Tea Training 101: A Joyous Journey in the Senses

What is tea?

Tea is at first a poison before medicine. This is the age of tea as a fantasy, of drinking from wild ancient trees and bewildering energies, of ceremonies with good intentions and toxic impacts - people telling you to just drink your tea.

There’s so much more clarity and joy available, that perpetual blindness (willful or not) is a disservice to our good senses and the maturing of tea culture.  Even though I am in many ways a fellow romantic, the harm done by this all pervading attitude of standardlessness musing needs to be sorted out.  

In this personal one on one single class I will give you the core fundamentals to understanding tea as 藥寶道 pharmakon, sumbolon, and Dao.

藥 Pharmakon - that which harms or heals.  Tea is understood as a hyper accumulator plant, and an herb with serious counter indications, needing processes of transformation to be safe as an everyday household staple.

寶 Sumbolon - what is shared returns us whole. Tea is a treasure of human culture that can connect us meaningfully. The art of appreciation makes life inestimably more rich - into a possible reverence.  A surprising life giving relationship between both things & people takes shape.

道 Dao - the path at our feet, leading us beyond, hopefully we are evolving, as opposed to merely changing with the seasons.  Tea becomes a mirror for our minds, a way of life that reveals and surprises us with our own ignorances in tandem with our greatest potentials -all in good humor.

The introduction includes a simple clear training on water, leaves, and wares - the core elements of brewing& really appreciating tea.  With the three aforementioned core themes interspersed and discussed.  We are training for feeling first, flavor second.  The layers of aromatics and tastes are a real joy yet also a real trap.  Blind A/B feeling/tasting sets are key to help establish a standard in your body and feeling. 

The cost includes tea wares that are the basic lab equipment for training.

Handmade porcelain gaiwan and sniffer set with three cups, and a series of A/B blind tea tasting sets to train with and properly calibrate your whole being to what tea truly is, and can be.

$400 for 90+ mins personal class, teas & teawares - with ability to correspond ongoing.  This is about getting the core basics clarified and your journey started (or reoriented) properly.  My aim is to set you straight, with the right skills of inquiry alongside solid knowledge to use as you explore.  No matter what stage of your tea journey you’re at, this will be a breakthrough learning opportunity.

Once confirmed - you will pay shipping to your location for the complete set of teas and wares.  It will take a few weeks or so.  You will also need a “zero” water filter to start - can get online easy and affordably.  

shipping from Taiwan is super stressed right now - so we may have unforeseen delays or difficulties.  However I’m still confident to be able to get everything here. 

You will be responsible for shipping costs