March 4, 2020 • 37 mins
Travel with us to the rolling hills of Sri Lanka and the high mountains of Taiwan to sample teas and learn about their origins. We explore how decisions like harvesting, processing and fermentation impart flavor, and how its consumption is deeply ingrained in Asian cultures. Meet our guests Elena Liao from Te Company a premium tearoom in New York City, as she discusses Oolong tea is and how Taiwan’s history plays a role in its taste, and Waris Ahluwalia, a designer and actor whose newly launched tea line, House of Waris was inspired by the traditional medicinal uses of tea.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
We're in the rolling forest of Sri Lanka where silon
tea is handpicked and harvested. We're here to find out
what makes this te so special, making the TV's silhott
(00:24):
This is taken only the bud. This t is very
very expective. Eighteen sixty seven is the first plant being
planted in Sri Lanka. So since then there were some
people will skilled people being brought from the south of India,
and so generations they have been here. Each of these
(00:48):
delicately plucked leaves are then impact. It's very difficult to
sort of have a missionary to pluck t robo cannot
think and certain things. On top of all, the fact
is the most important thing is the human touch is
very very important teeth process, especially in tea. Tea is
(01:24):
one of the world's most ancient beverages and today remains
the most consumed beverage in the world after water. Too
many of us we know tea in its most modern form,
which is that we steep the tea in our mugs
by unwrapping those little paper envelopes that hold string tea
bags from dried and crushed leaves. However, that's not how
(01:49):
much of the world drinks tea, and the history of
tea is complex and its practice spans across multiple Asian cultures.
Earliest record state drinking tea to the third century a
d in the u Non Province of China, when indigenous
tea plants in the wild were harvested and used for
medicinal purposes. Soon thereafter, it was brewed as the precursor
(02:14):
to the tea that we know today. And today's show,
we're going to explore global expressions of tea, the rituals
and ceremonies that accompany tea, and we will learn how
the leaves harvested from this shiny leaved, shrub like plant
produces one of the beverages that is the most consumed
(02:34):
around the world today. On point of origin, it's teatime.
One of my absolute favorite parts of visiting New York
is when I have an opportunity to come to the
West Village, find a little corner in your tea shop
(02:57):
and move through the menu methodically drinking all the oulong's.
It's one of my absolute favorite places on earth. So
thank you so much. That's very kind. We're lucky to
have the audience that we have in the neighborhood that
we have. So all the cheese that we know, you know,
(03:26):
in the supermarket, that's from anything from Lupton to you
know the recent trend just match um green cheese, oolongs,
black cheese, white cheese. Everything that we see that's not
an herb or a flower, they're all on the same plant.
This plant is called Camelia sinenses. So this is Elena
Law who is the owner of ta company in the
(03:48):
West Village of New York. Elena is a first generation
immigrant who grew up in New York City. She didn't
have any direct connections to the world of tea, but
she was born in Taiwan, which is sort of the
next best thing. Yes, I actually didn't come from a
tea family. I didn't come from a key business or
(04:09):
either in production or trade by any stretch of the imagination.
But I did grow up in Taiwan, where every family
drinks tea. It's ingrained in the Chinese culture or any
Chinese heritage countries where like tea drinking as tea gifting.
You know, it's a very much part of your life
and you don't think twice about it, sort of like
New Yorkers and pizza, you don't really think about the
(04:31):
dough all the time or the where the sauce comes from.
You just have it in your life. So she started
sourcing teas on her trips to Taiwan and across Asia,
which was just the starting point. I remember only getting
teas from Taiwan when my mom would mail them or
when I go home and I would get that, And
any time I've run out, I literally have nowhere to
(04:52):
go in, you know, sort of the only thing that's
available to me is a grocery store. It really is
sort of like a living historical artifact of like what
culture and civilization had developed this beverage from plants, the
different styles of it sort of went to different parts
(05:13):
of the world, so that became interesting for me, and
then ultimately I start sourcing them, start of visiting, you know,
when I go to Taiwan, I would visit families, friends
and people who understand really good quality food, really good
quality wine, really good quality coffee can really absolutely relate
to really good quality tea, and sort of over time
(05:34):
figure it out that I need a little tea room
to really showcase them and have a place for people
to come in. You can't sell this stuff on the internet.
You can't sell smell, you can't convince someone you know
the craft that went behind these products. So let's take
(05:57):
a step back to understand more out what te actually is.
It comes from the leaves of a plant called Camilla senesis.
It's a fairly nondescript looking shrub that originates in East Asia,
and a simple way to think about tea is really
the same way that you would think about wine. So
(06:20):
wine comes from grapes and teas come from leaves. The
grape variety that's used in wine production is called Vitas
vinifera and the name of the plant used in tea
production is the aforementioned Camilla sinensis. So while there are
many different types of teas, most of the variances that
(06:41):
you'll experience and flavor, aroma, and taste are based on
the variety of Camilla sinensis, plus how it's grown, harvested, processed,
and stored. So how we process the tea plant after
(07:01):
it's harvested is what define them to be green teas,
ulan's white and black. What is long tea and what
makes it so special? The main difference between them is
oxidation levels. Um, So you imagine when you pick the
tea plant off the stem. You know, if you leave
it on the table after a few hours, it will brown,
(07:22):
the same way as if you cut open apple, it'll brown.
Cut up an avocado, it brown's it's the plant's natural
way of decaying by interacting with the oxygen in the
air um and that simple process. I'm sure if physicists
will explain this better than I can, but it's called oxidation.
Green tea by definition is non oxidized, and black teat
(07:44):
by definition, it's fully oxidized. So what that means is
when you harvest the tea plant, if your intention is
to make green tea, you will heat the tea leaves
up right away when you harvest them. It's the endomatic
reaction to kill the enzyme, so then it doesn't exodized
with the oxygen in the air and therefore keep it
bright green. For black tea, you would let it oxidize,
(08:07):
so let it naturally decay fully brown naturally. Therefore, black
teeze is much darker or much more coppery brown, the
same way as your apple browns, if you will. Along.
