tranquiltuesdays

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Wintering in Between Lunar Years

It is the first few days of the Year of the Ox in the Chinese New Year based on the lunar calendar. 

Chinese New Year is supposed to be the heralding of the beginning of spring. And while spring is my favorite season, these past few months I learned a lot about embracing winter and the concept of wintering. 

One of my favorite podcasts “On Being” had an episode featuring the writer Katherine May discussing her book: “Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times.” I learned so much from the discussion between Katherine May and Krista Tippet about “How Wintering Replenishes” recording in “On Being.” 

This winter has been a really special one for me: I gave myself a lot of space and intentional structure to do some deep reflection and creating. One of the main things I’ve been thinking about is how to reimagine Tranquil Tuesdays moving forward. 

I spent many dark winter mornings dreaming my biggest most expansive dreams about how to continue sharing my love of Chinese tea with you in creative and engaging ways and it felt like magic. 

The exciting thing is during the cold quiet of winter, I developed a totally new vision for Tranquil Tuesdays moving forward ((compared to the one I started Tranquil Tuesdays with 11 years ago in Beijing) and have been working hard on creating and realizing this new vision! 

Be assured that at its core, Tranquil Tuesdays remains dedicated to showcasing Chinese tea to new audiences and revealing the richness of China’s ancient tea traditions. 

As we inch closer to the spring tea harvest season I will be sharing more and more of my new vision for how Tranquil Tuesdays could be a place of tranquil refuge and companion for deepening your relationship with tea. 

If you want a sneak preview, I started a new Tranquil Tuesdays tea instagram where I have started sharing a little bit of the new vision each Tuesday, please follow along on instagram...

Happy Tranquil Tuesdays!

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Tea article I wrote for Whetstone Magazine's W Journal! This piece has taken me 10 years to write. It has taken that long to crystallize all the thoughts about Chinese tea in the context of global markets which I have been contemplating for a while. In addition to the many tea travels, tea texts, conversations, and research I've done in the last 10 years to learn more about tea, I read three academic books specifically to provide more context to my thoughts for this piece. Thank you to Whetstone Magazine (https://www.whetstonemagazine.com/) for giving me a place to articulate them all.Whetstone Magazine is such a special place for food writing and it feels like the perfect home for this article which is a deep expression of my inner self. Read it here: https://www.whetstonemagazine.com/journal/its-time-to-decolonize-tea

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Some of Our Best Tea Adventure Stories Excited to share some of our longer narrative tea stories and adventures: The Incredible History of Oolong Tea in Northern Thailand https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/137101372935/i-recently-came-back-from-a-trip-to Visiting Tea Growers in Hawaii's Big Island https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/160813270160/tea-in-hawaii-the-most-beautiful-tea-garden-ive China's Day of the Dead and the Spring Tea Harvest https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/142028750030/qing-ming-jietomb-sweeping-festival-and-spring Finding Comfort in Tea in Ancient China https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/617919562788323328/finding-comfort-in-tea-in-ancient-china-and-now Tieguanyin Oolong Fall Tea Harvest in Anxi, Fujian https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/tagged/Iron-Goddess-of-Mercy-Oolong If you liked any of these stories and want to hear more, please visit and sign up for our newsletter: https://welcome.tranquiltuesdays.com/tea

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Tea Giveaway Donor's Report Thank you again to everyone who participated in our Tea Giveaway in Solidarity. Together we were able to meet our goal of raising $5,000 and were able to actually raise $5, 353. Above is a very handmade “donors report” I made as a thank you to everyone. Thanks to everyone’s generosity together we: had 49 participants participants from 12 different states and 5 different countries raised $5, 353.00 to support Justice for Breonna Taylor ($1, 314) Free Black Mamas National Bailout Fund ($1,680) Bronx COVID Mutual Aid Relief Fund ($2,359) had 5 generous shipping cost underwriters who together donated $650 which has covered 25 shipments so far still have 5 remaining shipments including 3 international shipments once finally shipping cost is tallied, we will consult with shipping donors about donating the remaining balance 13 donors who were entered to win the teacup set raffle winner announced here:https://youtu.be/aGgMIKuEBZs Thank you again everyone. It was such an encouraging pleasure to work together to support these organizations. I will keep on thinking of other ways we can come together as a tea loving community to support more social causes together in alignment with our founding social enterprise principle (https://www.tranquiltuesdays.com/about-us/womens-empowerment-se/) In the meantime, Breonna Taylor’s killers still remain free. Here are some phone numbers for all of us to call to demand justice for murder: If you want to just call one number this one 502-735-1784 will walk you through what to say and automatically and systematicaly connect you to elected Kentucky state officials, Louisville Metro Police Offices, one by one organized by: https://www.standwithbre.com/call OR YOU CAN CALL DIRECTLY Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer at (502)574-2003 and demand he fire the officers who murdered Breonna Taylor. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron at (502)696-5300 and demand he CHARGE the officers who murdered Breonna Taylor. Interim Police Chief Robert Schroeder at (502)574-7111 and demand he complete the investigation immediately and turn it over to Breonna’s lawyers and the Attorney General. Governor Beshear’s office: (502) 564 2611 District Attorney Tom Wine: (502) 595 2300

