Welcome to the Spring 2018 offering of the Seasonal Tea Club. We are truly grateful for your support and interest in our vision of sharing special teas, and an introduction to the Way of Tea. We offer teas representative of various aspects of each season, thus encouraging reflection on the cycles of the year. In doing so, we participate more deliberately in the cosmic succession of birth, growth, harvest and renewal, which has been an important aspect of human experience for millennia. By observing seasonal influences, we participate in the basis of rituals and myths that have been central to the stories humans, in our wish to understand Life, tell about the world. This repeating circular pattern of the seasons has determined the dance steps of shamans, the movements of martial and Taoist arts, and the architectural designs of ancient temples.
Living Tea aspires to honor the age-old traditions that developed the Way of Tea. While many people can’t imagine what a mug of tea in the kitchen has to do with some “way of life,” other cultures produced teas, brewing methods and entire conceptual paths for achieving greater harmony, awareness, connection and health through tea. These traditions based many of their principles on subtle observation of nature and seasonal influences.
By moderating our lifestyles to match the seasons, we embrace a central principle of these traditions. A powerful way to live with greater seasonal awareness is to drink teas that match the energies and movements of that part of the year. Through the Tea Club, we offer simple suggestions about how to live in harmony with the season along with information about the teas we’ve chosen and why.
May the Leaf lend its quiet power to many moments of insight, joy, and stillness in this Life of Tea. Thank you for joining us and supporting our vision of offering something of real value in your life. While there is a lot to say about tea, the best teachings are conveyed by a quiet cup and the space for reflection and connection with self, with others and with Nature. We hope you are delighted with the Spring Collection. Also, please subscribe to our Newsletter to stay up to date on tea sessions in Boulder, Colorado and elsewhere this Spring and Summer.
The Art of Life in Spring
“As a microcosm of nature, human beings embody all the phases (seasons, elements, atmospheres) within themselves. Within each thing is contained all things. In the seed is the tree; in the tree is the forest. Life forms are stations for the reception and transmission of forces, through which all are nourished. Each thing exists to nourish all others and, in return, to be nourished itself. In this manner, each kingdom of nature serves to receive and transmit life. These forces are not all material, but include subtle energies of a finer nature. In the world, a central sun is also the source of life. The inner sun is our true self.” –Vasant Lad, The Yoga of Herbs
Spring marks the early rising Yang and solar part of the year, where we begin to enjoy the increasing sunlight hours, with earlier dawns and later sunsets. The weather warms the earth as plants begin to sprout and put forth green leaves. During spring the subtlety and vastness of the universe, the intelligence and intuition of the human being, the ability of the earth to produce, the natural movement of the wind, and the upward motion of all plants, collectively produce the movement of the tendons, the metaphorical opening of the eyes and the ability to envision, and the emotion of anger when movement is suppressed. Most fruits and trees are immature and unripe at this time, thus the taste associated with Spring is sour. This flavor, in moderation, strengthens the liver, the organ associated with Spring, allowing the blood to nourish the tendons and tendomuscular channels in the body. These are all associated with the liver because the liver is responsible for maintaining the patency of the flow of energy in the body, and its nature is movement and expansion.
Wood is the element of the Spring and the liver. The element of wood represents the wood we burn in the fireplace or use to build a table as well as the original nature of wood. The Chinese character is a picture of the trunk and roots of a tree. It is a graphic expression of the vertical thrust of the wood that shoots upward and moves with great determination toward the light, as well as the downward push of the roots sinking deep into the soil. The element wood includes the twigs and branches that quiver in the Spring wind and the green leaves. It is the energy of Spring, of new beginnings, progressive movement and reaching toward the future as well as the qualities of fiber and suppleness that give an organism the ability to maintain integrity through the storm winds of growth and transformation.
The three months of the spring season bring out the revitalization of all things in nature. It is the time of birth. During this season it is advisable to retire early. Arise early also and go walking in order to absorb the fresh, invigorating energy. Since this is the season in which the universal energy begins anew and rejuvenates, one should attempt to correspond to it directly by being open, fluid and unsuppressed, both physically and emotionally. On the physical level it is good to exercise more frequently and wear loose-fitting clothing. On the mental and emotional level, this is a time for planting seeds, inviting growth, envisioning, planning, directing, and making decisions. By cultivating active yang energy in the Spring and Summer, we follow the universal order and natural law, thus treating disease by preventing illness before it begins.
