Chigusa, a Cinderella Story

I recently visited a fellow tea adventurer in Virginia and she took me to see the Chigusa exhibit at the Freer-Sackler Museums of Asian Art at the Smithsonian. COOL!  Chigusa, a tea storage jar of Chinese origin from the thirteenth or fourteenth century, tells an important story related to chanoyu history.  But let me begin with my story of visiting the museum and a docent named Lois.  She guided us through the museum, our small party discussing ancient Chinese artifacts.  Then she escorted us to the Chigusa exhibit where we enjoyed a private tour.  She knew of our interest in tea and she took a portion of her busy day to spend extra time with us. Thank you Lois! Now allow me to tell you the Cinderella story.

Chigusa started as a humble storage jar, mass-produced in China for export. But in Japan, tea people had yet to make this glaze, and it was appreciated for its color and texture. In addition, the size of the jar allowed for storage of an ample amount of tea.  (One of the things that struck me about seeing the jar in person was its size.  It's larger than I anticipated.)  The third desired feature was the lightness of the jar, due to a special manufacturing technique in which the top curve is flattened to reduce heft. So then the jar received its name, Chigusa - myriad grasses or thousand flowers - and its dressings of finery (the blue cording). All dressed up, and like Cinderella, Chigusa went to the ball living a celebrated life as a special named object.

 

Chigusa is important to tea people and historians because of the story it and its accouterments tell.  There is much documentation about its life and ownership progression.  For example, the boxes above were added by a series of owners, each contributing documentation to the story. Chigusa has also been written about in the tea records of the period, allowing scholars to understand how these tea utensils were valued and used in the period from several different perspectives.

If you happen to be in DC before July 27th, the exhibit is well worth your time.  (And it's free!)  I also learned that if you are in DC after the exhibit closes, you can contact the museum to arrange for a private viewing of Chigusa.  (They do that!)  If  you've seen the exhibit, I'd love for you to share your highlights.

Here is an excellent article about Chigusa:  http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/29335 

Images from the Freer Sackler museum.  The exhibit did not allow photography.

Making Shiro An (White Bean Paste)

"Mountain" of Shiro An

Shiro an, a white bean paste that is lightly sweetened, is the base of so many Japanese  tea sweets.  And I love it.  Love it.  LOVE it!  I know that sweetened bean paste sounds funny to Americans, but it really IS good!  When I began studying chanoyu, I had no idea how much I would come to love the sweets that go along with the tea.  What a wonderful surprise!  And sweets with shiro an are one of my favorites.

While it's possible to buy the red bean paste in the Asian markets around here, it is not possible to find the white paste.  So earlier this year I tried making it myself.  My sensei had prepared me well for the all-day process!  You can find her detailed steps here.  If you attempt this, please do use her recipe.  My notes below don't include all the steps.

First you buy dried Lima beans and sort through them, then let them soak overnight. Then comes the part that was hardest for me: Peeling the skins off the beans.  I was making a big batch (because you don't want to do this very often!), and so I had a lot of skins to remove.  Fortunately, they slip off easily.

Then you enter into several rounds of bringing the beans to a bowl and changing the water.  Repeat, repeat until the beans are falling apart.  Then you send the beans through the food processor.  Now you let the liquids and solids separate, draining off the liquid (this also takes several rounds).

Finally, you are ready to add some sugar.  Add the sugar in small increments and stir, stir, stir until  it is the right consistency.  Whew!  

Still needs to be a little thicker - keep stirring!

Fortunately, shiro an freezes really well and will make for many happy tea times in the future!  The bean paste is very mold-able and flexible.  It can be colored and made into interesting shapes, traditionally something that suggests the season.  If you ever get the opportunity to try a sweet made with shiro an, please do!  It's naturally gluten free and fat free, too.  And there's only a little sugar.  Big on taste and texture!

Everlasting Summer

Margie sensei making tea

Toko Natsu Zuki

Everlasting Summer

Everlasting summer - A lovely poetic phrase that reflects today's long hours of sun.  

I had the intimidating but wonderful privilege today to be host and make tea at the Japanese Garden, my first time giving a demonstration tea here. As is true each time I make tea, the experience is unique and full of lessons.  Despite my shaking hands, I managed to make it through reasonably well. After making tea, I also enjoyed the gift of being a guest.  

Below I will share some pictures and the flow of being a guest.

We walked to the tea room by way of the peaceful garden path

Oh, I should mention that today is the first time I dressed in kimono all by myself.  :-) It only took 2.5 hours.

Receiving the sweet before the tea

Scooting forward to retrieve my bowl of tea

Joining the first guest to drink a bowl of tea

Enjoying the delicious bowl of tea

Taking a farewell look at the tokonoma, with the scroll and flower

The day was glorious!  An easy temperature; not hot, not cold, a subtle breeze, a fat robin hopping around with a worm. What a wonderful way to spend the solstice!