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PU'ER TEA! One of the most misunderstood, most polarizing, and most cloaked in mystique Chinese teas. There's so much to talk about. So much that this video is just the Pu'er Tea primer and overview, and I'll be covering the three most common misconceptions about Pu'er Tea in three subsequent videos. 1. Older is Better (not necessarily true!) 2. Fermentation and aging in relation to Pu'er (so much misinformation and confusion) 3. What Pu'er Tea Looks Like (not always dark bricks or discs!) In this video I'm using my 爷爷 (paternal grandfather)'s Yixing Teapot which holds 150mL (about 2/3 cup) of water, and 1 tbsp of loose leaf Pu'er Tea. I briefly mention the Ancient Tea Horse Trading Route in this video (we will talk about it a lot more in videos 2 and 3) but if you want to read more: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/34563836358/puer-and-the-ancient-tea-horse-road If you just can't wait to learn everything possible about Pu'er Tea here is everything I have written on the topic: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/tagged/Pu%27er+tea/page/2 To receive emails with invites to online tea hangouts in the “Tranquil Tuesdays Virtual Tea Room,” bite-sized how-to tea brewing videos delivered to your inbox, and for help finding moments of tranquility through tea, sign-up for our weekly newsletter at: https://welcome.tranquiltuesdays.com/tea If you have questions, please leave a comment below.

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Our Tranquility Manifesto

What does it mean to celebrate a "Tranquil Tuesday" every week in this contemporary moment and movement? Even though it does not feel tranquil in most of America today, and hasn't for weeks, and in fact truly has never been for our Black and Indigenous sisters and brothers in the last 400+ years, we take celebrating tranquility as a rallying cry. I wanted to keep on creating tea videos, sending weekly email newsletters, and keeping up our weekly Virtual Tea Room date because the spirit of Tranquil Tuesdays is creating tranquility, even and especially when things are not tranquil. After listening and talking with my Black sisters, my Asian American sisters, and all my friends and sisters who are allies and trying their best to be their best I know we are all exhausted. I wanted to create some tranquility for myself and for everyone who needs more tranquility in your life. Tea is my favorite way to find it and so I wanted to share that with you. And I don't mean pursuing tranquility as a convenient way to opt-out of the tough, messy, and complicated work of working towards a better community and society for all of us to live in. I mean creating tranquility as a robust challenge to find beauty, calm, and unity in the face of and in engagement with all the uncomfortable, unsettling, hard, and disturbing facts confronting us. Let's Create a Tranquil Tuesday Together, Charlene

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Cooling Down with Hot Tea Video Today we are drinking hot tea to cool down. Wait what? Yes, as paradoxical as it sounds, it is a principle grounded in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). You can learn more about the principles and ideas of TCM and how it relates to tea in this context please go here: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/pos... Heidi, the TCM practitioner who helped contribute some explanations which I mention in the video, her acupuncture practice is here: http://www.lovieacupuncture.com/ I'm making a Chinese green tea, a Mao Jian green tea from Zhejiang, China. I'm using water around 170 degrees Farenheit, 1 and 1/2 tsp of tea in 150ml of water. To receive emails with invites to online tea hangouts in the “Tranquil Tuesdays Virtual Tea Room,” bite-sized how-to tea brewing videos delivered to your inbox, and for help finding moments of tranquility through tea, sign-up for our weekly newsletter at: https://welcome.tranquiltuesdays.com/tea If you have questions, please leave a comment below.

