Tea

Every morning I drink a pot of tea. The first thing I do when I enter the kitchen is turn my silver kettle on to boil. I crave my tea at that time of the day, not because it wakes me up (I rarely have difficulty with mornings), but because there is a certain something about the combination of pre-dawn and that crisp, steaming beverage... that I find to be blissfully cleansing and invigorating. Apparently I'm not alone in my love of tea; it's the second most-consumed beverage in the world after water. I drink one whole pot myself, and sometimes I have more late-morning. I know people who prefer their tea lukewarm... but I like mine very hot. I can taste it better this way, and my body feels most calmed and satisfied.

This traditional tetsubin cast iron Japanese teapot was a wedding gift from our friend Mona. I use it every day.

Camellia Sinensis

Mythic/historical figure Shennong

The tea plant, camellia sinensis, probably originated in the area that now includes northern Burma and southwest China (Yunnan and Sichuan provinces), although the precise location is difficult to determine, as cultivation has spread far and wide over the past several thousand years. A popular Chinese legend attributes the invention of tea as a beverage to emperor Shennong ("Divine Farmer") in 2737 BC. However, tea was used medicinally much earlier on. In fact, no one really knows when or how humans began using the plant. To me, that makes tea both practical and mystical--- a combination of attributes I find most attractive (not just in tea). From China it spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. People in the Himalayan region of India used tea in medicine for an unknown period of time, but it did not become a common beverage until the British introduced it as such. The Western world discovered tea when Portuguese priests and merchants visited China during the 16th century. Tea-drinking spread to Britain around 1660, but did not become commonplace until the mid 1700s. A thriving black market trade organized around tea eventually led to the Boston Tea Party, and only ceased when the British stopped taxing it (by 1785). Interestingly, Americans actually drank more tea than the English did before Boston's most famous party.  

The five most popular varieties of tea.

There are many varieties of tea, but five can be identified as the "main" or most widely consumed. They are, as shown above: white, green, oolong, black, and pu erh. While they all come from the camellia sinensis plant, each type constitutes a radically different sipping experience. I was quite amazed to discover (in my early days of tea-geekhood) that every variation is a result of growing conditions, climate, harvest time, plant part, and processing. Tea production truly is an art, and the more I read about it, the more it astonishes me. I'm fast becoming a snob, although I do have a long way to go before I really qualify!

A great visual of tea data.

My personal favorites are green and oolong, with white a close third, and pu erh of great interest because making it involves fermentation (I <3 fermentation).  I wish I could give you an exhaustive list of all the exotic kinds within each category that I've tried... but to speak the truth, it's expensive, and I have not been able to indulge all my tea urges as yet. Some of the best I've tasted so far include gyokuro (a vibrant green from Japan), jade oolong (it smells like lilacs!), and silver needle (an airy white). I also love the traditional jasmine green, gunpowder green, and sencha. One I've been dying to try is Ti Kuan Yin, an oolong named after one of my favorite Buddhist deities (she is called Avelokiteshvara in Sanskrit).  I'm also lusting after shincha, pouchong, and the beautiful "blooming teas" made of tea leaves carefully sewn together that blossom when steeped in hot water. I don't mean to neglect the black teas here--- it's just that they aren't my particular favorites. I do, however, depend on Irish Breakfast to feed my kombucha culture! Black is definitely her favorite.

Aside from indulging my appreciation of fine craft and intricate gustatory pleasure, tea also happens to be extremely healthy. It's hard to deny several thousand years' worth of ancestral wisdom on this front. Tea feels so good to my body that quoting "evidence" seems a little absurd, but as I mentioned before, my personality consists of equal parts hokey-pokey intuition/magic and scientific rationality, so I can't not put in a few words about studies "proving" tea's health benefits. Time magazine has a page on tea that seems to check out, and here are a few juicy tidbits via Harvard Medical School's website:

• Tea drinking appears to lower the risk for heart disease and stroke
• Natural compounds called polyphenols in green tea might protect against several cancers, including those of the prostate, GI tract, lungs, breast, and skin
• Caffeine and antioxidants called catechins found in green, oolong, and white teas may increase metabolism and promote weight loss
• Tea polyphenols are thought to strengthen bones and protect against fractures
• People who drink tea could see improvements in mood, concentration, and performance.

The infographic at right is great; just click to enlarge if you can't read it at current size. It has some great statistics about all things tea. 

