Finding the Tea Qi: I'm Putting Together A Team...

The crew assembles. You will notice a certain resemblance in the toad. You can't see it in the pictures, but it really does have three legs, and is why I wanted to make this post.

As I have mentioned several times before, my firm belief is that tea drinking, and particularly gongfu style tea drinking, is a vibes based hobby. It's not about maximizing this or that, or finding the most efficient whatever, it's about relaxing into it, connecting everything to a story or a memory or a feeling.

Case in point- you probably recognize the Little Tea Venerable, and the coarse looking gaiwan behind him. Those came from Yunnan Sourcing, and were my first exposure to Yixing clay, highly prized for it's ability to slowly build up tea oils within it over years. Subtly influencing the flavor, but more than that, they become pots and cups (and tea pets) that you 'raise.' The gaiwan and Little Tea Venerable have been dedicated to Raw Pu'erh. Other pots have other uses. My cat mug, which is non-porus porcelin, is doing the heavy lifting on black tea, for example.

The warrior, called "the master" on Tao Teaware's site, was chosen both for it's looks and because it was a youtube short by the owner of Tao Teaware that gave me the phrase "Tea is a vibes based hobby." It seemed the least I could do. I also picked up a little tea pot (not pictured) and it came with a flight of tea samplers. So far, I've only tried the white tea, and it's absolutely killer.

The tray, and the little teapot in the back? Those come from a local teahouse here in Boston. The tray is... beautiful. The picture really doesn't do it justice, but her whole site is full of things I want to buy but can't justify buying. I wound up pulling the trigger on it because, well, they are running a massive sale and they are moving their tea house to just a couple of blocks from where I grew up. So... worthwhile. And look at that picture! Two cranes flying off a magcal looking mountain? Golden immortal mists?

Then there is the last arrival, the three legged toad. This is another one I found through a youtube channel, and it's really interesting. There is a (tiny, as these things go) tea factory in Yunnan called BaiYun Teahouse. They have leased their own ancient tea arbors on one of the most prized mountains for Pu'erh, and sell what sure looks like VERY high end tea. Expensive enough that I am reluctant to even order samplers. But they do also sell unique tea pets.

Ten seconds with image search will tell you that toad is not, in fact, unique to BaiYun Teahouse. So why do I say it is?

Because these guys take the tea pets to a daoist temple to be blessed in the incense there. Really. There is video of him doing it. And the tea pet he is blessing in the video is none other than a three-legged, money fetching toad.

The toad comes from a story about a daoist immortal, was blessed at a daoist temple by a man coming down from a legendary mountain, and is now joining me for tea as I write stories about daoist immortals on a legendary mountain.

OH! The bowl the toad is sitting in, in one of the pictures? Picked it up from my local artists co-op, as it sits on a similarly economical, yet hand made, tray I found at a rural farmers market visiting my dad in Vermont. Bought straight from the potter who made it, in fact.

All that, and we haven't even gotten to the tea.

Fair to say I have fallen deep into a rabbit hole here. It's something that happens to me somewhat regularly. For a time, I was brewing my own mead, making my own beer and wine. Tea is a healthier hobby, though alarmingly, not necessarily cheaper.

I think I've bought all the teaware I can stand for the moment. Maybe if I find something special. Not just beautiful, it needs to connect to a memory, a story. An emotion.

I don't usualy relate to my physical things that way. I'm unsentimental about material things. When something has outlived it's usefulness or no longer sparks joy, it goes, even if I owned it for years. Buying things that I want to have a history with is... different. Feels different.

It occurs to me that serious denim heads would get what I'm talking about. There's a cross-over for you. Denim nerds and tea nerds joining hands to gang up on the people who buy a new iPhone every year.

Dear Reader, is there something you connect with? Something that has a history to it that you can connect with in your daily life?

Tell me about it. It seems the world is wonderfully full of stories.

-Warby