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Cold brewing tea! YES this is the easiest way to enjoy loose leaf tea and a super simple way to create tasty cold refreshing beverages for hot weather. It really is the world's easiest 3 step process: 1. pour cold water in a pitcher 2. add loose leaf tea 3. cover the pitcher with a lid and put it in the refrigerator 6-12 hours later, take it out of the frig and voila you have cold brewed tea! The proportions used in this video are: For the Phoenix Honey Orchid Oolong Cold Brew: 1.5 L/6cups of water and 3 tablespoons of tea for 11 hours For the Tieguanyin Iron Goddess of Mercy Oolong Cold Brew: 5 cups of water with 2 tablespoons of tea for 11 hours. Cold brewing tea brings out a different dimension and personality of your tea leaves that you usually drink hot and is a great way for getting to know the flavors and depths of your favorite teas better. I'm using Tieguanyin Oolong Tea in this video. To learn more about Tieguanyin Iron Goddess of Mercy Oolong tea please go here: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/tagged/Iron-Goddess-of-Mercy-Oolong To learn more about Cold Brewing Tea in general: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/search/cold+brewed+tea To receive emails with invites to online tea hangouts in the “Tranquil Tuesdays Virtual Tea Room,” bite-sized how-to tea brewing videos delivered to your inbox, and for help finding moments of tranquility through tea, sign-up for our weekly newsletter at: https://welcome.tranquiltuesdays.com/tea If you have questions, please reblog with a question.

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Why Microwaving Your Water for Tea is a Bad Idea This week's video has one simple message: please don't microwave your water for tea. I go into the scientific reasons why it really doesn't heat the water in the same way. Your cup of tea is 98% water, so lets all give our water a little respect. Here is the link to the Slate article I reference in the video: https://slate.com/culture/2013/06/microwaving-water-for-tea-why-are-the-results-so-lousy.html

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Homemade Herbal Infusion Recipes

To celebrate the new knowledge of what is and isn't techically tea (for the video that accompanies this post please visit: https://youtu.be/ypMCPSWUAvc), I'm offering some of my favorite homemade herbal infusion recipes which are definitely not tea because there are not tea leaves here!

GINGER, TUMERIC, VINEGAR TONIC a warming digestive companion

Ingredients:

1-2 inch piece of fresh ginger (you need fresh ginger no substitutes are going to work here)

1 tsp of great powdered turmeric (like diaspora.co) or a small nob of fresh turmeric root

1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar

Instructions:

-peel the ginger and if you are using fresh turmeric root than either chop up both ginger and tuermeric into fine pieces or grate it up, set aside

-boil 2cups of water stovetop

-once water is boiling, turn off the heat

-add ginger, turmeric, and apple cider vinegar

-let it sit for at least 10 min, then serve!

ZANZIBAR SPICE INFUSION a warming and comforting no caffeine no dairy chai like drink

Ingredients:

you must use whole spices. no powder spice substitutes here.

1 cinnamon stick

4-5 cloves

3-4 cardamom pods

10 whole black peppers

Instructions:

-crush these whole spices together in a mortal and pestle to break them up and so you can smell the aroma

-boil 2-3 cups of water stovetop

-add the crushed spices and let simmer for at least 20 min

-strain before serving

you can play around with the proportions and how long you want to let it simmer. Also if you are using great fresh spices, you can re-steep the spices at least twice.

KOREAN CINNAMON GINGER TISANE super calming and relaxing treat, also tastes great cold

Ingredients:

1.5 inch piece of fresh ginger

2 cinnamon sticks

1 dried jujube

as much sugar as you prefer

Instructions:

-peel the ginger and cut it into slices

-boil 2-3 cups of water

-add ginger, cinnamon sticks, and jujube

-bring to a boil and then simmer for at least 20 min.

-sweeten to taste and then serve!

Well have fun making these herbal infusions, tonics, and tisanes. A nice way to enjoy a hot drink that is not tea but similarly comforting and relaxing in a different way. Just don't call it a tea!