Without adequate rest, introspection, meditation, nourishment and warmth during the previous Winter months, the Spring winds and strong vertical movement and energy of growth, can impact us negatively. Because the liver is most affected by Spring, we can experience irritability, impatience, depression and outburst during the spring unless we are working with the energies of the season. Ways to support the liver in the Spring are through increased movement, herbs to support the liver and digestion, increased diaphragmatic breathing, and nutritional support.
Spring is the time to eat warm, ascending mildly sweet foods such as young, green, sprouting above-ground vegetables, as well as leafy greens that support gentle detoxification. In early spring, try cabbage, sweet potato, carrot and beetroot. As the weather changes, move to mint, sweet rice, shitake mushrooms, peas, sunflower seeds, pine nuts and in late spring, cherries. Gently warming pungent foods are also particularly good for spring. These include fennel, oregano, rosemary, caraway, dill, bay leaf, grains, legumes and seeds. Pungent flavored foods stimulate circulation of Qi and blood, moving energy up and out. Further, Spring wind can affect the liver, causing dizziness, cramps, itching, headaches, ringing in the ears and dryness. There are several foods that reduce the effects of wind, including oats, pine nuts, ginger, fennel and basil, celery, mulberry, strawberry, black soybeans, black sesame, sage and chamomile. We recommend making a list of foods to incorporate during this time, and leaving it on the fridge.
Herbs that cleanse and tonify are potent ways to support us in the Spring. Some of these herbs include: Milk thistle for detox, peppermint for mood-elevation, invigoration when we feel stuck, and digestive support, dandelion for liver cleansing and PMS symptoms accompanied with digestive discomfort, and chelidonium as a liver tonic for appetite disturbance, clarity of vision and ease of emotional strain. Living Tea carries a good “Spring” tincture called The Free and Easy Wanderer, used for Relaxation, Detoxification and PMS symptoms, although it is great for anyone under a lot of stress at this time of the year.
The teas in the Spring collection are also a wonderful place to start. We recommend drinking teas that are slightly warming and sweet to support the spleen and stomach, which represent the earth element and balance the strong wood energy of Spring. We also include slightly “spicy” and smoky teas to support the circulation of energy in the body, aligning with spring energy. Finally, we suggest teas that have a mildly upward sweeping Qi, enlivening and invigorating, to match the increased activity of the season. For these purposes, we recommend three types of tea: Oolong, young and mid-aged Sheng Puerh, and lighter red teas.
The Collection
Living Tea seeks out farms or wild tea gardens that have a healthy, reverent relationship to all aspects of tea production. The following are qualities of a Living Tea: seed propagation instead of trees from grafted clippings with shallow roots, plenty of room for the trees to grow instead of tight rows like you see on tea plantations, biodiverse growing regions instead of clear-cut mountainsides or valleys, growing practices that avoid all chemicals including pesticides, chemical weed-killers and fertilizers, no irrigation, and living wages for all employees.
With our Spring Collection, we offer you essential examples of the three categories of Spring Teas. We have chosen larger quantities of each tea for the Spring Collection as well as one ceremonial grade tea, and thus there is one less tea than the Winter Collection. Finally, we wish to clarify a simple observation that while loose-leaf Living Tea appears to be more expensive than commercial store-bought tea, this is not the case because the leaves can be steeped many times due to the qualities of a Living Tea, imparting far more cups of tea than a box of satchel plantation tea.
SPRING TEA SERVINGS: We recommend using 2-3 gm of tea per session. The poetic description, in terms of quantity, is leaves on the forest floor in the Autumn. The modern translation is to use enough leaves to cover the bottom of the pot, but still see through the leaves. This is true as a general rule of thumb for all teas included in this collection.
