Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) – writer, mathematician, photographer, Anglican deacon, and perpetrator of glorious logic-puzzles and nonsense – was born on this day in 1832. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the best known of his works, and a book no doubt responsible for fostering a great many fixations on tea, was first published in 1865.

I can’t find any verification of this, but I would like to imagine that Carroll preferred a nice Keemun in his cup.

“Take some more tea”, the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

“I’ve had nothing yet”, Alice replied in an offended tone: “so I can’t take more.”

“You mean you can’t take less,” said the Hatter: “it’s very easy to take more than nothing.”

“Nobody asked your opinion,” said Alice.

“Who’s making personal remarks now?” the Hatter asked triumphantly.

Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped herself to some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turned to the Dormouse, and repeated her question.

I’d like to add a couple of notes on the madness exhibited by the attendees of this famous tea party. The Mad Hatter can be assumed to suffer from a malady common to many milliners of the Victorian era: extended exposure to mercury, which was used in the felting process during the manufacture of hats. Common symptoms of mercury poisoning are delusional, erratic behavior and shiny red skin. The March Hare’s perceived madness can be attributed to the commonly observed crazed behavior of hares during mating season in the Spring.

The painting above of the mad tea party is by Arthur Rackham, illustrator of many children’s books and classical fables in the early twentieth century. You can view the rest of Arthur Rackham’s beautiful 1907 illustrations for Alice in Wonderland here, along with a large collection of other Alice artworks, including the more familiar John Tenniel woodcuts.

So why is a raven like a writing desk anyway?

“The Twa Corbies” (The Two Ravens) is also by Arthur Rackham, from “Some British Ballads,” published in 1919.

England | 2 Comments »

I anticipated that Puerh Special Grade, a loose leaf pu’er from TeaSource, would brew into a nice liquor after I smelled the intense sweet aroma of the dry leaf. I was not disappointed. In general, but especially in the initial steep, it was very malty, almost like graham crackers or Ovaltine. It opened up more through the third infusion, exhibiting a briny, seaweed-like character along with the sweet maltiness, but it was not at all salty. The character was something like a bonfire on the beach, with charcoal and burning caramel.

One of the notable aspects of this tea was its beautiful, rich color. The first time I made it I was not aware of quite how striking the color was because I used a serving pitcher that was made of yixing clay. It was pretty in the white porcelain lined cups, but in a subsequent brewing I used a glass pitcher, and was impressed with its bright reddish orange hue and sparkle. It was a sunny afternoon, and the tea shone nicely with the sun coming through the window and into the liquor.

Like many pu’er teas, this pu’er can stand up to very long steeps, which affects the number of flavorful steeps one can get from it. In each tasting that I did, I found the third steeping to be the most interesting and flavorful, and by the fifth it had dropped off considerably in its intensity.

TeaSource’s description:

The steeped cup has a lovely deep black/red color with a wonderful dark aroma. The liquor is very smooth and thick (almost brothlike), with great depth and richness to the flavor. It also has a slight sweet note, with no harshness or astringency.”

China, Pu'erh Tea, Reviews | 1 Comment »

A few weeks ago I ventured into a grocery that I had passed by hundreds of times in the past without my curiosity the least bit piqued, having previously assumed that it would not have anything of interest on its shelves. But for whatever reason, on this day I decided I needed to investigate, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that among its wide array of foodstuffs it held a large section of Russian items, from loaves of hearty rye bread to tins of black caviar from the Caspian Sea to Russian wines — and even better, Georgian wines, which are the wines that Russians who care about wine are more likely to drink, at least they were before the 2006 embargo, when they could still get them. (Note: I believe that it was the Russian embargo against wine from Georgia which resulted in the sudden increase in availability of Georgian wines in the U.S. Georgia needed to expand its markets to make up for the loss of its biggest consumer.)

Of particular interest, accompanying these other Russian food and drink items was a selection of teas. The array was not huge, but it appeared to provide some valuable insight into what Russians in the United States would purchase in their attempts to recapture some of the flavor of Mother Russia. These particular teas were not the expensive, refined teas that members of the Russian aristocracy would have poured out of blue and white Lomonosov “Cobalt” teapots. These were teas of the proletariat – inexpensive and convenient, most of them manufactured by a company called “Czar Nikolas II.” Although I later found out that the company also sells one-pound bags of loose tea, this particular store only sells the company’s boxes of tea bags, in varieties very much geared to the Russian palate. Along with basic green and black teas, they sell “Valentine,” which is flavored with rose petals and safflower and a bergamot-scented tea similar to Earl Grey, and “Nostalgia,” which is Ceylon tea with the addition of black currant leaves and strawberry leaves.