Here are the other links mentioned in the YouTube video that accompanies this post:

To learn more about the camellia sinensis tea plant, varietals, and cultivars you can read more here: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/45672184787/did-you-know-all-tea-comes-from-the-same-plant

To learn more about tea and terroir, you can read more here: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/47456197048/terroirs-and-chinese-tea-just-as-i-promised-last

To dip your toe into some tea and caffeine knowledge: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/55593229217/tea-and-caffeines-1-myth-de-bunked-there-is-so

https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/56144650361/comparing-caffeine-in-tea-vs-caffeine-in

https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/56762962342/why-do-people-rinse-their-tea-before-brewing-if

To learn more about categories of tea and oxidation levels: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/46846956671/categories-of-tea-oxidation-and-borders-earlier

To receive emails with invites to online tea hangouts in the “Tranquil Tuesdays Virtual Tea Room,” bite-sized how-to tea brewing videos delivered to your inbox, and for help finding moments of tranquility through tea, sign-up for our weekly newsletter at: https://welcome.tranquiltuesdays.com/tea

If you have questions, please reblog with a question.

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Finding Comfort in Tea in Ancient China and Now While sitting at home and finding comfort in tea during this pandemic health crisis, I have been thinking about the ancient nature of Chinese tea drinking. One of my favorite things about Chinese tea appreciation is its long storied tradition from ancient China until today. Trying to stay healthy and safe during a health pandemic, however, also has connected me to other ancient ideas: surviving a health crisis. I see a lot of people online rediscovering Boccacio’s 14th century “The Decameron”, the fact that Shakespeare and Issac Newton had to wait out the plague in confinement, or the 18th century book “A Journal of the Plague Year” written by Daniel Defoe. There’s definitely something fascinating about how living during a contemporary global pandemic health crisis makes you feel connected to these ancient health crisis like The Black Death or bubonic plagues. These ancient artifacts of disease and pestilenace are represented in my mind as such out of reach and outdated realities like Middle Age woodblock prints compared to our digital photographic present. While sipping Chinese tea in my apartment in the Bronx, right in the middle of the COVID epicenter in America, NYC in the spring of 2020, I started wondering about previous ancient crisis in China, in particular, and where tea fit in there. Surely there were pandemics in ancient China and surely there are ancient poems, paintings, or literature writings about tea in relation to crisis. With ancient China flourishing in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), we are left with a rich amount of artifacts to rummage through and look for evidence and insights from ancient China. In the book “Tea in China, A Religious and Cultural History” by James Benn writes: “The values associated with tea today—that it is natural, health-giving, detoxifying, spiritual, stimulating, refreshing, and so on—are not new ideas, but ones shaped in Tang times, by poets.” But where to begin? I’m not a trained scholar in ancient Chinese poetry, artwork or literature. It takes me forever just to read an email in modern Chinese! It felt like googling in English to find artifacts about ancient Chinese crises and finding comfort in tea was like taking a handheld metal detector to the Pacific Ocean. So I turned to some scholar friends, namely Dr. Christine Ho, Assistant Professor of East Asian Art at U Mass Amherst, and Dr. Alfreda Murck, lecturer in Chinese Art History at Columbia University. Both Dr. Ho and Dr. Murck mentioned the famous tea poem “Seven Bowls of Tea” by Lu Tong, written in the Tang Dynasty. “Seven Bowls of Tea” is one of those texts that you see everywhere and its ubiquity almost renders it meaningless. It is, the kind of text you see excerpted and quoted in every single book about tea and especially Chinese tea, and the kind of text you see hanging on the wall of many Chinese teahouses. Is it the “Live Laugh Love” of Chinese tea? Almost. Anyways nevertheless it endures and has reached itself over 1300 plus years and halfway across the world into the consciousness of us here living our little lives in 2020 and into my own email inbox and computer screen in New York City, so it felt prudent to at least give it a new one over in the present moment. Poetry is a particularly important source for understanding tea in the ancient Chinese mind and culture. According to Benn, “Poets, as the cultural engineers of Tang times, had to invent a new world for tea to inhabit. Rather than create just a single cultural space, they made many, all of them interconnected to some degree.” So I read a translation which Dr. Murck sent me via email: SEVEN CUPS/BOWLS OF TEA Lu Tong (790-835AD) 一碗喉吻润 二碗破孤闷 三碗搜枯肠，惟有文字五千卷 四碗发轻汗，平生不平事尽向毛孔散 五碗肌骨清 六碗通仙灵 七碗吃不得也，唯觉两腋习习清风生 One bowl moistens the lips and throat; Two bowls shatters loneliness and melancholy; Three bowls, thinking hard, one produces five thousand volumes; Four bowls, lightly sweating, the iniquities of a lifetime disperse towards the pores. Five bowls cleanses muscles