By definition, is partially oxidized, so that means it's anywhere
between green and black, so you can have oxydized. So
(08:30):
this feels like a good time to once again say
that other than the so called herbal teas which are
made with hot water being poured directly over herbs, spices
or other plant materials, all of the teas that you
see in the wild, from grocery store shelves to a
trendy maucha cafe, they all come from the same plant
(08:54):
and the thing that makes them different primarily is the
way in which their exposure to oxygen is either encouraged
or disrupted. And this is what we mean when we
talk about the processing of the team is extremely wide. Therefore,
you know, so many flavor profiles can all be called
(09:16):
ulan team. So that's really the main sort of categorically
how we define what mulan te is. But what are
some of the variations that you see in an ulan
te from Taiwan that makes it particularly prized. So Ulans
are sort of a later stage development in the Chinese
(09:36):
tea cultivation. Like the Chinese didn't wake up one day
and created like fifteen different kinds of g and like
call it a day, like it was you know, through
a long thousands of years in fact of development and change,
trial and error that they gave you different styles of teammaking,
and ulan being sort of the later style. By the
(09:58):
time of the Shang dynasty from seventeen sixty six to
ten fifty BC, tea was being consumed in the yu
Non province for its medicinal properties. UM. I think the
earliest records of tea production is like two thousand years
BC versus I think long To you came around I
don't know, year seven hundred eight, so like it's it's
(10:20):
a few thousand years if when I think the monks
sort of figured it out how to make it in
between process two and so through thousands of years. China
obviously has you know, a beautiful list um of ulan
to that's available. There was specifically made mainly you know
(10:41):
in Fujin area and we mountain and over time because
of the close proximity of Fujin to Taiwan, literally like
it's a tiny ocean way away. Um, there's not a
lot of natural migration that went to Taiwan, and that
includes some of these long to may have been there
for generations. From eight to the end of World War Two,
(11:09):
Taiwan was seated by China to Japan as a result
of the First Sino Japanese War. Because of its geography,
Japanese occupation was deemed a strategic necessity for military ambitions.
During this period, most of the social, economic and cultural
changes and occupy Taiwan were driven by technocrats living in
(11:33):
the colonial government. It was during this period that Japan
became invested in Taiwanese tea and in nineteen o three
developed a governmental agency specifically for t R and D
for research and development. Taiwan has really quite a unique
(11:53):
historical reference that influence I would say heavily as to
what the product begets, you know, what becomes in the
sense that it went through Japanese occupation for about fifty years.
It bypassed the cultural revolution that happened in China. It
sort of was its own independent, ruling democratic society, which
(12:14):
you know, people having to be able to pay for
things that they like sort of you know, encourage economic
consumption as well. So you have those influences in Taiwan
that really makes the t quite different from where I
came from. Very early on NTO through the Japanese some
looked at the taiwan These teason was like these are
(12:37):
wonderful product that we should really invest in. And so
they had started a research center called t Research Extension Stations.
It's run by a bunch of chemists and engineers and
all they do is study the tea plants and create
new tea plants and facilitate the education of farmers that
they've run local competitions and they'll go out and teach
(12:58):
you what they're looking for so then you can win.
And if you win the competition, then you have your
your teas are auctioned off and um, it's heavily financially rewardous.
So it created a very healthy circular loop for the
farmers to elevate their skill sets for a lot of
the technologies from you know that Japanese was known for
(13:18):
that was sort of influenced into the production of the tea.
This agency is still very active and alive today and
it's sort of facilitated a lot of the development of
either varieties or types of teas or method of making.
So that is something that is extremely unique to Taiwan
(13:38):
the island alone, that differentiate the products that came from
out of a Chinese heritage in Lugian. How are these
(14:04):
teas actually grown, you know, go into the mountains to
side indigenous tea plants. Of course, um that's by how
it started from the very beginning, but over times nowadays
for commercial cultivation, you really see them sort of you know,
trimmed about waist tie. They're usually about three feet tall.
(14:25):
And for ease of harvesting, because when we harvest the
tea plan, we really harvest just the young shoot of
the tea plant, so to make it easier and you
don't have to climb trees because you know, if you
let it tea plant grow, they can for some of
them can grow to like two or three story hie um,
and we only use the baby button maybe like the
(14:45):
young shoots sit for tea production. And this is true
for very fancy tea and looked at right, so consistent
and to make that easier commercially. Nowadays, pretty much everywhere
that you go in the world that produces tea, you'll
see most to the tea plant sort of like around
three feet tall. When the tea blood comes out, you
(15:05):
just grazed the top of the plant and this is
done by hand, depending on where you are, I think
sort of for Taiwan, and the one thing actually I
forgot to mention about you know what makes out too unique?
It is an island has a ton of moisture from
the ocean. It also has it's on the traffic of cancer,
(15:25):
which is literally like, we're probably the very ideal if
you will, for tea cultivations that has a very good
you know what, we're familiar as the term tail are
for the tea plant to be to time one in
addition to having all these culture heritage actually has a
very good and it provides a very good environment for
t cultivation. As for ceylon and Oolong tea, much of
(15:53):
the tea around the world is still picked and processed
by hand. That's because during harvesting, workers are solely picking
the bud or the tip of the plant where the
newest growth lies. The flush is the mostly newly sprouted leaves,
and the flesh harvest can contain up to five leaves,
(16:15):
but the most valuable is what's called the golden flush,
which is only the first two and three leaves that
are harvested and made into tea. Because farmers don't harvest
all the leaves on the plant and are just picking
the newest, youngest growth, there are specific seasons for harvesting
(16:37):
the tea plant. And the warmest regions where tea grows,
like Sri Lanka where Ceylon tea is cultivated, harvesting seasons
are long, while in most of the northern regions tea
is harvested only a few times during April and September.
In Taiwan, Alanis farmers have developed a balance between hand
(16:58):
harvesting ooh long in technology, so another way of like
human interaction. As far as hand harvesting or machine harvesting,
you know, you could have it both ways. Obviously, hand
harvesting much more precise. Um you can get exactly the
part of the plant that you want, and certain keys
calls were just a bud. Or if you have bad
(17:20):
weather and sometimes or you have you know, fifty acres
of land that you need to harvest in a few hours,
you need the machine. So really depends on scale, depends
on the terrain of the land. Um parts of Taiwan
hasts really really high elevation tea gardens which are two
thousand meters above sea elevation, and these are a mountainous terrain.