To get an idea of a similar, but more extensive selection, take a look through the Russian teas available through Skazka Russian Food.

It might seem a little surprising that I’d be attracted to a tea that is both flavored with non-tea ingredients and, quelle horreur!, in tea bags, but my expectation was to investigate commonly available Russian teas, not to discover the most exquisite and sublime tea taste imaginable. Plus, I have no resistance whatsoever to items that fascinate me and also happen to bear the name of my favorite film – Nostalghia (Ностальгия), by the visionary director Andrei Tarkovsky – thus the compulsion was strong to buy a box of the Nostalgia tea, so I did.

I was intrigued by the notion of the addition of currant and strawberry leaves to tea. These were two flavors I had not experienced before, but I didn’t think they’d be fruity or sweet. From what I already knew about Russian cuisine and the types of flavors that appeal to my palate, I expected this tea to be one I would like, in spite of it being so very different from the pure-leaf teas I drink the rest of the time and I was not disappointed. The non-tea taste is hard to describe. I can’t think of a more familiar flavor to use to describe what it tastes like by analogy. Imagining the flavors of currants and strawberries, but slightly pungent and bitter and without any sweetness, ought to provide an approximation of what this tea tastes like. It’s kind of hard to talk about it as tea since the dominant scents and flavors are not tea, but that’s to be expected. As one would expect, the Ceylon black tea in this tea would be pretty substandard on its own, but that’s not important. Why would anyone add weird dominant non-tea flavors to good tasting teas in the first place?

I don’t have any Russian grandmothers to ask whether they like this tea or not, but it certainly fits my definition of a very Russian character. Czar Nikolas II’s “Premium Nostalgia” tea tastes like Russian tea because it is made for consumption by Russians.

“I wanted to make a film about Russian nostalgia—about that state of mind peculiar to our nation which affects Russians who are far from their native land. I saw this almost as a patriotic duty in my understanding of the concept. I wanted the film to be about the fatal attachment of Russians to their national roots, their past, their culture, their native places, their families and friends; an attachment which they carry with them all their lives, regardless of where destiny may fling them. Russians are seldom able to adapt easily, to come to terms with a new way of life. The entire history of Russian emigration bears out the Western view that ‘Russians are bad emigrants’; everyone knows their tragic incapacity to be assimilated, the clumsy ineptitude of their efforts to adopt to an alien life-style. How could I have imagined, as I was making Nostalgia that the stifling sense of longing that fills the screen space of that film was to becone my lot for the rest of my life; that from now until the end of my days I would bear the painful malady within myself?”

- Andrei Tarkovsky, from his book “Sculpting in Time”

After doing some additional reading in preparation for writing about the tea, especially the passage by Tarkovsky above, I became aware of how appropriate it was for a Russian tea in an unassuming suburban grocery store in the United States to be called “Nostalgia.” The signs of an influx of Russian culture into the area are there, from older indicators like the two beautiful Russian Orthodox churches in Seattle, to more recent signs, like the ease of finding Russian language as an option in local ATMs. But there aren’t restaurants or neighborhoods or many of the more blatant signs visible here, so I only notice the signs when I seek to spot them. I have fantasies of a Russian teahouse opening up with a running loop of Eisenstein films in one room and Stravinsky playing in the background, with banks of bronze samovars holding teapots of Keemun perched on top, but until then I can console myself with strong cups of cheap Russian tea.

(The image above is a still from Nostalghia.)

Black Tea, Blends and Flavored Teas, Russia | 12 Comments »

There’s a certain set of scents that I (and probably a whole lot of other people) associate with Christmas. Mighty Leaf’s Holiday Blend tastes like Christmas smells: like the decoration aisle of a craft store in winter, like candles, fireplaces, and red and green and gold glittery stuff. The dominant flavors that contribute to this overall holiday-ness are clove and cinnamon, which led my clove-obsessed cat to pester me the whole time the teapot containing the tea was on the table. (I didn’t give him any of the tea.)
Mighty Leaf’s description:

“Our holiday blend is a festive winter chai. Indian black tea converges with chai spices of clove, cinnamon, star anise, and ginger for a robust, slightly astringent cup. Apple and goji berries give it a slightly tart, mulled spice profile. Great with milk.”