and tendons; Six bowls accesses the realm of spirit; One cannot finish the seventh bowl, but feels only a light breeze spring up under the arms. The one line that really did stand out to me, reading at the present moment is the second line: “Two bowls shatters loneliness and melancholy/二碗破孤闷.” As I began to contemplate the loneliness and melancholy that Lu Tong was describing I started connecting it to the loneliness many of us are experiencing as we are socially distant and isolated in our homes to prevent spread of COVID19 and help flatten the curve. When Lu Tong mentions melancholy it also feels so presently relevant to the societal wide melancholy or at least the palpable sense of dread, anxiety, and sadness that filled the air in New York City with the staggering death toll and round the clock sound of ambulances as it became an epicenter for the global health pandemic. While searching for different English translations of this second line “二碗破孤闷” in Lu Tong’s “Seven Cups of Tea” to compare to the first English translation I read, I came across a treasure trunk filled with shimmering jewels on the ocean floor of Google: the work of Steve W Owyang, his thorough and expert essays on this exact poem on Cha Dao (the most scholarly and nerdy of prominent asian tea appreciation blogs) http://chadao.blogspot.com/2008/04/lu-tung-and-song-of-tea-taoist-origins.html, and his own website Tsiophy (https://www.tsiosophy.com/). That moment when your handheld metal detector actually finds a gem in the ocean is truly an exciting one and it made my day. I poured through all of Mr. Owyang’s copious research and expert English translations that he generously shared on his website. We even started up a correspondance and he kindly pointed me in the direction of some poems on his website. Dr. Ho while also caring for a newborn baby (!), very generously pointed me in the direction of some books she thought me be helpful (that’s how I was able to find the previously quoted “Tea in China, A Religious and Cultural History”), and shared academic journal leads. Thanks to Dr. Ho sharing her academic pedigreed research abilities that really provided the backbone of this whole inquiry. Ok so all that research, thinking, and reading has illuminated a few ancient Chinese poems all 1000+ years old, related to finding comfort and solace in drinking tea that I would like to share with you. There is of course a lot of scholarship on the historical and cultural context of each of these poems and what each word might mean in relation to that but I will let you just read them without commentary and see how it might speak to you in the present moment: Joy at Seeing Tea Growing in the Garden Wei Yingwu (Tang Dynasty 618-907 AD) Its pure nature cannot be sullied, When drunk it cleanses dust and worries. This plant has a truly divine taste, And originates in the mountains. After I have taken care of my responsibilities, I plant a tea bush in my uncultivated garden. It is happy to grow with the other vegetation And to speak with a person in solitude. Translation in “Tea in China, A Religious and Cultural History” A Song of Drinking Tea on the Departure of Zheng Rong Jiaoran (Tang Dynasty 618-907 AD) The immortal Danqiu abandoned eating jade elixirs, Picking tea instead, he drank, and grew feathered wings. The world is unaware of the Mansion of Eminent and Hidden Immortals, People do not know of the Palace of Transmuting Bone into Clouds. The Lad of Cloudy Mountain blended it in a gold cauldron; How hollow the fame of the Man of Chu and his Book of Tea! Late on a frosty night, breaking cakes of fragrant tea. Brewed to overflowing, the pale yellow froth; I sip and am reborn. Bestowed by the gentleman, this tea dispels my suffering, Cleansing my mind from worry and fear. Come morning, the emotions of the fragrant brazier remain. Intoxicated still, we walk across the clouds reflected in Tiger Stream; In high song, I send the gentleman off. Translation by Steve Owyang After Eating Bai Juyi (Tang Dynasty 618-907 AD) Having done eating I go to sleep, Waking up, two bowls of tea. Raise my head to see the sun’s shadows, Already returned to being slanted in the southwest. A happy person regrets the fast disappearance of daylight, A sorrowful person feels sick of the slow passage of time. Those without worries nor delight, Simply let life be. Translation in “Tea in China, A Religious and Cultural History” And if after all that, you are like Charlene give me more ancient Chinese Tang poetry, I have more for you! In this month span when I’ve been working on this self-directed research paper (hahah, just me being me) I also learned from the New York Philharmonic Digital Mahler Festival that Gustav Mahler (Austro-Bohemian German speaking 19th-20th turn of the century classical music composer) himself was inspired by ancient Chinese Tang Dynasty poetry as a comfort to his own personal sorrows and crises. He composed his 9th symphony (its a long story how this is counted as 9th symphony or not vs just symphonic song cycle), known as Das Lied von Der Erde based on inspiration from German translations of Tang Poetry! You can listen to the music here with a spoken introduction on the background before the music starts. https://soundcloud.com/newyorkphilharmonic/sets/mahlers-complete-symphonies Ok so tell me what you think and how you felt reading these ancient Chinese poems about tea and what it means to you at the present moment while many of us are also turning to tea for comfort.

