teakkurim

18 shvat 5781  i have been using the word qi a lot in this blog. i think a lot of it is wishful thinking. i want to think i am perceptive and can sense the energetics of tea. i believe i can to some degree, but any evaluation or judgment of qi in a tea should be balanced with the fact that i am fairly amateurish. i do have a better sense for tea than the average person and i do have an above average sense of plant energetics but i am nowhere near the most experienced or the most perceptive. i want to be. i hope to be, but for now, i just aint there yet.   where does my experience with qi come from? it’s a little hodgepodge. i have done a little bit of qi gong and tai chi with a couple different teachers. mainly, when i lived in north Carolina in the black mountains, one of our neighbors just graduated acupuncture school. he was friends with a bunch of us at the farm which he happened to have previously worked at, and he would hang out with us and on tuesdays we’d do qi gong with him. h

15 shvat 5781 today is the jewish new year of the trees. yaaaaaay!  like mnay jewish holidays it occurs on the full moon for extra magic sparkles.   why is today the new year of the trees you may ask. the tradition holds that during this time of year is when the sap in the trees starts flowing. this is a transition for the trees’ life cycle and is the beginning of them ‘waking up’ for spring.   this holiday was originally a time for israelites to mark when trees were planted or started bearing fruit for detaied tithing reasons that i dont fully understand... in the 1500s, kabbalists started to reframe the holiday in a new light choosing to focus on fruits and the beauty trees bring to our world. these sages developed a seder similar in style to Passover where people would gather to eat fruit, drink wine, and share teachings about nature. incase you didn’t know, there are a lot of teachings in Judaism about trees. the foundational ‘tree of life’ being just the beginning.    part of this

14 shvat 5781   my landmate asked me why do i like tea. it became a complicated answer.   why do i like tea? am i drinking it now for pure enjoyment? honestly, no. sometimes yes, but sometimes, no. presently, i spend a lot of time studying tea. i am judging it. i am evaluating it. and sometimes, i am disappointed by it. this certainly doesn’t sound fun and makes me sound like a jaded parent. so why am i doing this to myself?   i will get optimistic first before i dive into my personal existential hole of skepticism.    during the summer i would sit out in the yard on a blanket, pour tea, watch the birds, occasionally read from a book, and bask in the sun’s warmth. i was very happy doing this and i was enjoying myself. my gaiwan looked elegant and graceful sitting atop the hewn stump. the leaves glistened under the sunlight and the liquid sparkled as i poured it into my cup. as the weather grew drearier, i would sit inside drinking pour after pour and spend lots of time going over books

8 shvat 5781  ah business. it helps supply us with tea and helps lighten our suppl of money. economics. capitalism. supply and demand. other word$. the tea trade is a business and it is a pretty big one in China. with the growth of Chinese tea consumption in the west and also the growth in China's overall domestic economy, the tea trade has become an even bigger business. this brings more money into rural villages hopefully also brings an improvement in quality of life. but these tea companies are not magnanimous do-gooders no matter how much they advertise all the 'good' they are doing for tea farmers. they are trying to make money. and that’s fine, don’t let me stop you from getting your bags (unless you do so underhandedly and by deceiving people. then screw you).     some of these companies are run entirely by well-to-do westerners and they are aiming their marketing at other well to do westerners. some of these companies are run by people from Yunnan and other tea prod

6 shvat 5781   ive only recently started properly putting my teaware to ‘bed.’ i used to quickly wash my gaiwan out right after drinking my tea. i would wash it with my fingers and hot water from the kitchen sink and put it aside to air dry. i was surprised when i started to see tea stains. why would those appear? i washed it out immediately after using, how was it getting stained?   firstly, i am not opposed to tea stains. i do not believe if someone drinks from something that has tea stains they are any less of a person. i am not normally someone to be this persnickety about things like this. i am a grungy garbage princess, why should this matter to me?    my generic tea mug (that i bought at the salvation army ten years ago that i still have and still use daily) that i drink herbal tea out of every morning has hella tea stains. i definitely do not wash it every day, nuh uh. but i care about my gaiwan not having stains. that’s just the way i am. for now at least.   i have also come t

3 tevet 5781  my go to teas in the winter are puers and aged white teas. im here for the fresh sheng as well as the aged. this doesn’t sound like a big revelation because these are already teas i really like independent of the season. these are my go to teas in addition to dan congs so there is nothing too astounding about this revelation. so why do i like them during this time of year in particular? im about to get kinda woo, look out.   in the winter i spend more time indoors than i wish i did. i still go out into the woods and go for walks, but i have a hard time with the cold. its not bad out here in the PNW, but im still indoors more than i wish i was. i need the woods and being outside to not get too depressed. it makes me happy and helps me connect to the world and the things i love in it. the less im outside, the less i get to connect in that way and i have to find other ways to connect. tea is one of those ways for me.   puer and white tea both hold a certain qi that i really