I have a wealth of nostalgic memories based on tea-drinking ritual. When I first met Myer in Autumn 2004 at Lawrence University, we bonded over our love of walking in the season's invigorating chill and bright leaf-colors with our travel mugs of hot tea. We still enjoy this practice, and every time we do, we are filled with a sense of romance because it was something we did in the beginning. Mushy, I know. (Sorry not sorry!) 

Us back then.

That's about all I have to say on the subject of tea, for now. Let me know what some of your favorites are... 

Routine as Ritual

"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work."--- Chuck Close

"My experience has been that most really serious creative people I know have very, very routine and not particularly glamorous work habits."--- John Adams

Even as a child, I relished my routines--- especially those of the morning. I liked to wake early, when only Mom was up, and do my chores in the stillness and silvery light that comes just before dawn; when the birds are singing loud and the Eastern sky holds all the secrets of the day. I would yank on my sweatpants and gather the tools needed to pump the water and feed the rabbits: blue kettle of boiling water (if the weather was below freezing), ice cream pale of water for priming, and scoops for measuring rabbit chow. The water from our pump was the best-tasting water I've had in my life; you can only imagine water this clear, hard, fresh, cold! The memory brings such a craving--- such a thirst. Dad put our pump in the ground long ago after finding the well, witching-style. 

I fed the rabbits with their alfalfa pellets, but also picked fresh quack grass, still covered in dew, until my hands were cold and green-stained. We raised these animals for food, which made me sad when I thought about it, but didn't stop me from eating rabbit and rice on Saturday nights... so delicious! The rabbit food barrel sat just outside Dad's studio windows, and if he was up early working, I made sure to catch his eye and wave to him. I felt it was a special moment between the two of us.  Routine has a wonderfully stabilizing effect on my life, yet I always feel a bit shame-faced about this fact. I find myself pretending to be much more *spontaneous* than I actually am. Perhaps this comes partially from the way creative people are usually portrayed: as creatures of reckless, messy, brilliant, wild fits of enlightened genius who wend their way through days and nights of ecstatic bliss/anguish. It's only a matter of time, I reason semi-consciously, until I am discovered to be a true stodgy bore--- not an artist at all.I've been reading a book recently called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey. I checked it out of the library after seeing a set of incredible graphs based on information from this book. Currey's tome is organized into a set of 161 brief yet fascinating accounts of the everyday routines of remarkable people--- from Kafka to Darwin to Picasso to Beethoven. It has been a highly validating read! I find it encouraging to see the wide variety of ways in which these well-known creatives spent their days, and the quaint, strange, and bizarre habits they engaged in (equal in peculiarity to some of my own). I love that Curry used the word Ritual in his title rather than routine. I've always felt that these humble repetitions hold a sort of sanctity, and myself prefer to use the former word. Inspired by the graphs on infowetrust.com, I decided to make one of my own. I must admit that exposing my routines this way causes me to feel anxious; however, I found it so interesting to pour over the day-by-day of artists in Currey's book that my geeky obsession overcame the anxiety. Maybe you will find my graph interesting--- or possibly entertaining--- in a similar fashion. Here it is:

This is an example of an IDEAL day, let me stress. Oftentimes I can be found running errands, doing extra kitchen work, grocery shopping (Fridays), writing letters, attending appointments, or visiting a friend during the times I have outlined here for art. In a perfect world, every weekday would adhere strictly to the above. Upon even closer inspection, my schedule is filled with many small yet essential rituals involving every aspect of life. For example, I engage in an elaborate bathing procedure replete with incense, candles, and scented oils, and there's no such thing as "not enough time" wherein The Bath is concerned. If I were not able to partake of this indulgent ablution, the rest of my day would be unthinkable. Similarly, I require a lot of time for eating, and I eat the same things almost every day. Dinner: fish, chicken bones, pickled beets with orangepeel, seaweed and greens with seeds and miso, turmeric dressing, and olive oil.I MUST eat this dinner on the same plate, with the same chopsticks, while listening to an audiobook... or I swear the earth would wobble on its axis and fly out of orbit.  If you have seen any of my artwork, you will recognize within it this same relentless, obsessive aspect of my personality. My drawings and paintings are as much a part of this intricate daily ritual as the eating, the bathing, the walking. I don't think I could make art if I was not able to eat, bathe, and walk in these ways... I am painting when I am not painting. You might say I'm a bit of a Sheldon Cooper... or rather more than a bit. Like, on a Sheldon-scale of 1 to 10, I'm probably Sheldon-8. And in case you needed further convincing, here's a photo-realistic drawing I did of Jar Jar Binks when I was a teenager. Enjoy.