Tea and Zen are of one taste.
Sen Sotan
Tea is the beberage prepared from the leaves of a specific plant: the Camellia sinensis, also called “tea plant”. All varieties of tea (black tea, green tea, red tea, wūlóng 烏龍 tea, etc.) come from this plant, and differ only in their way of production.
An infusion is a way to prepare a drink from leaves, stems, roots or other parts of a plant, leaving them in hot water for a certain time. In this way the flavour and the properties of the plant are extracted in the hot water. Thus, to prepare tea it is necessary to make an infusion of its leaves, but not all the infusions are made of tea.
From the moment the tea leaves are collected from the plant, an oxidation process begins naturally in the leaves by contact with the air. This process alters the components and properties of the tea, and can be stopped by application of heat. In this way the different types of tea are the result of a longer or shorter oxidation time. In addition, weather conditions (sun, rain, etc.), soil quality, altitude, age of the plant, etc. play an important role in the flavour of the tea. Bearing this in mind, it is not so surprising, then, that there are countless different varieties.
The Chinese have been consuming and producing tea for more than two thousand years, and have developed a whole culture of their own around this drink, to the point that tea preparation is an art in itself, known as gōng fū chá 功夫茶. As we already know, gōng fū means “mastery”, “skill”; and chá 茶 means “tea.” This expression indicates that a certain degree of gōng fū, of skill, is necessary in the preparation of tea. Gōng fū chá is, then, an art in itself, with an important meditative component, and takes place in an almost sacred space and time: here and now.
This section is therefore dedicated to everything related to the world of tea, from its production to its preparation, as well as all the cultural elements built around it.
Pǔ’ěr 普洱 is the name of a prefecture city in the Chinese province of Yúnnán 雲南. Therefore, formerly Pǔ’ěr was the name for which the tea from this region was known. What we call red tea is actually a type of Pǔ’ěr. But there is also another type, which is the most appreciated in China.
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The Tea Horse Road or Chá Mǎ Dào 茶馬道 was a trade route that linked the Chinese province of Yunnan 雲南 with Tibet. For more than a thousand years, tea coming from China was exchanged for Tibetan horses, apart of many other products.
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Yíxìng 宜兴 is a small region in the Chinese province of Jiangsu 江蘇. In this área, a material known as “purple clay” (zǐshā 紫砂) is extracted. This purple clay has certain characteristics that make it especially suitable for making teapots and tea sets.
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The world of tea is very rich, and offers us a wide range of varieties, flavours and aromas. Discover how different varieties or types of tea are achieved, all with the same plant.
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All tea comes from the Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub or tree from southern China and Southeast Asia. From the leaves of this plant, we can obtain, depending on the type of process to which it is subjected, different varieties: green tea, yellow tea, white tea, wūlóng 烏龍, black tea (hóngchá 紅茶), and hēichá 黑茶.
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