Astoria, OR

View of the bridge crossing the Columbia River from Oregon to Washington.  And just beyond, where the Columbia meets the Pacific Ocean.  This is one of the most treacherous shipways in the whole world.

Last weekend, the DH and I took a short trip to the Oregon and Washington coast.  Our first night was in Astoria, OR.  Astoria is the first non-Native permanent settlement in the Pacific Northwest.  It's a vibrant shipping town.  While it has developed some tourism commerce, the community hasn't lost that sense of its hard working roots.  I appreciate that. We very much enjoyed our time here.  We walked the riverfront and roamed the neighborhoods.  There is a very good maritime museum that explains how ships enter the Columbia from the Pacific. (It's a wild ride!)

Rose River Inn, where we stayed.  Our room had a small sun porch with a view of the river.  It was great!

An Astoria Riverpark that looks over the ships waiting to head further up the river (many to Portland)

Making tea on that Riverpark.  That's me, all bundled up.  It was breezy and cool, but still quite pleasant.  I think the photo makes the weather seem worse than it really was.  It was dry!  :-)

Astoria Column, a tower that overlooks the city.  It was built by a descendant of John Jacob Astor.

The trolley is a lot of fun.  For $1, you can get an hour's guided tour about the town's history and the riverfront.

Have you been to Astoria?

In Kimono...

Stephanie and fellow Chanoyu student

Here's a picture from a recent Japanese Tea event.  We were celebrating the 35th anniversary of a local Urasenke tea association.  It was a big-deal event!  Representatives came from all over the United States to help celebrate this anniversary.  I was "Hakobi" which means I carried bowls of tea to the guests.  They would have been sitting on the tatami mats behind me.  It was a lot of work, a lot of fun and I learned a lot, too!

Red Bench Tea

 Last weekend, I took my thermos and some Japanese green tea to the garden.  My goal: deep relaxation.  I sat and watched the DH (dear hubby) do his thing.  We have an agreement.  He grows it; I love it.  

Sencha, strawberry and thyme flowers

How do you like to relax?

Meatless Monday: Sorrel-Hazelnut Pesto (Vegan)

 Sorrel pesto

This pesto is so good, I promise you, you won't miss the Parmesan cheese! And if you don't have a source of sorrel, don't worry.  Sorrel adds a vibrant lemony flavor to this dish, but the recipe works well with other greens.  This pesto would make a delicious filling for a tea sandwich.

This recipe originally came from Portland Magazine.  

Sorrel-Hazelnut Pesto (Vegan)

1 cup sorrel, loosely packed

1 cup parsley, firmly packed (OK to keep stems)

3 green onions, roughly chopped

1 clove garlic

1/2 cup hazelnuts (we use raw hazelnuts; OK to leave skins on; they get chopped up)

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/2 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 lemon, juiced (1.5 Tbsp)

• Pulse first 6 ingredients in a food processor  until finely minced.
• Add oil in a steady stream, scraping down sides as needed.  (I can't add oil while my processor is running so I add a bit, whirl, stop and scrape, add a bit more, whirl, etc.)
• Add salt and lemon juice; whirl to combine.

Keeps in fridge for a week.  Freezes well, too!

Lunch at Ten Ren Tea, Taiwan

The English Text in the upper left reads, "Pu-Erh Vegetarian Tea Cuisine"

A tea person could go a little happy crazy at Ten Ren Tea in Taiwan.  First there's the gorgeous teaware. And then there's the restaurant, which not only serves delicious food with tea as a theme, but also includes vegetarian options.  And to cap it all, there's a tea school at the top.  Sigh!

We enjoyed lunch at Ten Ren in Taiwan.  The meal consisted of several small courses.  Mine included: 

Matcha Drinking Vinegar - VERY good!

Salad with a light dressing, soup with dumpling and loofah squash with noodles (not shown)

Main course:  Mushrooms and veggies in a pu-erh sauce (delicious!)

Dessert:  Purple rice mousse

To my fellow traveling companions - what do you remember having?

Ten Ren Tea in Taipei, Taiwan

In Taiwan, the retail tea company Ten Ren is a big deal. (You may also see it called Tenfu Tea.)  We visited a shop during the Taiwan Tea Tour.  The first floor was retail, including teas, equipment and tea snacks. Upstairs was a restaurant (a future post!) and a tea school.  The company is associated with Tenfu Tea College and the Lu Yu Institute.

Here are some of the beauties I found browsing in the retail part of the shop.

Ten Ren also has shops in North America. Like any good retail shop, they sell tea and equipment in a range of price points and qualities.  One of my favorite aspects was the tea snacks.  I came home with black tea-walnut chewy candies.  Do you know Ten Ren teas?

