After watching the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremonies on telly at home, James and I stepped out to see what was going on in the neighbourhood. We saw the large projections on the Centre A windows right away: tea pots,  an Asian woman having tea, other tea images. Yes, it was the opening night for the World Tea Party!

Celebration of global tea culture! Art gallery becomes a temporary teahouse! Worldwide connectivity via skype and ustream!

I’d been looking forward to the whole event, which unfolds over Feb. and March, it is a perfect blend of tea, art and communication. Last night, people were sitting and talking or milling about, the jasmine tea they served was really divine, and the atmosphere was terrific!

Here’s the blurb on the event:

Centre A is pleased to present World Tea Party, animated by tea master and calligrapher Bryan Mulvihill (aka Trolley Bus). Truly one of Vancouver’s living cultural treasures, Mulvihill has produced a special edition of The World Tea Party for the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.

Previous versions have been presented publics large and small in a wide range of contexts, including the Winnipeg Pan Am Games, the Venice Biennale, the National Gallery of Canada, the Hollywood Bowl and the Eiffel Tower.

The World Tea Party is based on the notion that humanity shares in the drinking of tea a spirit of generosity and understanding that both celebrates and transcends our cultural diversity. Tea is the most popular  beverage in the world.

The World Tea Party is a social sculpture that involves the creative empowerment of the audience. The tea salon is a meeting place. Its interactive aspect makes it a suitable vehicle for a debate about the relationship between the Olympics and the Downtown Eastside.

Free Tea and Big Video
In the afternoon, tea is offered for free, both inside the gallery and at times on the street. From 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm, large projections play on the building’s exterior windows. Video content includes work by various artists, live broadcast of performances, skype teas and the documentation of the World Tea Party in different contexts.

They have set up a live feed on ustream, but it doesn’t look active yet – just ready to go. Tune in some evening if you aren’t here in Vancouver. Check the World Tea Party Special Event schedule at Centre A, to find out what’s planned both here in Vancouver and via remote connection.

This article in the Georgia Straight gives some great background on Brian and his work.

I really enjoyed sharing the teas I brought with me with Cuban friends, who mostly liked to drink it with lots of honey. By the way, the best honey I have ever tasted was in Cuba. Sometimes they would use sugar, in great amounts by North American standards.

On a rainy November afternoon in Camaguey Cuba, we tasted these three teas in sequence and these are all my friend’s comments, along with her delightful and accurate names for the teas. We first tasted them without any sweetener, then she added honey or sugar to taste (and not too much.)

Baby Tea: oolong, light, fragrant, floral

Proud Tea: King tea – strong. Flavour a little smoky, focus, sharp. For meetings, important decisions, signing papers.

Party Tea: black with caramel, kusmi tea, sugar! Fun black tea – relaxing, easy, delightful.

Yes there is tea in Cuba. They have available both black tea and green tea, loose, in packaging. Only one brand, bought with convertible pesos.

Restaurants also serve a strong mint tea, blended, it seems, with a black tea. It must be the Russian influence that makes tea such a known quantity in the land of strong and sweet espresso coffee. And now perhaps it could be a China connection, though I doubt it from seeing the teas they have. They looked generic and of poor quality. The tea I had in restaurants was never very good, and often tasted of the strong cleaning supplies used to wash the cups.

Tea Glass and Cuban Countryside

I didn’t buy any tea while there, having brought my own from Canada. I didn’t want it to get old and go to waste in the two months I was in Cuba. I made oolong in my tea glass until the day when the tea glass rolled out the car door at a highway stop.

After that, I made it in one of the pots we had in our kitchen, and we drank morning tea on our roof patio. Sometimes I saved it in water bottles for cold tea later in the heat of the day, or even froze it so it would be super cold iced tea.

• Heather Stewart and Nick Mathiason
• The Guardian, Saturday 10 October 2009
• Article history

Climate change is already wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of small-scale tea and coffee farmers in some of the world’s poorest countries, according to a three-year research project by Fairtrade drinks producer Cafédirect.

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Also look into this study of the impact of Climate Change on the Sri Lankan tea production.

….Reports have also shown that about 30 cm of soil has already been eroded from upland tea plantations. Under these circumstances, the tea industry in Sri Lanka is clearly vulnerable to predicted climate changes, and subsequently greater economic, social, and environmental problems….

It’s blog action day, and Cha-Cha-Cha joins bloggers worldwide to create awareness and encourage action on climate change on Oct. 15 2009.

Corinne Greene of Tea Leaf Natural Wellness Specialty Tea and Cafe in Nanaimo tells how to prepare Chinese clay teapots before using them.

When we arrived at 3 as the first reserved guests for Saturday afternoon tea we found the Fleuri Restaurant empty, and there was even someone vacuuming in the area in front of us. I paused, wondering if this was going to be one of those weird hotel restaurant experiences – empty and isolating.

But once that was done, we had the delight of selecting our tea from their tea chest – opening each little jar, examining the leaves, and experiencing the scent of each one. Surprisingly we ended up choosing the teas we had first decided on from the menu! I absolutely loved their signature afternoon tea blend. (As a tea it was perfect, but in the chest it wasn’t the most appealing – no strong scent or particular texture.)

When the tray arrived, the savories were definitely large-sized, and the egg salad seemed home-made, and cozy in contrast with the other foods. It was almost lunch-worthy! The sweets were delightful, not too much or oversweet. Elegant and yummy!

You can see them here:

And yes, others did arrive, so we weren’t the only customers in the place. Not as crowded-feeling, or as personal as the Secret Garden, Fleuri offers a spacious atmosphere and is easy to get to (right on Burrard).