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Appreciating Pure and Natural Single Origin Teas (and how they differ from scented and blended teas) This video discusses pure and natural single origin teas vs. scented and blended teas. To read a little more about the distinctions and differences between these different styles of tea making and tea drinking read more here: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/66737132415/why-tranquil-tuesdays-is-committed-to-pure-and The tea I'm brewing here is a Phoenix Honey Orchid Oolong Tea, a type of oolong tea from Phoenix Mountain in Guangdong Province in China. The proportions of the tea to water I'm using in this video is 1 tablespoon of dried tea leaf to 100ml brewed in water in the 195F-200F degree range. To see photos from that tea growing region during harvest time: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/20883413384/from-our-drive-up-phoenix-mountain-guangdong https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/20930409796/and-finally-we-encounter-where-the-phoenix-honey I briefly mention tea terroir and how it affects a tea's flavor. To read more I wrote on this topic please go here: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/47456197048/terroirs-and-chinese-tea-just-as-i-promised-last To receive emails with invites to online tea hangouts in the “Tranquil Tuesdays Virtual Tea Room,” bite-sized how-to tea brewing videos delivered to your inbox, and for help finding moments of tranquility through tea, sign-up for our weekly newsletter at: https://welcome.tranquiltuesdays.com/tea If you have questions, please reblog with a question below. Thanks for watching!

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Black Tea with Milk or Not To answer a frequently asked question I get about tea and milk, I made this video. In this video we discuss brewing Qimen (aka Keemun) Black Tea. Brewing specifications in this video are: 1 teaspoon of tea for 150ml of water, water temperature 200F. To learn more about the history and stories about Qimen Black Tea please visit: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/33694276516/qimen-black-tea-history To see photos of the tea fields of where this Qimen is grown in Qimen, Anhui please visit: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/48198660711/visit-to-qimen-black-tea-fields-on-our-spring The sources mentioned in this video are: "Liquid Intelligence" by Dave Arnold (https://wwnorton.com/books/Liquid-Intelligence) The wonderful website Compound Interest by Andy Brunning, a chemistry educator based in Cambridge, UK. If you want to see molecular structure of polyphenols and more there are great illustrations and infographics here: https://www.compoundchem.com/2014/02/01/polyphenols-antioxidants-the-chemistry-of-tea/ My longtime friend since high school summer nerdcamp, the one and only Don Lee: https://punchdrink.com/lookbook/don-lee-bartender/ My glasses were picked out 3 years ago with the help of Shana, who changed my life in a few ways but namely emphasizing how I needed to only wear glasses with nose pads, at the Eye-to-Eye Vision Center on 86th St. I can't wait to visit her again in person when we can all roam freely outside our homes again. To receive emails with invites to online tea hangouts in the “Tranquil Tuesdays Virtual Tea Room,” bite-sized how-to tea brewing videos delivered to your inbox, and for help finding moments of tranquility through tea, sign-up for our weekly newsletter at: https://welcome.tranquiltuesdays.com/tea

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The Most Comforting Tea? White Peony White Tea