(17:43):
They're not easy to run a machine through. So most
of those lands you have to hand harvest um, and
obviously that drives up the price. It drives up the
cost of the actual harvest. But certainly it's worth that,
you know, extend, probably because they're so precise um well
made to bees that are picked one by one by
(18:05):
are humans. If we want to be better drinkers of
these fine oolongs, how do we prepare the tea so
(18:26):
that we can drink it at its peak? If you
want to start drinking better tea, the first thing to
do is when you get to either whatever what's available
to whether it's a tea store locally or in a
grocery store, look for tea that doesn't have flavorings. So meaning,
you know, sometimes when you smell some teas and it
smells like peach, or it smells like raspberries, who sounds like,
(18:49):
I don't know. Sometimes chocolate chip, I don't think everything
is you know, I don't know. Strawberry sounds unfortunate. Chocolate
chip tea. I've seen banana bread cheese, and so I
would say stay away from Notice that is step one
because what happens in those cheese, and we know nature
(19:09):
doesn't give you a chocolate chip, it's from cook cow beans,
it's not from commits sensis, So it's usually any the
smells extrawberries, peaches and what have you that's not a
tea plant. And so I usually highly encourage people to
smell the dry leaves if this smells like these additives,
and don't get those, because what happens is if you
(19:32):
use fragrancy, you don't really need the tea to be
very well made. You will cover it anyway with peach fragrance. Generally,
look for pure teas, and that's either of pure green
of your like at your lum or your block. So
try different categories and you're narrowed down to a category
that you like. So either um, it's something that's grassy
(19:53):
or or something that's not malti or something that toasty. Um.
And don't feel like there is a right or wrong
way to assumed tea if it's too strong at some
hot water, if it's too weak, could have back in
the tea pot grow a little longer. So that's where
I just want to set this stage because some people
feel like it's something really precious and it's not. It's
(20:16):
it's like I tell people that kool aid, you just
add water if it's too strong to you know, casual.
Every t is different, everyone palid is a little different,
so it never feel like you're going to ruin something.
You're never gonna nothing bad happens. And then the other
(20:39):
one is not restraining the tea leaves so nice. Their
tea leaves generally are rolled in a certain way that
they really need room to expand and full. These teeth, particularly,
their rolled really tightly, so any room to expand, So
don't put them in a you know, a really small
tea ball that were physically they are unable to open um.
(21:04):
We generally recommend putting the tea leaves in an open vessel,
like in a whether it's your tea pot or in
a picture where it's not considering biophysical space, or a
tea bag or a sachet, and that way you sort
of let the teas have the most room to expand,
and therefore you get the most flavor. And it's the
most productive way I would say, of extracting tea as
(21:27):
far as brewing. So you really want those leaves to
unfurl freely, that's right, that's right. And then the brewing
temperature the generally generically the group Neery style, the teeth.
(21:47):
The lower the temperature pretty much regardless of what type
of teeth is, because otherwise, if the temperature is not
hot enough, it won't open and you can't actually extract
all the flavors. Tea leaves can be possessed by drying
the leaves out in the sun. These withering techniques reduce
the water content and make the leaves pliable enough to
(22:10):
move on to the next step, which is called rolling.
Traditionally done by hand. Rolling tea leaves into compact balls
helps to break down the leaf cell structure. This releases
the juices and the oils from the leaves and encourages
a more uniform oxidation. Just like the take companies oolong tea.
(22:33):
There is a reason for historical advancement to roll cheese
into the tightly rolled pearls. One of the reasons for
transit um. We're able to transport a lot more tea
with the smaller physical space, so they're densely rolled um
a safe space the seconds. It protects the integrity of
(22:55):
the shape of the leaves, so when you brew them
you don't have to break them there for it you
keep the shape of the leaves which has less broken
surface area. Which will give you a less tannin extraction
will give you a better mouth feel. And now I
really sound like a nerve right there. And one of
(23:22):
my favorite things about tease in this style is that
I find the drinking of them to be so pleasurable
in the ways in which the flavor profile changes with
each steep. Yeah, I would say really good quality tees.
They're made with the idea in mind that you will
(23:45):
repeatedly steep the leaves like we tell people generally as
three steepings and us to feel free at home to
do up to five and tent. But basically what's happening
is different molecules are moving in fragrance, oils, mall it doos,
it's in the tea. Leaves are moving at a different
speed when you brew them. So, for instance, caffeine as
(24:06):
an as a particle, it's the first thing it extracts,
is caffeine. Um. If you're brewing with really hot water,
and usually the first two infusion and the most caffeineated,
and then the third and the fourth are less so.
So if you imagine that the same principle applies to
I don't know, the chemical that makes the tea smells
like flowers. It has a different traveling speed than some
(24:29):
of the other ones. So as you're brewing different infusions um,
you're extracting sort of different particles um every time, and
that sort it gives you the slight variation in you know,
in the multiple infusion, different steepings, if you will. So
that's something that is really fun for someone like kind
of what you're saying that you're sitting with the tea
(24:50):
and you sort of enjoy it's like a little journey
or a little tea vacation that youk and it take
and it's really just like between you and the tea
and your friend, you're shot. So this is a poem
(25:11):
called a te song. Dan't You was an immortal who
cared nothing for rich foods, But after picking some tea
and drinking it, he sprouted wings and flew to the
abode of the immortals to escape life's emptiness. Now he
(25:33):
lives among the clouds in a palace unknown to humans.
His tea is brewed in a golden teapot by a
young immortal who lives upon a peak amidst the clouds.
How worthless is lou U's classic of tea when compared
to this that is Cheeo Jin of the Ting Dynasty's
(25:58):
Tea song. I grew up, you know, seeing tea in
(26:22):
my in my family and in my culture as the
thing that I was brought people together. Warrist Alla Walia
is our next guest. Born in Amristo, Northern India and
raised in Brooklyn, New York, Alla Walia is a designer
best known for his House of Wars fashion and jewelry line,
but he's also an avid tea connoisseur. For Wars, tea
(26:45):
is a social connector, one that he learned about from
his mother's traditional hospitality. It was the first thing you
offered when someone someone came over. You would invite people
over for tea. And you know when I wouldn't when
I would go to India with the family, you know,
it was it was there. It was the first thing.
