On weekends, you can taste

Cheers.
Yo. Monday blues today, very very slow. Quite a few tasters who wanted a lot of attention and did not buy a lot of product. Two ounces of this, two ounces of that. Oh well, some days are like that.

Some pictures of favorite teas

I like tea a lot. This is one legal and healthy way of putting two thumbs up and being in between two piles of grass.

Ridin' the tidal tea wave~

The past couple of days at Harney & sons have been great. As you all know, I am a human being behind the counter in the tea tasting room. First and foremost, I would like to say that I am passionate about my life. I love my world, I love my people, I love each breath that I take. The privilege that I have is beyond words and cannot be expressed over this computer... It is an honor to be able to delve deeper and deeper into who I am just to share that with people.

In meeting Wendy I will be able to truly express to you a small fragment of the passion I have for tea and people. She was a woman in her fifties, wide-open green eyes, a couple of necklaces that exuded spirit, love, and trust. She was wearing loosely fitting clothing and she had a glow on her that was undeniable.

"Hey there! How are you doing today?"
"I am doing very well, and yourself?"
"I am well, very well." after saying this, I looked deeply into her eyes but not penetratingly. I looked at her more with a sense of knowing because I knew that we were playing on common grounds. She knew my spirit, and to an extent I knew hers.

From there we tried different teas. We tried a second flush Darjeeling named Selimbong. Before the June monsoons there's a brief set of showers that kicks off the second flush season in May. These teas naturally have lighter bodies than most typical black teas.

Typical black teas in my opinion are what most people would consider black tea blends with more oomph, Irish or English blends, Assams, or Chinese black teas. In comparison to these other black teas there's shorter oxidation period... they also go through a hard withering process... also going through a short firing period, I believe.

Second flush darjeelings are known for their Muscatel qualities, conveying the muscat grape taste. There's a gentle floral pucker, an astringent factor that leaves you happy in your mouth. This pucker ought to not be confused with bitterness. Either people really consider that to be bitter or do not know how to differentiate a bitter tea from a tea with a gentle pucker which is what a second flush Darjeeling will do to you.

Or maybe peoples' lack of vocabulary plays an issue in this because they don't know what other words would describe this taste.

In Michael Harney's book which is about to come out, he mentions that Berdnt Wulf says to buy a tea that makes you happy, that makes you smile.

When I went to Hamburg to meet up with Marcus Wulf, his son, he told me the same thing.
"Hillel, does this tea make you happy?" "Are you left with a smile?"
If this is so, this is the tea for you. If you are unhappy, or not ecstatic, why buy the tea?

I was talking to Wendy about these gentle qualities... every time she looked at me she conveyed such tenderness. She just went through some Shamanic healing seminars at Omega. The shamans deeply explore themselves, one must understand why they judge... or why some people make them unhappy. Maybe it's not the person, maybe it's in you? Of course it's in you...

We are all beautiful people and we just be privileged to deal with our issues... our problems... our fears... and we should treat all of these things with such tenderness and acceptance.

If we could realize that we're all mirrors for one another. We reflect all of our deficiencies and proficiencies off of one another. If you look at me, you are looking in me, and you should see yourself in me. The universal common thread of mankind.

This is so basic, and she and I shared this so powerfully.

Later on in the day, I tasted tea with a couple, Bob and Janine. They were Quakers from Pennsylvania. I was happy to know that they were for Obama. They owned a coffeehouse in Pennsylvania in a very blue collar conservative town. A lot of the people in the area frowned upon their political affiliations, but that doesn't stop them.

Bob seemed really at peach with himself. He went through heart surgery a year ago. No fear in this guy, no fear.

We tasted some Wuyi Shan Lapsang... a lightly smoked Chinese black tea with an elegant sweetness that makes you so happy. This smokiness is welcoming and softly coats your mouth with a very sweet and gamy feel.

Pretty soon pictures will be going up. Cheers.

Culmination of experiences

Over the past few days at work, I've been lucky enough to come across some interesting people which have given room for beautiful experiences.

Lately, I've been fascinated by the Chinese black teas. Our Keemun Mao Feng for this year, 2008, is amazing. At Harney & sons in Millerton you all ought to come and visit me at the tea tasting room. This tea is relatively affordable considering its unique and elegant qualities.

Coming from Keemun in China, in the Anhui province, this tea lends itself a very amazing flavor. There's a sweet quality which pervades the taste, partly because of the fact that there's an essential oil in it called myrcenal.

This year's Keemun Mao Feng is amazing and if you'll come and visit me at the tea store at 10 AM, you will see this tea as the tea of the moment. With such incredible richness and a body that does not offend, it is easy to fall in love with this tea. Such sweetness, maltiness, chocolate notes along with a body that's really mellow... you really can't go wrong.

I met a woman named Hong. She's a beautiful woman from New York City who came to visit us for a couple of hours. She was in the tea lounge having a pot of tea and scones. As I walked over there, I was completely overwhelmed by her style and youthful spirit. I hugged my co-worker, Sarah, and told her that I was in love with her. This woman was like, what a sweet young man he is... it's got to be a joy working with him.

She came my way to the tasting room. She tried the first tea of the moment which was a second flush Darjeeling tea called Selimbong. Second flush implies it was the second picking of the year which is in late May, early June. Second flushes are quite different from first flushes. Second flushes tend to have a more prominent muscatel quality, with an astrigency that sustains itself longer in your mouth. There's more of a pucker and there's also a heavier body. The leaf is usually darker, and I believe it's been oxidized for a longer amount of time as well.

We then decided to taste a couple of white teas and my favorite green tea, Gyokuro, which is a Japanese green tea from Uji.

After that, we had a bowl of matcha. She and I were so buzzed on tea it wasn't even funny.

She's working in finance in lower Manhattan. I asked her if she enjoyed her work. She said that it's okay. She then looked at me deeply into my eyes and asked me if I enjoyed my job. I told her that my job is my passion, I love my work.

She told me she's doing this job because when she's older she wants to travel and have her life be comfortably taken care of. I can't settle for less than passion and love, maybe I won't have a retirement plan. Oh well.

I'm on vacation.

Enjoy.

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.

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.