BREWING SPRING TEAS: We recommend brewing these lighter, more delicate teas with water around 190-195F/ 88-90C, which you can identify because noticeably larger bubbles, called “fish eyes” will start to float up more frequently. Once you start to see strings of bubbles, called string-of-pearls, it is closer to 200F/ 90C, and you can take it off the burner to cool down slightly. Pour off the first flash steeping to “awaken the leaves,” and brew the first five to six steepings for very short amounts of time (2-4 seconds). This practice of short steepings is different than European tea whereby you steep the tea for a long time.
Welcome Fragrance –Charcoal Mid-Roast Dong Ding Oolong from Nantou, Taiwan
The perfect spring tea due to its combined qualities of woody, toasty, sweet flavors, impressions of rain in the forest, and slightly invigorating, fluttering qi. Dong Ding is one of the more beloved and well-known of all Oolong teas, receiving its name from the same place as the original Dong Ding bushes- Wuyi Mountain in China. The name, meaning “frozen summit,” refers to the high mountains and cold temperatures that the trees can endure, making it a hearty Oolong. Traditional Dong Ding oolongs are masterfully roasted, lending them a warming Qi and flavor, ideal for early Spring. The robust trees yield strong leaves that can be infused many times. You may notice the wonderful aroma of the brew and thus the name, which opens the senses.
BEST TIME TO ENJOY: We enjoy this tea in the morning, finding the strong aroma and uplifting brew a perfect start to the day. We also like to do three short brews in the morning, then leave the leaves for three more short brews during the afternoon lull. Drinking this tea after 6 pm might keep one up at night, but this depends on sensitivity to caffeine as the level is moderate in this tea.
Moonlight White – White compressed tea from Daqing Village, Jinggu, Yunnan 2017
With a stunning succession of notes, Moonlight White opens like a flower with sips that transform from fruit, melon, slight cherry and honey to deep, rich, floral flavors. Somewhere between a red and white tea, yet processed in cakes like most Yunnanese Puerh, Moonlight White refuses to fit neatly into any category. The processing is simple and minimal like most white tea by way of picking, withering and drying. Though, this particular tea is richer in flavor than most white tea because it comes from old-growth, large leaf trees and consequently requires longer withering and drying than Silver Needle (only bud) or Bai Mu Dan. The large leaves, old trees, high altitude (1600 M) and unique processing impart a strong earthy complexity, while still maintaining the delicate celestial nature of other white teas.
BEST TIME TO ENJOY: We particularly enjoy Moonlight White in the late Spring as it maintains a gently uplifting Qi, fresh briskness, refreshing depth and hydrating quality in the burgeoning seasonal heat. Moonlight White is a mild, subtle tea best enjoyed in the afternoon at sunset.
Grace – Gao Li Gong Ceremonial Sheng Puerh from Lincang, Yunnan, China 2007
Grace is an extraordinary ceremonial grade mid-aged Sheng Puerh from very old trees (800-1000 years). The leaves come from the birthplace of all tea, in Lincang, Yunnan China, and were harvested in 2007. The Gao Li Gong Mountains are located in the Western Yunnan Highlands straddling the border of South China and Northern Myanmar (Burma). This protected World Biosphere Nature Reserve is home to an incredible array of plant and animal species, including these remote old-growth tea trees. Living Tea is lucky to get such remote, old-growth trees from a pristine nature reserve. The clarity of the terroir is evident in the strong Qi and clean, pure brew. The clarity of Grace makes it a nice tea for Springtime- detoxifying, cleansing and awakening.
BEST TIME TO ENJOY: We like this tea early in the morning as the sun comes up. The slight smoky spice of the tea reflects the ability of the tea to move stagnant energy in the body, thus making it a great morning Springtime tea. Also, the big leaves make it great to brew directly in a bowl. Finally, this tea can be brewed with hotter water around 200F/ 93C.
Peaceful Sleep – An Mian GABA Oolong from Nantou, Taiwan
We decided to include a sample of GABA Oolong for days when the flurry of Spring activity has left you a bit stressed out. Naturally occurring gamma alpha-butyric acid in this tea inhibits the firing of neurons in the brain, which creates feelings of calm and peace. We enjoy the honey flavor and fruit undertones with the thick, mellifluous body of the brew.
BEST TIME TO ENJOY: One of the most requested teas from Living Tea and ideal for afternoon or evening when you are looking for relaxation. Sleepytime tea.