The tea is good, but as the company’s description would suggest, it did not taste good black. It really, really needed sugar so I added some. It seemed like it might do well with milk also, but I didn’t have any to experiment with when I tasted the tea and I found that it was quite tasty once it was sweetened. I liked the peppery flavor of the blend, and I was relieved that it didn’t have the cloying, cheap potpourri flavor that I feared it might have. I also determined that it would have been greatly enhanced by a shot of brandy, which I also did not have on hand, sadly.

It is a very nice tea, and provided me with the unusual experience of drinking a type of tea that I would not encounter under normal circumstances. I very rarely drink flavored teas or blends or teas that need sugar, so it was really interesting to taste this particular tea. It was almost like trying a completely different cuisine, like trying something that is enjoyable, but struck me as not tea-like since it was so unlike the varieties of tea I drink. I think that for anyone who does drink spicy and aromatic blends and flavored teas the Holiday Blend would be quite enjoyable. It would be perfect for drinking in front of a fire surrounded by shreds of wrapping paper and relatives you don’t often see, which might necessitate adding the brandy, depending on your circumstances.

Blends and Flavored Teas, Reviews | No Comments »

Surrounded by all of the current hype touting green tea as the cure-all tonic for just about every ailment – physical or spiritual – it’s a little difficult to imagine a very different perspective, in a very different era, where green tea could be distrusted and even thought to cause harm to tea drinkers. Sheridan Le Fanu’s story “Green Tea,” published in 1872, tells a haunting tale about the dangers of certain substances and the trickery that comes in the night from the spirit world. Author of Carmilla, one of the most engaging, heavily subtext-laden vampire stories of the Victorian era, Le Fanu is no stranger to anyone who reads a lot of Gothic fiction.

Excerpted:

“I believe, that every one who sets about writing in earnest does his work, as a friend of mine phrased it, on something—tea, or coffee, or tobacco. I suppose there is a material waste that must be hourly supplied in such occupations, or that we should grow too abstracted, and the mind, as it were, pass out of the body, unless it were reminded often enough of the connection by actual sensation. At all events, I felt the want, and I supplied it. Tea was my companion-at first the ordinary black tea, made in the usual way, not too strong: but I drank a good deal, and increased its strength as I went on. I never, experienced an uncomfortable symptom from it. I began to take a little green tea. I found the effect pleasanter, it cleared and intensified the power of thought so, I had come to take it frequently, but not stronger than one might take it for pleasure. I wrote a great deal out here, it was so quiet, and in this room. I used to sit up very late, and it became a habit with me to sip my tea—green tea—every now and then as my work proceeded. I had a little kettle on my table, that swung over a lamp, and made tea two or three times between eleven o’clock and two or three in the morning, my hours of going to bed. I used to go into town every day. I was not a monk, and, although I spent an hour or two in a library, hunting up authorities and looking out lights upon my theme, I was in no morbid state as far as I can judge. I met my friends pretty much as usual and enjoyed their society, and, on the whole, existence had never been, I think, so pleasant before.”

This sounds quite lovely, so far. But then the narrative turns darker, as the central character in the story, Mr. Jennings, is visited by a spectral and menacing monkey with glowing red eyes. The tortured subject of the story solicits doctors to help relieve his affliction, including the narrator, who is also the other principal character of the story, Dr. Hesselius, who offers the following analysis not too long after listening to Mr. Jennings relay the events and facts surrounding his condition:

“By various abuses, among which the habitual use of such agents as green tea is one, this fluid may be affected as to its quality, but it is more frequently disturbed as to equilibrium. This fluid being that which we have in common with spirits, a congestion found on the masses of brain or nerve, connected with the interior sense, forms a surface unduly exposed, on which disembodied spirits may operate: communication is thus more or less effectually established.”

Alas, this diagnosis comes too late to save the tormented tea drinker from his terrible fate. I’ll leave the details for you to discover in the story itself.

I don’t want to go too far into analysis of the Victorian attitudes about foreign religions, ideas and substances, but I will say that these are central to the story’s theme. Mr. Jennings, a pastor by vocation, becomes unhinged and haunted through his pursuit of studying ancient Pagan religion and venturing away from the standard British Isles black tea. He goes beyond the formal strictures of Victorian society, and disaster strikes him.

