Enjoying Tea in Chinese Culture

With the leaves turning colors in autumn glory, my recent daily choice of tea tends to be a darker oolong with thicker mouth feel and deeper character profile.  During my talk at Homewood Retirement Center about enjoying tea in Chinese culture, I showed off a rare Puer tea brick gifted to me a few years ago when I was in Taiwan during the tea plantation visit. 

 

A fun thing I just discovered by looking at the above picture is that my choice of outfit and tea displays harmoniously reflect the seasonal color without any purposely intention.  What an instinct when dealing with the subject of tea!

Frederick downtown "tea hop" event

For last week's "tea hop" event, I captioned each photo in the album to serve as a brief event review. The participants were mostly of young millennium generation and what a joy to see their enthusiasm in trying out new teas and learning about the Chinese culture through tea serving!

Fun with afternoon teatime

This coming Saturday:

First Tea Hop in historic downtown Frederick

A young mind sure is creative!  An AmeriCorps volunteer at Asian American Center of Frederick designed an innovative tea appreciation event in light of the abundant tea shops in Frederick. I will be giving a pre-hop talk to introduce three varieties of Chinese tea and the role of tea plays in Chinese daily life and cultural arts.

Here are articles for perusal before my presentation:
A. Tea and general health
B. Tea and specific health related issues
C. Tea composition

Perfect Settig for Mid-autumn Moon Viewing

 

Today is lunar new year's August 15, the mid-autumn festival day for full moon viewing.  A good friend knowing my love for opera and ballet sent me an e-greeting featuring soprano Lucia Popp's "Song to the Moon" (from Dvořák's opera Rusalka).  What a beautiful combination to view the moon while listening to her illuminating voice pouring out the delicate poem from the heart.  Adding a pot of light green tea and few moon cakes, I think, would be an ideal poetic setting for moon viewing tonight! 

Downton Abbey Tea Set

I was happily surprised upon spotting the English breakfast tea service set among Downton Abbey costume exhibit at Winterthur Museum.  It was tucked in a corner in the servant costume display area.  The fruit basket, rolled London newspaper and ironed cloth napkin--pure English elegance!

Besides costume display, my friends were happily surprised as well when I made Oolong tea for them with my petite tea set during the break.