I personally have been in search of comforting things during this high anxiety time as a global pandemic and health crisis rages outside our windows. One morning when I was contemplating what the "most comforting tea" is I decided it was White Peony White Tea because the flavors are so soft, gentle, subtly sweet, fresh, and welcoming. I consider White Peony White Tea one of the most easy going, forgiving, friendly, accessible, and laidback teas. Optimal water temperature range for the water is 75C, 180F. If you want to see more photos of where the tea I'm brewing is grown: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/31269848725/tea-fields-in-fuding-fujian I read an excerpt from "The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzo, published in 1906, originally written in English for an English speaking audience (I always assumed it was translated from Japanese!). Here is a pdf version of this tea book classic: http://pdf-objects.com/files/Book-Of-Tea.pdf Celadon craftsmanship in Chinese tea culture. If you want to learn more about the fascinating history of celadon making in China and why I consider it China's quintessential porcelain crafting tradition: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/24890924510/celadon-chinas-quintessential-porcelain-craft To see the tea videos we are making with the AsiaStore at Asia Society go here: https://www.instagram.com/asiastoreny/channel/?hl=en To receive emails with invites to online tea hangouts in the “Tranquil Tuesdays Virtual Tea Room,” bite-sized how-to tea brewing videos delivered to your inbox, and for help finding moments of tranquility through tea, sign-up for our weekly newsletter at: https://welcome.tranquiltuesdays.com/tea If you have questions, please reblog a question below. Happy Tranquil Tuesday!

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Two Mistakes to Avoid With Green Tea

In this video we cover the basic how-to's of brewing green tea optimally focusing on the two main things you have to pay attention to when brewing green tea: temperature and time. I also mention a public radio interview segment I did with KCRW Good Food a few years back where I discuss the differences of Chinese and Japanese teas. If you want to listen to the piece as well as see some photos of how they are grown and made differently, here's the link: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/93406429265/chinese-japanese-green-tea-similarities-and To receive emails with invites to online tea hangouts in the “Tranquil Tuesdays Virtual Tea Room,” bite-sized how-to tea brewing videos delivered to your inbox, and for help finding moments of tranquility through tea, sign-up for our weekly newsletter at: https://welcome.tranquiltuesdays.com/tea If you have questions, please reblog with a question below!

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Retro Teasmade Tea Machines! A friend of Tranquil Tuesdays forwarded along this super fun and fascinating article on "Teasmades" from the British Science Museum. Teasmades were "...an automatic tea-maker and alarm clock—now has enormous nostalgia value." Sort of like the opening of so many cartoons that imagine how waking up can set-off a domino effect of perfectly calibrated mechanical cues to get you perfectly ready for work with minimal effort, BUT FOR TEA! You can read more here: https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/everyday-wonders/teasmade-smart-home

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How to Use a Gaiwan Video This has probably been my number one request from customers, supporters, and people I meet at events over the last 10 years. I have always been too shy and self-conscious to actually tape and post videos which is why I hadn't done it for so long... Well for some reason I've been able to shed that self-consciousness (I think something about the current pandemic has made me discard unnecessary baggage like that) and finally made the video I've been wanting to make for years. I'm sure you will have more questions, and I'll probably make a follow-up How-To Gaiwan video to address those questions. But for now, please enjoy this primer. In this video we cover the basic how-to's of using a gaiwan to brew tea. A gaiwan is one of the most distinctive and specialized pieces of teaware in the Chinese tea service. To learn more history and background on the gaiwan: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/post/53192248074/getting-to-know-and-love-a-gaiwan-one-of-the-most I'm brewing a Tieguanyin ( 铁观音) Oolong Tea, often translated "Iron Goddess of Mercy Oolong Tea" in this video. We have written a lot about Tieguanyin Oolong Tea on this blog. To learn more about the name "Iron Goddess of Mercy," where it is grown in China, and how the fresh leaves are transformed into this delicious tea: https://blog.tranquiltuesdays.com/tagged/tieguanyin+oolong If you are interested in purchasing a gaiwan of your own, we would like to recommend our friends at Wing on Wo, a 5th generation family business in New York City Chinatown. Like Tranquil Tuesdays used to, Wing on Wo works directly with artisans in Jingdezhen, China (the porcelain crafting capital of China for over 1000 years) and they have three different beautiful gaiwan's to choose from: https://www.wingonwoand.co/shop?category=Teaware To receive emails with invites to online tea hangouts in the “Tranquil Tuesdays Virtual Tea Room,” bite-sized how-to tea brewing videos delivered to your inbox, and for help finding moments of tranquility through tea, sign-up for our weekly newsletter at: https://welcome.tranquiltuesdays.com/tea If you have questions, please reblog with a question!