  25 tevet 5781 i bought some things from white2tea recently. people online like them so i felt i should give it a try. their prices seem pretty high and their design style looks like they are marketed for a boujee-er audience. but i wanted to check out the cheaper end of their catalogue and see if their more affordable options were still decent. i bought some 2020 sheng and some dan congs.   after my purchase i came across an unsettling eye sore. a white tea cake with a picture of a kohen gadol, a jewish high priest. what?! not only that, but the kohen gadol looks like it was drawn by a someone who is a New Age Esotericist illustrating a Tarot card after reading a book about “Q”abbalah.   why is this on a tea cake? what does a kohen gadol have to do with this white2tea cake from Yunnan? did they ask anyone jewish whom they know? i very much doubt it was picked or processed by a jew. i also doubt that it was given a heksher.    the cake is named “Censer” for the described camphor and i

24 tevet 5781 i don’t care about reviews that wax poetic about the detailed flavors or aromas of teas. i don’t want a play by play description of each infusion and how they compare. is this because i am too impatient? probably. is this because of my disgruntled relationship with the internet and information overload? also probably. i have too many books i need to read and i greatly prefer those than reading off of a screen and scrolling through blog posts (it makes my head hurt). i used to read a lot of food blogs and got very sick of the tired out tropes and back flips people would do to find new ways of describing the same thing. don’t worry, ill get there too and you can roll your eyes at my over use of the phrases ‘faint forest floor aroma’ or ‘reminiscent of the pungent bouquet found in a furry costume rental.’ what i want to write in these pieces is my experience with different teas. i want to share the stories behind them, how i found them, where i got it, what i learned from it

  21 tevet 5781 after the previous samples ( 1 & 2 ) i tried from, Puerh Shop i was getting pessimistic about the teas and also about my own knowledge of how to distinguish between a tea’s quality and my quality as a tea drinker. thankfully, i liked this sample more.   it is not super flavorful, but has more discernable flavors. there is that familiar puer ‘leathery’ taste, a pleasant smokiness, some mushroom flavor, and some nice earthiness. it also has a little more thickness and coating of the mouth, not much, but more than the previous 7542’s. the listing says it is from the Bulang region so i will have to see if other Bulang cakes share some of these same flavors (ie: earthy and smoky).   the PS website says it was aged in Kunming for 10 years and im guessing this was natural/dry storage. the broth is darker than the 1998 7542 which makes me more confident that the 1998 might not be from 1998 (or it has just been kept in very dry conditions). the pictures don’t do a good job

19 tevet 5781 i like to keep things simple. partly out of necessity and partly out of stress. less things means less to worry about and i, like many, already have enough to worry about.   gaiwan. cup. water. just the basics. but because i  am  not  ‘basic,’ there are a few twists.   my gaiwan is a nice, petite, white gaiwan. just like me.   it is 60ml and i bought it from Yunnan Sourcing for under $6 plus shipping. i am a delicate little bird, so i like the small size of this gaiwan so my tea sessions can be reasonable. id rather have two separate small sessions than one larger size one anyway so i can try different teas.   i actually have two of these small gaiwans. why? because i broke the lid on the first one just one week into owning it. the lid of my second one lasted not much longer. so now i have two gaiwan bowls and no lid, what am i to do? thankfully, the lid from one of my thrift store ‘Chinese’ style tea pots fits my gaiwan! yes, the lip has an edge that catches some small l

17 tevet 5781   i needed to make sure the name for this blog was properly fitting. it needed to be an accurate reflection of myself and what i want this blog to be.   this is one of the big things that holds up the weird stories i write. i want every character‘s name to be dense with layered metaphors and allusions and to have layers upon layers of hidden meanings. when i cant think of a good name i get stuck in my tracks. it's silly. thankfully, my blog writing is a little less uptight.     nevertheless, the name i chose for this blog had to fit that criteria. it had to be layered. it had to be jewish. and it had to have a cheesy tea pun in it. well readers, i am proud to say that i accomplished my mission.   teakkurim. where does ‘teakkurim’ come from?     the first part comes from the word ‘tea.’ ahhhhh. 'tea' is the American English word for the British English word for the Chinese word ‘Tu/Te,’ which means ‘bitter herb.’ ‘Tu/Te’ is one of the many Chinese regional name