It was, it was the last thing. It was just
a part of living right. It was integrated, It was
(27:07):
woven into existence. And so it was something I was
very familiar with as as an idea and what kind
of tea were as being served in your home. It
was traditional tea. My mom would take regular black tea
and then and then add cardamom and clothes and spices
to it. You know what, she what she grew up with.
(27:29):
Indian tea leaves are not prepared separately by being steeped. Instead,
tea leaves are boiled along with additions like spices, and
then boiled again after the addition of milk and sugar.
And many parts of the country the most special cup
of tea is one in which the tea leaves are
boiled separately in milk. If you had people over, you
(27:50):
have tea with them. Or it wasn't a big thing,
it was just always present. Tea has draught people together.
He has been about community. He has been about layers
and layers of stories of gathering. You know. And she
used to be its original purpose with a medicinal That
(28:14):
was how it started and grew from there. Um and
even you know, used for social gathering for warriors. He
played an omnipresent role in his childhood home. It's importance
in Indian homes is tied to the fact that it
is the second largest producer of tea, just after China.
It's most famous ritals are a psalm, which is a
(28:36):
bright tea with a multicolor, and are jailing, which is
a delicate and fruity tea. A psalm, Darjiling, and other
varieties like the doers, Terai, Massala, and sick Hum are
all named after the regions that they're produced in, so
each of the teas is influenced by their environment. A psalm,
(28:57):
for instance, needs low altitudes and rich loamy soil and
ample rainfall in order to thrive, while Darjeeling, on the
other hand, grows in the Himalayan Mountains, which is the
highest altitude tea growing region in the entire world. The
high altitudes forced a jailing to grow a little more slowly,
(29:18):
increasing its chlorophyll content, which results in rich and slightly
apricot and peach like flavors that you taste in the tea.
Beyond commensality and terroir, Indian tea has had another significant function.
It's used as medicine. The Indian system of Ayurveda has
(29:40):
a long standing tradition of herbal teas. Traditionally, these teas
have been used for centuries to treat conditions like digestion, stress, inflammation,
and improving memory. The use of milk and sugar and
chai is an intentional addition to disguise the stronger, more
bitter flavors and medicinal properties of cardamom, clove, and ginger,
(30:03):
Drawing on his culture's understanding of health and medicine. Wars
relied on Tea's wisdom when dealing with his own physical
stress and anxiety. Right, there were days I felt like
I couldn't even breathe. I was suffering physically, I was.
It was just it's terrible. And then when I went
through that experience, I realized that I wasn't alone in
(30:25):
my suffering. Everyone goes through this stress, right, Everyone goes
through it every day, right, like not being able to
pay bills, or or relationship stress or or loss of
life or bad health, whatever it is. We constantly, we
constantly are faced with it. And and not everyone has
access to that kind of what's called alternative treatment or
(30:50):
know how to get to those people. Right. And so
then I went back to my herbalists, and I put
a team of herbalists together and we started making blends
that that we helped deal with every day building blocks.
We need to sleep better, so we made a sleep
when we need to improve our digestion. So we need
a digestion when there are moments where you might overdo it,
(31:12):
you know, you know in life. And so we made
you know, like a detox len and but just spent
years on making these blends and making these finding the
right ingredients and trying to Warris found that t relieved
the symptoms, which ultimately became his inspiration for his own
(31:32):
line of teas called Wars Botanical. And now we're you know,
we're launching Council Wars Botanicals. And it is it's like
a multi multi, multi faceted enterprise that uses tea as
its starting point in the conversation, that uses tea as
(31:53):
a gateway as at first and of course step towards
talking about much larger issues to have much needed conversation.
And when you look at it, historically, in all these
ancient cultures, he has brought people together. It had an
anchor in people's lives every day. To end our podcast today,
(32:22):
we traveled to Tianjian, China, where a family friend Goofu
or uncle, explains how he brews his favorite cup of
white tea. Hold, there's just some poors, huh. Today the
(32:45):
tea we're drinking is a puerity. This song poor is
a type of black tea that is a variety of
fermented tea from the yu Non province in southern China,
Subani in the leisure. This type of tea has over
four hundred years of history. It's one of the most
(33:09):
well known teas. Have you done? As it was bestowed
as a gift to the emperor of the shan Long dynasty.
To start, we will put our leaves into a large teacup.
Will begin our first steep, which is called a un cha,
(33:30):
where we pour our water at a hundred degrees celsius
into our cup. Cha serves the purpose of both allowing
the leaves to unravel and also serves to wash away impurities.
(33:55):
Change change oil, one body. Pour these into your small
individual drinking glasses. These are small ceramic glasses that are
about the size of a double shot glass. Give the
liquid a quick swirl to warm your glass, and pour
(34:18):
away into the tea stand reservoir. Once we've poured our
glasses out, we will pour our one degrees celsius water
into our large tea cup with leaves. We'll leave it
to steep for sixty seconds. Once we finished our steep,
(34:41):
we will serve the tea in each of our individual
ceramic glasses. This is an anonymous poem inscribed on an
old sing teapot. Willow branches graze the grass. As I
(35:13):
sit in the shade drinking tea. A note from the
flute blows, clearly mingling with the sound of rain. I
could sit here alone forever, and still I'd never feel lonely.
H h h h h h h h h h
(35:48):
h h h h h h h h h h
h h h h. That's all for this episode of
Point of Origin. Thanks for listening and supporting the wet
(36:10):
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(36:33):
That's w h E T S T O in E
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at I Heart Radio for helping us bring you this podcast.