I’d go back to Fleuri for this elegant afternoon tea on any weekend afternoon – conversation flowed, the tea was high quality, and the service was great! But I may make the reservation for 3:30 to be sure they’ve put the vacuum cleaner away.

Artisanal Teas

I came across Dawna Ehman’s beautiful display of artisanal tea blends at the Gastown Farmer’s Market recently. There is a beauty and rooted understanding of the refinement that is tea culture in her work.

Her exquisite teas are all hand-blended with verve and panache – she takes the risk of blending high-end teas that usually stand on their own, and are not commonly mixed or blended, and succeeds beautifully.

Inner Alchemy Teas

For example, the Verdant Jewel green tea blend (with wild mint, organic mint and crystallized ginger) mixes premium organic “Snow Buds” green tea with superior grade “Silver Needles” white tea. This produces a very refined tea that stands above the blended teas we normally taste. I very much enjoyed this tea when I made it at home – and like many fine teas it can bear more than one infusion, far better than allowing it to become bitter by the time you get to the second cup!

These teas are called the Living Jewel Collection

Attention to detail makes these teas perfect from their beginning with only the finest ingredients, to their presentation in exquisite and beautifully designed packaging.

Tea Tins on Display

Based in Vancouver, Dawna is always exploring and discovering new blends, which seem to be a natural expression of her background as an herbalist. She can also create uniquely blended teas specifically for you. Drawing on her expertise in the plant based healing modalities of herbalism, aromatherapy and flower essence therapy, as well as the art and culture of tea, Dawna creates unique plant based tonics, elixirs and formulas for clients worldwide. Definitely worth checking out in Farmer’s Market scene, and anywhere you might come across her teas.

Hi Ho, Silver!
This family silver tea service was a staple at the teas my grannie held with the Canmore women of the St. Michael’s Anglican church group. It had been a 25th wedding anniversary gift from my grandfather, back in the 1920s or 30s.

When my mum passed away, I was given the family silver, which had become very tarnished over the years. Reliving happy memories of polishing the silver tea set with my mum and Grannie, I sat down to clean the silver with my own grandkids, Ember and Cora. When it was all finished, and we saw our reflections in every piece, we made a tender little tea party, and the kids lined up their stuffed animals and dolls to join in.

Here Ember is shining the teapot. A big responsibility, but appropriate for the eldest. She handled the large teapot, which is the queen of the lot, and many of the fancy trays.

Cora looked after the shining of the silver cream pitcher and sugar bowl.

Spectacular shining silver. I put on the kettle and we made an occasion. It was teatime! We laid out tea on the table after selecting tea snacks, simple little treats that we cut into bite-sized bits and placed on the newly cleaned silver trays. We selected which of mum’s tea cups we would drink our tea from, choosing the flower images and colours.

We were elegant ladies. As I poured them “Fairy tea”, we connected sweetly with the present memories of my mother and my grandmother.

How to make Fairy Tea (for children)

• Make black tea as usual in your normal teapot
• Half-fill the child’s cup with milk from the cream pitcher
• Add tea
• Stir in 2 full teaspoons of sugar from the sugar bowl

(I know, sugar sugar sugar, but remember this is an old Edwardian recipe!)

I’ve seen a few sites from China about muyustone, and the products look the same or similar – tea cups, tea glasses, teapots and other objects that make use of this particular jade.  It interests me and I’m wondering if anyone in Vancouver or Richmond carries these products.

The sites I’ve looked at are: http://www.muyustone.net/en/ and http://www.jcstone.cn/. I came across this “Rosewood singing stone” info, at the Muyustone site.

Rosewood singing stone is one kind of costful jade ore, it was formed 5.5—5.8 hundred million years ago. The producing area is only in the west cordillera of Taishan Mountain，where was listed in world three antiquity section sample mountains. The reserve is finity and very valuable. The color, the veins and the sound of the singing stone is same like the sound of the wooden fish knock by the monk when they pattering, so the people call it Rosewood singing stone.
Depend on the record of 《Compendium of Material Medical》, the singing stone is rare and valuable Chinese traditional medicine material, formal name is Taiyi yuliang or Yuyuliang. Its nature is gentle and innocuity, and it benefits to the internal organs of human body. The content of microelement-strontium and selenium is higher in the water of Wooden Fish lapidarist tea set, it can prevent cancer, anticancer, anti consenescence, prevent arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease and so on. Further more, it can temper physiology enginery, accelerate metabolism, improve memory, to make people full of vitality. And it is good to health, such as; stronger your body, be able to bear cold and hot, no hungry feeling, and also prolong your life by drinking the water of Wooden Fish lapidarist tea set for a long duration. And the microelement of Wooden Fish Jade can be absorbed by the body and skin and produce special “photoemission”, focusing and store the energy, forming “the electromagnetism” and befell the resonance with human body, moreover, it radiate farness infrared ray which can be imbibe by human body and place a premium on the cell of moisture consuming sympathetic in the human body, acting light circulation system and help the circulation of human blood. So we have the saying that “it is the fate if you have it and contrary you can not get it”, it increase the status value of the singing stone.

Make yourself a nice cup tea, sit back and stay a while. This short video shows the growing and processing of both Gyokuro and Matcha tea. That’s the Japanese tea grown for light green leaves, in specially covered areas to provide the shaded growing conditions.

As the Kevan at O-Cha said, once you see this, you’ll have a much better appreciation as to why gyokuro and matcha are so much more expensive that other types of green tea.
For a detailed fun look at how to make Gyokuro, check out Griff and Matt’s video here:

Watch more Griff and Matt videos at their YouTube channel: The Art of Japanese Green Tea