I tried to determine what specific kind of green tea a person in Britain or Ireland would have been drinking in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, but I was unable to find out. This was after the establishment of British colonial rule and the tea plantations in India, and after trade with China fell apart, so most tea coming into the British isles was black tea from the sub-continent. My guess is that any green tea coming in would have been Chinese, and given the troublesome relationship with China at that time, regular consumption of such a tea would have been considered at the least, a little suspicious.

You can read the entire story online: Green Tea, by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, (28 August 1814 – 7 February 1873 )

In addition to reading it (or instead, if you’re short on time or attention), you can listen to the story on LibriVox.

The book image above is the cover of the 1945 Arkham House edition of “Green Tea and Other Ghost Stories.”

England, Green Tea | 7 Comments »

You have a little more than a day left to enter Steepster’s Ultimate Holiday Tea Gift Contest, which will end at 8:00pm EST Friday, December 18th, 2009. The combined prize package is quite a large quantity of desirable stuff, ranging from modern, shiny tea accessories to a traditional matcha kit, and including quite a wide array of high quality teas to go with them. The winner will be pretty well set for having good tea on the road and at home or at the office.

The contest is easy to enter. You just need to either use Twitter to follow Steepster (if you’re not already) and tweet the text from the contest with your preferred tea type filled in, or, if you’re a Steepster member (or want to become one) you can reply to the contest discussion.

For a little more information on the most innovative and unusual of the items in the prize package, the video below is its designer Joey Roth demonstrating how the Sorapot works. I also recommend watching the video that appears on the page with details about the contest of Joey Roth and Kevin Rose discussing the development of the Sorapot and brewing a pot of tea with it.

Sorapot instructions from Joey Roth on Vimeo.

Events, Paraphernalia | No Comments »

Teas Etc.’s Plum Blossom Reserve Oolong (Dong Fong Mei Zen), a Bai Hao style oolong from Taiwan, is an exceptional and fabulous tea. It is one of a small number of teas that Teas Etc. has started importing from an award-winning Taiwanese grower.

If you’ve tasted any Bai Hao oolong and are capable of calling to mind its flavor, you’ll know what the essential character of this tea is like. As its name suggests, the scent of plum blossom is a dominant element of this tea’s flavor profile. If you’ve never tried any Bai Hao style oolongs (also known regrettably as “Oriental Beauty,” a name attributed to Queen Elizabeth II, in her enthusiasm over this tea), I recommend that you do. They’re quite deserving of their worldwide repute, and this Plum Blossom Reserve in particular is a very good example of a Taiwanese oolong produced in the style of a Bai Hao. Teas Etc.’s description:

“Obvious fruit tones, crisp bright notes and a smooth finish make this a rare yet classic favorite.

This exceptional dark Bai Hao (Oriental Beauty) style oolong comes to us from MiaoLi County in Taiwan, long renowned for producing some of the finest of this superb varietal.

The high elevation, environmental conditions and synergy of the tea bush and the green leaf hopper impart a unique fruit tones, the likes of which we have not cupped since 2002-2003.

This summer harvest is oxidized at approximately 50% and was produced by an award winning tea master.”

Teas Etc.’s recommendation for brewing suggests using water between 180-185°F and I would encourage you to follow this advice. If you use water that is too hot, the tea will be a little bitter and will not emit as many of the deep floral fruity notes that make it so enjoyable. I wouldn’t get too caught up in thermometers and worry, though. If you’re brewing it Gongfu style just pour the water from the kettle into your sharing pitcher and leave it for a minute or two before pouring it into your teapot or gaiwan to begin steeping the tea leaves.

One of the most notable things about the Plum Blossom Reserve was how the deep aroma and flavor lingered for a long time after I had finished drinking it, slowly fading with time.

Oolong Tea, Reviews, Taiwan | 2 Comments »

John Rocco, author and illustrator of the recently-published children’s book Fu Finds The Way, contacted me a few weeks ago, alerting me to the existence of his book. After previewing the book on his website – including watching a trailer for it (When did books start having trailers?) – I really liked the look of it, and was quite interested to hold the actual book in my hands, so I bought a copy.

The author’s summary of the book:

“When young Fu is challenged to a duel by the warrior Chang, Fu panics. His only hope is that the Master will train him, just as he’s trained all the young warriors of the village. But instead of teaching Fu to fight, the Master teaches him…to pour tea.”