To Gabrielle Collins, our supervising producer, and to Christopher Hasiota's
our executive producer. I'm your host, the Origin Forager, Steven Saderfield,
(37:19):
and we'll be back here next week with more from
wet Stone Magazine's Point of Origin podcast. H
We're in the rolling forest of Sri Lanka where silon
tea is handpicked and harvested. We're here to find out
what makes this te so special, making the TV's silhott
(00:24):
This is taken only the bud. This t is very
very expective. Eighteen sixty seven is the first plant being
planted in Sri Lanka. So since then there were some
people will skilled people being brought from the south of India,
and so generations they have been here. Each of these
(00:48):
delicately plucked leaves are then impact. It's very difficult to
sort of have a missionary to pluck t robo cannot
think and certain things. On top of all, the fact
is the most important thing is the human touch is
very very important teeth process, especially in tea. Tea is
(01:24):
one of the world's most ancient beverages and today remains
the most consumed beverage in the world after water. Too
many of us we know tea in its most modern form,
which is that we steep the tea in our mugs
by unwrapping those little paper envelopes that hold string tea
bags from dried and crushed leaves. However, that's not how
(01:49):
much of the world drinks tea, and the history of
tea is complex and its practice spans across multiple Asian cultures.
Earliest record state drinking tea to the third century a
d in the u Non Province of China, when indigenous
tea plants in the wild were harvested and used for
medicinal purposes. Soon thereafter, it was brewed as the precursor
(02:14):
to the tea that we know today. And today's show,
we're going to explore global expressions of tea, the rituals
and ceremonies that accompany tea, and we will learn how
the leaves harvested from this shiny leaved, shrub like plant
produces one of the beverages that is the most consumed
(02:34):
around the world today. On point of origin, it's teatime.
One of my absolute favorite parts of visiting New York
is when I have an opportunity to come to the
West Village, find a little corner in your tea shop
(02:57):
and move through the menu methodically drinking all the oulong's.
It's one of my absolute favorite places on earth. So
thank you so much. That's very kind. We're lucky to
have the audience that we have in the neighborhood that
we have. So all the cheese that we know, you know,
(03:26):
in the supermarket, that's from anything from Lupton to you
know the recent trend just match um green cheese, oolongs,
black cheese, white cheese. Everything that we see that's not
an herb or a flower, they're all on the same plant.
This plant is called Camelia sinenses. So this is Elena
Law who is the owner of ta company in the
(03:48):
West Village of New York. Elena is a first generation
immigrant who grew up in New York City. She didn't
have any direct connections to the world of tea, but
she was born in Taiwan, which is sort of the
next best thing. Yes, I actually didn't come from a
tea family. I didn't come from a key business or
(04:09):
either in production or trade by any stretch of the imagination.
But I did grow up in Taiwan, where every family
drinks tea. It's ingrained in the Chinese culture or any
Chinese heritage countries where like tea drinking as tea gifting.
You know, it's a very much part of your life
and you don't think twice about it, sort of like
New Yorkers and pizza, you don't really think about the
(04:31):
dough all the time or the where the sauce comes from.
You just have it in your life. So she started
sourcing teas on her trips to Taiwan and across Asia,
which was just the starting point. I remember only getting
teas from Taiwan when my mom would mail them or
when I go home and I would get that, And
any time I've run out, I literally have nowhere to
(04:52):
go in, you know, sort of the only thing that's
available to me is a grocery store. It really is
sort of like a living historical artifact of like what
culture and civilization had developed this beverage from plants, the
different styles of it sort of went to different parts
(05:13):
of the world, so that became interesting for me, and
then ultimately I start sourcing them, start of visiting, you know,
when I go to Taiwan, I would visit families, friends
and people who understand really good quality food, really good
quality wine, really good quality coffee can really absolutely relate
to really good quality tea, and sort of over time
(05:34):
figure it out that I need a little tea room
to really showcase them and have a place for people
to come in. You can't sell this stuff on the internet.
You can't sell smell, you can't convince someone you know
the craft that went behind these products. So let's take
(05:57):
a step back to understand more out what te actually is.
It comes from the leaves of a plant called Camilla senesis.
It's a fairly nondescript looking shrub that originates in East Asia,
and a simple way to think about tea is really
the same way that you would think about wine. So
(06:20):
wine comes from grapes and teas come from leaves. The
grape variety that's used in wine production is called Vitas
vinifera and the name of the plant used in tea
production is the aforementioned Camilla sinensis. So while there are
many different types of teas, most of the variances that
(06:41):
you'll experience and flavor, aroma, and taste are based on
the variety of Camilla sinensis, plus how it's grown, harvested, processed,
and stored. So how we process the tea plant after
(07:01):
it's harvested is what define them to be green teas,
ulan's white and black. What is long tea and what
makes it so special? The main difference between them is
oxidation levels. Um, So you imagine when you pick the
tea plant off the stem. You know, if you leave
it on the table after a few hours, it will brown,
(07:22):
the same way as if you cut open apple, it'll brown.
Cut up an avocado, it brown's it's the plant's natural
way of decaying by interacting with the oxygen in the
air um and that simple process. I'm sure if physicists
will explain this better than I can, but it's called oxidation.
Green tea by definition is non oxidized, and black teat
(07:44):
by definition, it's fully oxidized. So what that means is
when you harvest the tea plant, if your intention is
to make green tea, you will heat the tea leaves
up right away when you harvest them. It's the endomatic
reaction to kill the enzyme, so then it doesn't exodized
with the oxygen in the air and therefore keep it
bright green. For black tea, you would let it oxidize,
(08:07):
so let it naturally decay fully brown naturally. Therefore, black
teeze is much darker or much more coppery brown, the
same way as your apple browns, if you will. Along.
