me, so I'll take some more time to organize my thoughts. In the meantime, first tea of the day...

This rainy day started with a personal gaiwan of Lao Shan green. Delicious; a perfect way to start the day.

[JBaymore]

In the sometimes category.

Sometimes a "Chanoyu light".....a very informal interpretation holding many of the formal elements....... and dispensing with others.

Sometimes formal Chanoyu.

Sometimes I just dump a teaball in a mug, pour in the hot water, and run out the door . THAT act seems to be a "ritual" to me on many days.

best,

.............john

PS: I am a practitioner of Iaido (Japanese swordsmanship) also...... so the very formal aspects of that martial art sometimes make me want to NOT be all that formal .

[Skippyandjif]

I need to think about this one some more as well... I figure I'd better start posting which teas I'm drinking thus far today, as I have no finals and have designated the day a work day.

Me in my dorm, studying and drawing + electric kettle + huge tea collection = massive, hours-long tea session.

I started the day with some looseleaf Yunnan black, which I love more and more every time I drink. (Does Keemun taste kind of similar? I'm really curious.) I just finished several cups of bi lo chun, which I drank because it's so different from the Yunnan black, yet I like it equally. Hehe, I'm just kind of odd like that, I guess...

Taking a short break from tea for now to concentrate on drawing my comic, but more is planned for a little later.

[Chip]

Oh, began the TD with Korean Doo Mool again, organic green from Hankook. Actually quite good. SweeTea concurred while TEAh and Shincha visited the TeaTable today.

[Chip]

A quick plug for the Host! The Maestro series is now available individually. http://www.adagio.com/masters/index.htm ... 4b75bea4fa

Currently cupping the Maestro TKY.

[aya_s]

Hm, interesting question.

I wouldn't have said I have any ritual or ceremony exactly- there's no set of movements that I perform, and I have a variety of teaware and I don't always stick to a particular set.

But at the same time, preparing tea always feels special to me. It's a time of day in which everything stops, and it's a happy quiet time to just watch the tea brew and anticipate the first sip. I happily pick which tea cup I'd like to use and peruse my tea selection with nothing else on my mind.

It's a bit like walking into a martial arts class- you check your stress and cares at the door, because it is a space and time for practice.