The artwork is every bit as wonderful as I expected it would be. Rocco used actual tea and tea leaf to stain his pages in part of the process of producing the illustrations, which lends a rich, soft look to them. His characters are expressive and interesting to look at, even the duck who the main character tries to trade to the Master in exchange for teaching him the art of combat. One of the the things I particularly like about the illustrations is the number of subtle details worked into them. The overall layout of the illustration and the texts is also very well done. In some places Rocco employs the use of frames to show a sequence of actions to nice effect, including one page with three panels that illuminate the caterpillar-through-butterfly metaphor used by the Master.

“I tried to apply these lessons while creating this book, (purpose, flow and patience). The artwork was created using pencil on paper and then adding color digitally. The stains were created by soaking watercolor paper in tea and tea leaves and then adding them to the paintings in Photoshop.”
- John Rocco

My favorite of the illustrations is probably one during the section where Fu discovers the qualities of the tea itself and begins to learn the practice of brewing it properly. In a playful transformation of scale (and reality), Fu and the duck are shown looking out from inside of the teapot, with the aforementioned caterpillar circling the rim and the Master peering in.

In spite of the overall charm of the book, it was impossible for me to ignore discrepancies in the portrayal of Gongfu tea preparation itself. There is an illustration showing the main character pouring directly from his teapot into a tasting cup, bypassing the aroma cup right next to it, and omitting a sharing pitcher, even though a sharing pitcher appears in one of the other pictures. There’s also an illustration that shows the tea master drinking from a tall, narrow cup that looks like an aroma cup as shown in the other pictures. (For a brief explanation of aroma cups and sharing pitchers, see steps 10-14.) Of course there are regional and personal differences within the practice of Gongfu Cha, but it’s not orthodox practice to have tea ware on the tea table that gets ignored altogether. I suspect that the author found one or more Gongfu Cha tea sets to use as models, but has not seen many demonstrations of how the different implements are actually brought into play.

There is also a conceptual problem that would have been avoided had the author held a deeper understanding of Gongfu Cha. As Fu is taught to brew tea he is told that he needs to learn the patience required to brew each “round” (infusion) of tea to produce identical cups of tea. This is contradictory to the essence of the Chinese tea ceremony. Each infusion will present very different aspects of the tea as it reveals its characteristics in the increased unfurling of the leaf and emergence of flavors into the water. The focus is on transformation and the distinctive qualities of the tea, not on manipulating the leaf to avoid awareness of change. The Master states correctly that the length of infusion must be modified, but the reason and results given are inaccurate.

I acknowledge that this level of criticism is a bit over-the-top for a children’s book. It would be like taking issue with a book in which there were an illustration of a kid wielding a drill affixed with a Phillips screwdriver bit aimed toward a lag bolt – a level of detail that many people would fail to recognize, but would plague people like me for a few minutes before we decided we were being too particular.

That said, I wish that Mr. Rocco had run drafts of his text and illustrations past at least one person well acquainted with Gongfu tea so that he could have gotten the details right. The inaccuracies do not compromise the book to the point of diminishing its charm or value, but it would only have taken a little bit of additional advisement from an expert or two to insure a greater level of authenticity.

Last month I brought the book with me when I was visiting family for Thanksgiving, which gave me the opportunity to expose it to real children. My six-year-old nephew enjoyed the book quite a bit. I didn’t get to have an extensive discussion with him about what he thought about it, but he told me he liked it after I read it to him. It’s also notable that he picked up the book and sat for quite some time reading it on his own, before I had even showed it to him or told him that I wanted his opinion.

The overarching messages of the book are good ones: that learning to focus on an artful task and resolving conflicts without physical violence are desirable goals. The ideas are expressed well within the context of the story in a way that seems it would be comprehensible to small people. And in the aggregate of tea-related books for children, this one stands out admirably for the absence of the omnipresent floral, frilly tea party line.

China, Gongfu Cha | 6 Comments »

A while ago I reviewed a Formosa Shanlinxi high mountain oolong from auraTeas. Not terribly long after that I received a sample of Rishi Tea’s Shan Lin Xi Gao Shan Cha Oolong, and I was quite interested in finding out how different the teas would be from each other. They are both from the Shan Lin Xi region of Nantou, Taiwan, and I would expect they would have been processed using nearly identical methods, perhaps even by tea farmers who know each other. So I thought they would be almost indistinguishable.

But I was mistaken. Unlike the oolong from auraTeas, which exhibited such a strong note of lemon grass, the oolong from Rishi had, as described in the company’s description, notes of evergreen. I was also aware of a flavor similar to thyme, which I can not remember ever associating with a tea before.