By definition, is partially oxidized, so that means it's anywhere
between green and black, so you can have oxydized. So
(08:30):
this feels like a good time to once again say
that other than the so called herbal teas which are
made with hot water being poured directly over herbs, spices
or other plant materials, all of the teas that you
see in the wild, from grocery store shelves to a
trendy maucha cafe, they all come from the same plant
(08:54):
and the thing that makes them different primarily is the
way in which their exposure to oxygen is either encouraged
or disrupted. And this is what we mean when we
talk about the processing of the team is extremely wide. Therefore,
you know, so many flavor profiles can all be called
(09:16):
ulan team. So that's really the main sort of categorically
how we define what mulan te is. But what are
some of the variations that you see in an ulan
te from Taiwan that makes it particularly prized. So Ulans
are sort of a later stage development in the Chinese
(09:36):
tea cultivation. Like the Chinese didn't wake up one day
and created like fifteen different kinds of g and like
call it a day, like it was you know, through
a long thousands of years in fact of development and change,
trial and error that they gave you different styles of teammaking,
and ulan being sort of the later style. By the
(09:58):
time of the Shang dynasty from seventeen sixty six to
ten fifty BC, tea was being consumed in the yu
Non province for its medicinal properties. UM. I think the
earliest records of tea production is like two thousand years
BC versus I think long To you came around I
don't know, year seven hundred eight, so like it's it's
(10:20):
a few thousand years if when I think the monks
sort of figured it out how to make it in
between process two and so through thousands of years. China
obviously has you know, a beautiful list um of ulan
to that's available. There was specifically made mainly you know
(10:41):
in Fujin area and we mountain and over time because
of the close proximity of Fujin to Taiwan, literally like
it's a tiny ocean way away. Um, there's not a
lot of natural migration that went to Taiwan, and that
includes some of these long to may have been there
for generations. From eight to the end of World War Two,
(11:09):
Taiwan was seated by China to Japan as a result
of the First Sino Japanese War. Because of its geography,
Japanese occupation was deemed a strategic necessity for military ambitions.
During this period, most of the social, economic and cultural
changes and occupy Taiwan were driven by technocrats living in
(11:33):
the colonial government. It was during this period that Japan
became invested in Taiwanese tea and in nineteen o three
developed a governmental agency specifically for t R and D
for research and development. Taiwan has really quite a unique
(11:53):
historical reference that influence I would say heavily as to
what the product begets, you know, what becomes in the
sense that it went through Japanese occupation for about fifty years.
It bypassed the cultural revolution that happened in China. It
sort of was its own independent, ruling democratic society, which
(12:14):
you know, people having to be able to pay for
things that they like sort of you know, encourage economic
consumption as well. So you have those influences in Taiwan
that really makes the t quite different from where I
came from. Very early on NTO through the Japanese some
looked at the taiwan These teason was like these are
(12:37):
wonderful product that we should really invest in. And so
they had started a research center called t Research Extension Stations.
It's run by a bunch of chemists and engineers and
all they do is study the tea plants and create
new tea plants and facilitate the education of farmers that
they've run local competitions and they'll go out and teach
(12:58):
you what they're looking for so then you can win.
And if you win the competition, then you have your
your teas are auctioned off and um, it's heavily financially rewardous.
So it created a very healthy circular loop for the
farmers to elevate their skill sets for a lot of
the technologies from you know that Japanese was known for
(13:18):
that was sort of influenced into the production of the tea.
This agency is still very active and alive today and
it's sort of facilitated a lot of the development of
either varieties or types of teas or method of making.
So that is something that is extremely unique to Taiwan
(13:38):
the island alone, that differentiate the products that came from
out of a Chinese heritage in Lugian. How are these
(14:04):
teas actually grown, you know, go into the mountains to
side indigenous tea plants. Of course, um that's by how
it started from the very beginning, but over times nowadays
for commercial cultivation, you really see them sort of you know,
trimmed about waist tie. They're usually about three feet tall.
(14:25):
And for ease of harvesting, because when we harvest the
tea plan, we really harvest just the young shoot of
the tea plant, so to make it easier and you
don't have to climb trees because you know, if you
let it tea plant grow, they can for some of
them can grow to like two or three story hie um,
and we only use the baby button maybe like the
(14:45):
young shoots sit for tea production. And this is true
for very fancy tea and looked at right, so consistent
and to make that easier commercially. Nowadays, pretty much everywhere
that you go in the world that produces tea, you'll
see most to the tea plant sort of like around
three feet tall. When the tea blood comes out, you
(15:05):
just grazed the top of the plant and this is
done by hand, depending on where you are, I think
sort of for Taiwan, and the one thing actually I
forgot to mention about you know what makes out too unique?
It is an island has a ton of moisture from
the ocean. It also has it's on the traffic of cancer,
(15:25):
which is literally like, we're probably the very ideal if
you will, for tea cultivations that has a very good
you know what, we're familiar as the term tail are
for the tea plant to be to time one in
addition to having all these culture heritage actually has a
very good and it provides a very good environment for
t cultivation. As for ceylon and Oolong tea, much of
(15:53):
the tea around the world is still picked and processed
by hand. That's because during harvesting, workers are solely picking
the bud or the tip of the plant where the
newest growth lies. The flush is the mostly newly sprouted leaves,
and the flesh harvest can contain up to five leaves,
(16:15):
but the most valuable is what's called the golden flush,
which is only the first two and three leaves that
are harvested and made into tea. Because farmers don't harvest
all the leaves on the plant and are just picking
the newest, youngest growth, there are specific seasons for harvesting
(16:37):
the tea plant. And the warmest regions where tea grows,
like Sri Lanka where Ceylon tea is cultivated, harvesting seasons
are long, while in most of the northern regions tea
is harvested only a few times during April and September.
In Taiwan, Alanis farmers have developed a balance between hand
(16:58):
harvesting ooh long in technology, so another way of like
human interaction. As far as hand harvesting or machine harvesting,
you know, you could have it both ways. Obviously, hand
harvesting much more precise. Um you can get exactly the
part of the plant that you want, and certain keys
calls were just a bud. Or if you have bad
(17:20):
weather and sometimes or you have you know, fifty acres
of land that you need to harvest in a few hours,
you need the machine. So really depends on scale, depends
on the terrain of the land. Um parts of Taiwan
hasts really really high elevation tea gardens which are two
thousand meters above sea elevation, and these are a mountainous terrain.
