Are you feeling writerly on a scale even smaller than one hundred and forty character micro-blogging? Consider entering Ito En‘s haiku contest. Ito En is the company that manufactures a lot of the bottled and canned green and oolong tea sold in Japan and the United States. Submissions are due by July 6th, 2009. I’m [...]
No one comes into the world drinking tea. (I would hope not, at least.) We all have to be introduced to it. I would hazard a guess that my first experiences with it are rather different from those of other U.S. tea aficionados. When I was 10 years old, my mother–a newly minted consular officer [...]
This adorable Japanese commercial is for a green tea made by the Thai company Unif. The ads were done by BBDO Bangkok. More of them, with English subtitles can be viewed here. The award-winning commercial featured on that page, called “Mother’s Day,” is brilliant. These cute-as-a-bug’s-eye caterpillars are called “worms” in the English translation of [...]
I remember my introduction to Gongfu Cha quite well. My friend and I happened into a smallish shop in the Chinese section of the International District in Seattle called “New Century Tea House & Chinese Classical Furniture,” not knowing much about what we were after, but always interested in new tea experiences. It was a [...]
As the new year gets rolling, I’ve found it a good time to dig through the baskets and drawers and shelves full of tea and decide what to keep and what to toss. Judging by the odor of my desk drawer at work, some of my stash had gone stale. Others were just abandoned in [...]
Two small personal notes before I dive into the story for today: The husband and I were dawdling in the tea aisle at the grocery store last week, when he looked at me and told me that it was about time I got my tea at a tea store. I knew he was right, of [...]
“Tranquility,” an aesthetic concept unique to Tea, comes with the constant practice of the first three principles of harmony, respect, and purity in our everyday lives. Sitting alone, away from the world, at one with the rhythms of nature, liberated from attachments to the material world and bodily comforts, purified and sensitive to the sacred [...]
Gongfu Girl is on vacation. She hopes you will enjoy this excerpt from Tea Life, Tea Mind by Soshitsu Sen XV. “Purity” through the simple act of cleaning, is an important part of a tea gathering – in the preparation beforehand, the actual service of tea, and, after the guests have left, the storing away [...]
Gongfu Girl is on vacation. She hopes you will enjoy this excerpt from Tea Life, Tea Mind by Soshitsu Sen XV. “Respect” is the sincerity of heart that liberates us for an open relationship with the immediate environment, our fellow human beings, and nature, while recognizing that innate dignity of each. Respect gives structure to [...]
Gongfu Girl is on vacation. She hopes you will enjoy this excerpt from Tea Life, Tea Mind by Soshitsu Sen XV. “Harmony” is the result of the interaction of the host and guest, the food served, and the utensils used with the flowing rhythms of nature. It reflects both the evanescence of all things and [...]
