Wednesday, July 23, 2008

New Haven heaven

It was another slow day at the tea store until a beautiful couple from New Haven, Connecticut came and started tasting tea. The young woman had penetratingly soulful eyes while the young man seemed to be the jack of all trades...

What kind of tea are you interested in today?
Oh, we're not really all too sure...
Well, my name is Hillel, it's nice to meet you.
Hey Hillel, I'm Christopher... it's nice to meet you.
Hillel, I'm Jennifer and it's also a pleasure to meet you...

Yeah, they were connected, I could tell. He seemed to really care each time I spoke. That was a quality that I never really became familiar with in the tasting room because that's what I would do for people all day.

Hillel, I like greens and whites... what do you recommend?
John you know, there are many great teas even within those realms... How about a sweet and delicate white tea? We have Ceylon silvertips which is a very delicate white tea that has delicious notes of honey... how about it?
Sure man.

As we started talking more and more he told me a bit about himself. They asked me a bunch of questions... I told them that I was going to school for an associates degree in liberal arts and that hopefully I was going to transfer to a school that would pay for my way. He really looked like he cared when I was telling the story. I hope that I was able to communicate my gratitude for that, because it's seldom that I can get that from other people.

I told them that I was planning on transferring to a university and studying psychology. I felt that this was a degree that I could be comfortable getting myself into, but I need an alternative edge... I feel like I'm really into alternative methods of healing, energy work... obviously I can't really get into that while I'm at a formal education, but maybe when I am done with that I can get into the alternative side of it.

I asked him what he was all about... He said that he enjoys getting people 'connected' through the arts... through many different mediums. He told me that what he means by getting 'connected' is getting people in touch with a higher consciousness... higher vibrations. Once he started getting into this, I realized that he's doing exactly what I want to do and what I am currently doing.

Katie showed up in need of a tea pot. She's a beautiful twenty-one year old woman who goes to the Savannah School of Art and Design... in a previous post I wrote about her, and how she works with jewelry. She's a really beautiful person and such a smooth soul... she just seems to go with it all. I really like that about her.

She started interacting with John and Jennifer... John ended up tasting Meijiawu Lung Ching which is the equivalent of the best Lung Ching that we have, so it's like the super fine stuff. This hand-picked and -processed green tea from the hills just west of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, has been famous since the eighth century. It is known for its full, round flavor, unique nutty taste, pleasant jade-green color, and wonderful aroma. Hand fired in a large wok, it takes on a flat shiny appearance.

Anji is another Chinese green tea that we have. It has a delicious sweet and asparagus-like flavor. Then my friend Rob who lives locally came by. He's a great kid, I really enjoy him. He's gone into like computer programming and he seems to really enjoy it. He's just graduating so he's trying to figure out exactly what's going on...

Everyone seemed so happy, they were.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Continuous waves

Sunday July 6, 3:30 PM: Anna has stopped by. She seems rested and relaxed. More people are coming. The room is half-full. A young African American couple came in.
The woman had eyes that were wide open, penetrating people sweetly. Such dark brown eyes, so much wonder and wisdom. She was happy to see me, yeah, me too. She was curious about so many different teas, so proper in her mannerisms... Deliberate and careful. She asked questions at the right time, almost knowing exactly when it was her turn. Not everyone has this kind of savvy, what made her so right on?

A young blond woman stopped by, probably twenty-four years old. I met her five months ago, definitely... She was sitting on the bench while everyone was having a roaring time.

Anna was just in the background while we tasted. The young man asked to try our black tea with chocolate and peppermint, then went for a white tea, our Ceylon Silver Tips... which gives us a sweet honey quality.

His wife or girlfriend tried the rooibos chai which has cinnamon, coreander, and fennel. Solid choice, that's my night time wonder.

My friend Katarina from Connecticut and her friend Carol stopped by. We had some Gyokuro, beautiful Japanese green tea from Uji.

I went from a ball of sad emotions to a fury of goodness pervading the tea room. Figures.