(17:43):
They're not easy to run a machine through. So most
of those lands you have to hand harvest um, and
obviously that drives up the price. It drives up the
cost of the actual harvest. But certainly it's worth that,
you know, extend, probably because they're so precise um well
made to bees that are picked one by one by
(18:05):
are humans. If we want to be better drinkers of
these fine oolongs, how do we prepare the tea so
(18:26):
that we can drink it at its peak? If you
want to start drinking better tea, the first thing to
do is when you get to either whatever what's available
to whether it's a tea store locally or in a
grocery store, look for tea that doesn't have flavorings. So meaning,
you know, sometimes when you smell some teas and it
smells like peach, or it smells like raspberries, who sounds like,
(18:49):
I don't know. Sometimes chocolate chip, I don't think everything
is you know, I don't know. Strawberry sounds unfortunate. Chocolate
chip tea. I've seen banana bread cheese, and so I
would say stay away from Notice that is step one
because what happens in those cheese, and we know nature
(19:09):
doesn't give you a chocolate chip, it's from cook cow beans,
it's not from commits sensis, So it's usually any the
smells extrawberries, peaches and what have you that's not a
tea plant. And so I usually highly encourage people to
smell the dry leaves if this smells like these additives,
and don't get those, because what happens is if you
(19:32):
use fragrancy, you don't really need the tea to be
very well made. You will cover it anyway with peach fragrance. Generally,
look for pure teas, and that's either of pure green
of your like at your lum or your block. So
try different categories and you're narrowed down to a category
that you like. So either um, it's something that's grassy
(19:53):
or or something that's not malti or something that toasty. Um.
And don't feel like there is a right or wrong
way to assumed tea if it's too strong at some
hot water, if it's too weak, could have back in
the tea pot grow a little longer. So that's where
I just want to set this stage because some people
feel like it's something really precious and it's not. It's
(20:16):
it's like I tell people that kool aid, you just
add water if it's too strong to you know, casual.
Every t is different, everyone palid is a little different,
so it never feel like you're going to ruin something.
You're never gonna nothing bad happens. And then the other
(20:39):
one is not restraining the tea leaves so nice. Their
tea leaves generally are rolled in a certain way that
they really need room to expand and full. These teeth, particularly,
their rolled really tightly, so any room to expand, So
don't put them in a you know, a really small
tea ball that were physically they are unable to open um.
(21:04):
We generally recommend putting the tea leaves in an open vessel,
like in a whether it's your tea pot or in
a picture where it's not considering biophysical space, or a
tea bag or a sachet, and that way you sort
of let the teas have the most room to expand,
and therefore you get the most flavor. And it's the
most productive way I would say, of extracting tea as
(21:27):
far as brewing. So you really want those leaves to
unfurl freely, that's right, that's right. And then the brewing
temperature the generally generically the group Neery style, the teeth.
(21:47):
The lower the temperature pretty much regardless of what type
of teeth is, because otherwise, if the temperature is not
hot enough, it won't open and you can't actually extract
all the flavors. Tea leaves can be possessed by drying
the leaves out in the sun. These withering techniques reduce
the water content and make the leaves pliable enough to
(22:10):
move on to the next step, which is called rolling.
Traditionally done by hand. Rolling tea leaves into compact balls
helps to break down the leaf cell structure. This releases
the juices and the oils from the leaves and encourages
a more uniform oxidation. Just like the take companies oolong tea.
(22:33):
There is a reason for historical advancement to roll cheese
into the tightly rolled pearls. One of the reasons for
transit um. We're able to transport a lot more tea
with the smaller physical space, so they're densely rolled um
a safe space the seconds. It protects the integrity of
(22:55):
the shape of the leaves, so when you brew them
you don't have to break them there for it you
keep the shape of the leaves which has less broken
surface area. Which will give you a less tannin extraction
will give you a better mouth feel. And now I
really sound like a nerve right there. And one of
(23:22):
my favorite things about tease in this style is that
I find the drinking of them to be so pleasurable
in the ways in which the flavor profile changes with
each steep. Yeah, I would say really good quality tees.
They're made with the idea in mind that you will
(23:45):
repeatedly steep the leaves like we tell people generally as
three steepings and us to feel free at home to
do up to five and tent. But basically what's happening
is different molecules are moving in fragrance, oils, mall it doos,
it's in the tea. Leaves are moving at a different
speed when you brew them. So, for instance, caffeine as
(24:06):
an as a particle, it's the first thing it extracts,
is caffeine. Um. If you're brewing with really hot water,
and usually the first two infusion and the most caffeineated,
and then the third and the fourth are less so.
So if you imagine that the same principle applies to
I don't know, the chemical that makes the tea smells
like flowers. It has a different traveling speed than some
(24:29):
of the other ones. So as you're brewing different infusions um,
you're extracting sort of different particles um every time, and
that sort it gives you the slight variation in you know,
in the multiple infusion, different steepings, if you will. So
that's something that is really fun for someone like kind
of what you're saying that you're sitting with the tea
(24:50):
and you sort of enjoy it's like a little journey
or a little tea vacation that youk and it take
and it's really just like between you and the tea
and your friend, you're shot. So this is a poem
(25:11):
called a te song. Dan't You was an immortal who
cared nothing for rich foods, But after picking some tea
and drinking it, he sprouted wings and flew to the
abode of the immortals to escape life's emptiness. Now he
(25:33):
lives among the clouds in a palace unknown to humans.
His tea is brewed in a golden teapot by a
young immortal who lives upon a peak amidst the clouds.
How worthless is lou U's classic of tea when compared
to this that is Cheeo Jin of the Ting Dynasty's
(25:58):
Tea song. I grew up, you know, seeing tea in
(26:22):
my in my family and in my culture as the
thing that I was brought people together. Warrist Alla Walia
is our next guest. Born in Amristo, Northern India and
raised in Brooklyn, New York, Alla Walia is a designer
best known for his House of Wars fashion and jewelry line,
but he's also an avid tea connoisseur. For Wars, tea
(26:45):
is a social connector, one that he learned about from
his mother's traditional hospitality. It was the first thing you
offered when someone someone came over. You would invite people
over for tea. And you know when I wouldn't when
I would go to India with the family, you know,
it was it was there. It was the first thing.
It was, it was the last thing. It was just
a part of living right. It was integrated, It was
(27:07):
woven into existence. And so it was something I was
very familiar with as as an idea and what kind
of tea were as being served in your home. It
was traditional tea. My mom would take regular black tea
and then and then add cardamom and clothes and spices
to it. You know what, she what she grew up with.