DiversiTEA

DiversiTEA

One of the things that fascinates me about tea is its diversity.  In the picture above (from a recent Wu-Wo gathering), I sampled (left to right) Bai Hao oolong, Dong Ding (traditional style) oolong, Matcha powdered tea, and charcoal roasted Dong Ding oolong.  The color, aroma, flavor, and mouth feel of each tea was unique.  I love this range of experiences!

Tea Sage Hut

It's so hard to believe it's been a year since I was at Tea Sage Hut in Miaoli, Taiwan.  I think it's taken a year for me to unpack my experiences from the Taiwan trip (and I'm not done!).  The official tea tour with Floating Leaves had come to a close.  After saying our goodbyes, two tea-loving friends and I made our way by train to the Tea Sage Hut.

Miaoli is located in the area of Taiwan that grows my beloved Bai Hao oolong (Oriental Beauty).  That tea was the first to open my mind to the exquisite nuances accessible in tea.  I was excited to be here!  My friend L had been living at the center as a student for several months.  I remember hugging her for a really long time when she and the other center residents came out to greet us.  When a friend lives far away, there is a special joy in reunion. 

Once we had been settled, we were  invited to a tea session in the gorgeous space above. We drank many rounds of raw (sheng) pu-erh.  This tea was from Laos.  It was organic, and from the same forest as Yunnan (humans making the dividing lines, not nature).

Tea Sage Hut offers tea and meditation instruction/experience, lodging, wonderful vegetarian meals, trips to nearby cities, and bowls and bowls of tea.  One of my favorite things about my time there was the tea sessions held in silent contemplation.  

Staying at the center is free. There are dorm-style sleeping quarters and meals are made communally.  You are welcome to make a donation, with the idea of paying for future travelers, as others have already paid for you.  

My experience of life at the center:  The day starts with a meditation session about 7 am.  Next, there is a healthy breakfast (we had oatmeal with  cacao nibs and pumpkin seeds, and fruit).  After that, there is often a tea session (this can last a good hour or two or more!).  Daily tasks are attended to until the lunch time.  Lunch is the largest meal of the day and is made with much festivity.  After lunch, perhaps another tea session and other business.  About 4 pm, the permanent residents head out to the English language school where they work.  Dinner is light and there are often evening meditation and tea sessions.  Sometimes, people take day trips to nearby towns or tea farms.  We visited San Yi.

Around Miaoli

Drinking tea mindfully is an experience offered in abundance at the Tea Sage Hut.  It's something I value tremendously. While there, I had the opportunity to encounter a place of my own tenderness.  During one tea session, tears streamed down my face.  It was OK. I had friends to give me hugs.  It was a gift to learn more about myself.

I Can't Get Enough of Tea Photos...

A year later and I'm still sorting through Taiwan Tea Tour photos.  

This one, from Pinglin Taiwan, just showed itself.  My hand and such beautiful leaf.

Meatless Monday: Salad Bar and Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

My version of a salad bar

I invited some friends over for lunch recently and we had a "salad bar."  It was fun, colorful and delicious.  I provided the green salad and toppings and my friends brought other side dishes.  The greens (red leaf lettuce; collard greens; brocolli leaves, a special kind for the greenery and sprouts; parsley), chives and radishes all came from the DH's garden.

Chive blossoms

We finished up with rhubarb upside down cake, also courtesy of the DH.  Oh, yummy!  By the way, everything shown here is vegan.

Rhubarb upside down cake

More on Bowl-Style Brewing

Preparing to brew bowl style

Sometimes things just come together. I had been thinking about my time in Taiwan and experiences with bowl-style brewing (also sometimes called "Grandpa" style, at least in the US). Shiuwen of Floating Leaves had recommended bowl-style for the  Hong Shui (red water) tea  I had been drinking. Then I received some tea from Global Tea Hut that also recommended bowl-style brewing!

Today I had the opportunity to share tea with friends and tried out this style of brewing again.  It's fun and straight-forward.  However, I learned an important lesson.  Use LESS tea than you would if brewing gong fu style.  I overdid it on our second tea and we had quite robust brews.

Some tips for brewing this style:
* Prewarm the bowls by pouring in hot water and then pouring off.
* Have a waste water bowl (any large bowl will do) nearby for the pouring off.
* Use less tea than you think you might need!  A trial run in the bowls you plan to use will help with this!  I got it half right.  I had done a trial, but in different bowls.  I had the proportions way off.
* Engage all your senses.  This type of brewing is very intimate with the tea.

Here's more on this topic from those who know far more than I:
Floating Leaves (blog)
A Tea Addict's Journal (blog)
Global Tea Hut (video; Please note that the brewer, Wu De, has brewed thousands of bowls of tea.  Use this as a general guide and don't compare yourself.)
"Big Bowl Tea" pictures and a bit of history (news article)

Let me know if you give this style of brewing a try.  I'd love to hear about it!