Part of Rishi’s description reads:

Shan-Lin-Xi is an independent and secluded area in Nantou. There is almost only one way in and out of the tea gardens. The tea from this garden has a flavor that is totally different from other areas in Taiwan. Because of the closed geography, the environmental humidity is very high and the weather changes so often. It’s so difficult to make good tea there during the rainy spring season so good Shan-Lin-Xi tea is sold at very high prices.

This tea is known as “Gao Shan Cha” or high mountain tea. It has a character that is best suited to gong fu brewing using a guywan. The tealeaves are tender and have a rich content of amino acids and aromatic essential oils. It is best to use water below boiling, about 190 degrees f to preserve the aroma.

It was an interesting opportunity to taste two teas that were this similar. Both teas are of high quality and are quite enjoyable to drink, but I am surprised at how different they are from each other. I think part of this may be attributed to the fact that Rishi’s Shan Lin Xi is more highly oxidized than auraTeas’ is, but it could also be due to the Qing Xin varietal that produces the leaves for Rishi’s oolong. Both, of course, are very green, lightly oxidized, high-mountain oolongs, much more similar in character to each other than to aged or darker Taiwanese oolong teas. From Rishi’s description:

This special batch is more fermented than usual giving it an alluring mouth feel. Its flavor and aroma is clear and pure with accents of fresh evergreen and wild flowers. It can be brewed many times and has a long lasting flavor and aroma that lingers on the palate and lsts for many infusions.

Note: Rishi Tea’s preparation instructions recommend a porcelain gaiwan, which I have also used for this tea. It was indeed a better brewing vessel than the glass gaiwan shown.

Oolong Tea, Reviews, Taiwan | 2 Comments »

photo by Corax of Cha Dao, used with permission

This past August, I alerted readers to the “Steeped in History: The Art of Tea” exhibit that had just opened at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. Beatrice Hohenegger, author of Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West, was guest curator for this wonderful and informative exhibit. The closing day of the exhibit is the 29th of November, and based on what I’ve read, I heartily encourage anyone within range to go to the effort to go see it in this final week of its run.

For those of us who are geographically challenged by distance or otherwise unable to visit the show in person, Corax of Cha Dao has provided a wonderfully thorough write-up of his visit to the show. I highly recommend reading it if you have even the least bit of interest in tea culture, which I can probably safely assume includes just about anyone reading this. Excerpted:

“Hohenegger’s arrangement of the exhibit is a triumph. Broadly historical in its strokes, it ranges across space and time, but also across the human arts and crafts — ceramics, metallurgy, cabinetry, textiles, painting, sculpture, even architecture — in order to illustrate how far-reaching has been the impact and the appreciation of tea. A matrix organizing the material of this exhibit would have to be at least three-dimensional: chronological, cultural, categorical. And that would not even begin to organize the types of tea entailed, their methods of preparation and enjoyment, or the ways in which people have reacted to the need for tea (aesthetic, spiritual, dietetic, sociological, political). But all of this is represented in the several exhibition rooms of STEEPED IN TEA. Please join me now, gentle reader, for a virtual stroll through these rooms.”

photo by Corax of Cha Dao, used with permission

While reading the article enhanced my disappointment at not being able to attend the exhibit in person, I appreciated the vicarious tour through the rooms provided by lively and engaging descriptions of their contents, concepts and purposes. And aside from my own interest in finding out what items and information were showcased in the exhibit, I am very glad to see this evidence that there is enough interest in tea scholarship and history to make such an exhibit not only possible, but successful.

Some additional details, from the official press release:

Steeped in History: The Art of Tea is guest curated by Beatrice Hohenegger, author of Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West (St. Martin’s Press, 2007), who also edited the multi-authored volume Steeped in History: The Art of Tea (ISBN: 978-0-9778344-1-9, 2009), published by the Fowler Museum in conjunction with this exhibition and distributed by the University of Washington Press.. Major support for the exhibition and publication is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.

Presented by Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

Mr. Lloyd Cotsen, in memory of Bob Ahmanson, generously funded the publication. Additional support is generously provided by Patsy and Robert Sung and The Edna and Yu-Shan Han Charitable Foundation. The accompanying programs are made possible through the Yvonne Lenart Public Programs Fund, the UCLA Asia Institute and Manus, the support group for the Fowler Museum.

Note: The “Make Tea Not War” poster shown above, which is one of the concluding images of the Fowler exhibit, was designed by an agency called Karmarama for use during the British anti-war protests at the start of the Iraq War. The man under the cup is, of course, Tony Blair.

Events | 2 Comments »