(27:29):
Indian tea leaves are not prepared separately by being steeped. Instead,
tea leaves are boiled along with additions like spices, and
then boiled again after the addition of milk and sugar.
And many parts of the country the most special cup
of tea is one in which the tea leaves are
boiled separately in milk. If you had people over, you
(27:50):
have tea with them. Or it wasn't a big thing,
it was just always present. Tea has draught people together.
He has been about community. He has been about layers
and layers of stories of gathering. You know. And she
used to be its original purpose with a medicinal That
(28:14):
was how it started and grew from there. Um and
even you know, used for social gathering for warriors. He
played an omnipresent role in his childhood home. It's importance
in Indian homes is tied to the fact that it
is the second largest producer of tea, just after China.
It's most famous ritals are a psalm, which is a
(28:36):
bright tea with a multicolor, and are jailing, which is
a delicate and fruity tea. A psalm, Darjiling, and other
varieties like the doers, Terai, Massala, and sick Hum are
all named after the regions that they're produced in, so
each of the teas is influenced by their environment. A psalm,
(28:57):
for instance, needs low altitudes and rich loamy soil and
ample rainfall in order to thrive, while Darjeeling, on the
other hand, grows in the Himalayan Mountains, which is the
highest altitude tea growing region in the entire world. The
high altitudes forced a jailing to grow a little more slowly,
(29:18):
increasing its chlorophyll content, which results in rich and slightly
apricot and peach like flavors that you taste in the tea.
Beyond commensality and terroir, Indian tea has had another significant function.
It's used as medicine. The Indian system of Ayurveda has
(29:40):
a long standing tradition of herbal teas. Traditionally, these teas
have been used for centuries to treat conditions like digestion, stress, inflammation,
and improving memory. The use of milk and sugar and
chai is an intentional addition to disguise the stronger, more
bitter flavors and medicinal properties of cardamom, clove, and ginger,
(30:03):
Drawing on his culture's understanding of health and medicine. Wars
relied on Tea's wisdom when dealing with his own physical
stress and anxiety. Right, there were days I felt like
I couldn't even breathe. I was suffering physically, I was.
It was just it's terrible. And then when I went
through that experience, I realized that I wasn't alone in
(30:25):
my suffering. Everyone goes through this stress, right, Everyone goes
through it every day, right, like not being able to
pay bills, or or relationship stress or or loss of
life or bad health, whatever it is. We constantly, we
constantly are faced with it. And and not everyone has
access to that kind of what's called alternative treatment or
(30:50):
know how to get to those people. Right. And so
then I went back to my herbalists, and I put
a team of herbalists together and we started making blends
that that we helped deal with every day building blocks.
We need to sleep better, so we made a sleep
when we need to improve our digestion. So we need
a digestion when there are moments where you might overdo it,
(31:12):
you know, you know in life. And so we made
you know, like a detox len and but just spent
years on making these blends and making these finding the
right ingredients and trying to Warris found that t relieved
the symptoms, which ultimately became his inspiration for his own
(31:32):
line of teas called Wars Botanical. And now we're you know,
we're launching Council Wars Botanicals. And it is it's like
a multi multi, multi faceted enterprise that uses tea as
its starting point in the conversation, that uses tea as
(31:53):
a gateway as at first and of course step towards
talking about much larger issues to have much needed conversation.
And when you look at it, historically, in all these
ancient cultures, he has brought people together. It had an
anchor in people's lives every day. To end our podcast today,
(32:22):
we traveled to Tianjian, China, where a family friend Goofu
or uncle, explains how he brews his favorite cup of
white tea. Hold, there's just some poors, huh. Today the
(32:45):
tea we're drinking is a puerity. This song poor is
a type of black tea that is a variety of
fermented tea from the yu Non province in southern China,
Subani in the leisure. This type of tea has over
four hundred years of history. It's one of the most
(33:09):
well known teas. Have you done? As it was bestowed
as a gift to the emperor of the shan Long dynasty.
To start, we will put our leaves into a large teacup.
Will begin our first steep, which is called a un cha,
(33:30):
where we pour our water at a hundred degrees celsius
into our cup. Cha serves the purpose of both allowing
the leaves to unravel and also serves to wash away impurities.
(33:55):
Change change oil, one body. Pour these into your small
individual drinking glasses. These are small ceramic glasses that are
about the size of a double shot glass. Give the
liquid a quick swirl to warm your glass, and pour
(34:18):
away into the tea stand reservoir. Once we've poured our
glasses out, we will pour our one degrees celsius water
into our large tea cup with leaves. We'll leave it
to steep for sixty seconds. Once we finished our steep,
(34:41):
we will serve the tea in each of our individual
ceramic glasses. This is an anonymous poem inscribed on an
old sing teapot. Willow branches graze the grass. As I
(35:13):
sit in the shade drinking tea. A note from the
flute blows, clearly mingling with the sound of rain. I
could sit here alone forever, and still I'd never feel lonely.
H h h h h h h h h h
(35:48):
h h h h h h h h h h
h h h h. That's all for this episode of
Point of Origin. Thanks for listening and supporting the wet
(36:10):
Stone podcast, where we travel the world to champion food
as a means of expanding human empathy. Please, if you
like what you've just heard, rate us, review us, give
us five stars so that we can continue to make
these podcasts just for you. To keep abreast with all
things wet Stone, follow us on I G at wet
Stone Magazine or online at wet Stone magazine dot com.
(36:33):
That's w h E T S T O in E
magazine dot com, where you will find the latest on
all things wet Stone, including the details from today's show
and information about purchasing our print magazine special. Thanks to
Selene Glacier, our lead producer, to Cat Hong our editor,
(36:54):
Quentin lebou, our production intern, and to my business partner
who makes all things that wet Stone possible, are co
founder Melissa She Thanks mel and thanks to our friends
at I Heart Radio for helping us bring you this podcast.
To Gabrielle Collins, our supervising producer, and to Christopher Hasiota's
our executive producer. I'm your host, the Origin Forager, Steven Saderfield,
(37:19):
and we'll be back here next week with more from
wet Stone Magazine's Point of Origin podcast. H
Host
Stephen Satterfield
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.