Greetings, dear friends. May this post find you in vibrant health.
We posted a video recently in which Garret covered some tips about how to bring the sense of smell into your tea practice. Using these tricks, you can deepen your appreciation of your leaves and spend some time getting more mindful with your tea as you slowly breathe in the essence of your leaves. There is joy in this. Such joy!
We are developing new videos for the site! Please shoot us an email if there are topics that you would like covered as we work to make more videos here at Mandala Tea.
We all know that the breath is vital to human life. Did you know that when we get conscious of our breath and work to balance our body/mind with our breath that we allow for fully functional breathing and expand our potential for a healthier life?
It is during tea time that I find my mind drifting to thoughts and times that aren’t always mine. Tapping into the quiet space that tea time brings forth, the mind is freed of other clutter and creativity flourishes there.
With a few minor exceptions, there are really only two ways to say “tea” in the world. One is like the English term—té in Spanish and tee in Afrikaans are two examples. The other is some variation of cha, like chay in Hindi.
Sara and I make wishes in this challenging time that you are all staying well. May your friends and family also be healthy both physically and mentally.
The time between waking up and fully engaging with our day is a valuable opportunity to remember who we are before we begin what we do. Are we not humans being and not just humans doing?
Tea, like life, is an experiment - tweak variables, check outcomes and see what works for you. And remember, the experiment never goes bad, you just get a new experience and if you happen to steep too long with water that it hotter than usual, just remember, you’ve created a stronger heart tonic and all is well. Relax, enjoy and have fun in the world of tea!
In the world of tea, different teas are seen as having their own thermal nature. Cooling, neutral and warming. Green and white teas are seen as cooling, yellow and oolong as neutral, black, dark oolongs and pu’er as warming.
We have been hearing from some of our growers about the impact of climate change on their crops in China and Taiwan. With more droughts followed by too much rain, agriculture in general is having a harder time all around the globe. Here is an interesting article about what some in the tea world are looking into to keep tea growing despite climate change. We thought you’d like to read it.
We would add that while some of the article focuses on the soil degradation due to the use of inorganic spraying, as it does here in the US as well, that we look to growers who are not using sprays and instead are growing organically and biodynamically to supply us (and you). It is the large scale growing operations in the world that are using inorganic measures due to the fact that mono-culture growing is simply not sustainable at this poin and might not ever be. It’s simply not natural.
In the sitting in stillness with the object or subject of the haiku, I can let the poem write itself without feeling the agitation that grade school writing would sometimes bring up.
Summer’s here and the time is right for icing of the tea! Here are some easy to follow guidelines to play with to maximize your summer time with friends and family.
Yellow tea, the rarest of the tea variants, is oft lauded by many as less grassy in flavor than its close cousin, green tea, due to the yellowing “or sealing” process.
When we sit with another and share tea, we hold a space where we provide nourishment and bring comfort. In this great giving and caring about another, we also receive. It is a space of true connection and many good things can happen.
