UN has declared 2022 as “International Year for Artisanal Fisheries and Argiculture”. This declaration would be a great news for many Chinsee tea farmers who devote their life and energy in preserving the artisanal quality tea in tea based on the accumulated wisdom, methods and traditions that we inheritant from our ancestors in the past thousadnds of year in China history.

Anyone who appreciate tea knows tea is a natural agricultural product but not industrial product, accumulated wisdom and traditional know how are hardly be replaced or duplicated by modern machinery processes. Appropriately manage the biochemical and micro environmental factors are critical foundation for the sustainability of tea farming.

Artisan tea basically means tea involves with skillful works and manual (or semi-manual) processed, and that is the critical quality standards for many Chinese special famous teas from China today. The tea quality classification standards in China are still stick to the ancient traditions which heavily involves with manual efforts in tea picking to production.

China has been through many changes in history but the living wisdom and cultural traditions have been accumulated without breaking up. Artisan teas are still considered as the best quality teas in China today and here are some basic principles of Chinese special famous teas:

1. Started from ecological balanced conditions in the tea growing region (in practice, it means use only natural composed fertilizer, maintain the healthy soil conditions by not over doing the fertilization, forestry coverage in the tea growing regions is in the priority for the sustainability development program in China.
2. Manually grass removal by respecting it to complete its life circle is important to protect tea trees, in the Autumn grass grow in the tea farm will play a protector role to against the cold winter and to prevent drought under the threat of global climate change. 
3. In the framework of sustainability development, the collaboration relationship with the local community to arrange the tea picking, it helps to improve family income and living conditions of the local community;
4. tea production manually by respecting the traditional methods and wisdom are playing critical role to ensure the quality 
5. Geographic indications are critical.  Today there are many countries grow and produce tea, tea trees can be migrated, production processes can be learned and copied, but not the ecological and micro-environmental conditions, i.e. air, water, latitude/altitude, sunlight, temperature differences in day vs. night, shadowing, moisture in the air….etc.
6. Artisan teas definitely should be pure in its flavors and tastes, freed from any additional flavor or other addictives.  Artisan tea is as if a natural beauty, her beauties are from within without additional ‘make up’ or ‘make over’.

In Chinese tea culture, tea is more than craftmanship of tea, it prevails how Chinese traditional moral standards based on “earthy”, ‘honesty’ and ‘respect’ are actually lived through actions despite all those political and cultural changes that happened in China in the last nearly 5000 years. Tea is more than enjoying fine and pure flavors in tea, it is about how we can enjoy a moment with tea when to implement the fundamental respects, to the Nature, to others and mostly not to forget the respect to self, without preconceived judgement and differentiation mind. When we enjoy the pure and authentic quality tea, our mind and emotion are also enlightened by its devine spirit in tranquility. Mindfulness is more than a attractive buzzword or fancy demonstration but how we truly enjoy living through a cup of tea.

What is freedom?

What does freedom mean?

What and how to practice freedom ?

If freedom only meant “I can do what I want”, then it is not freedom but lawless mind that leads to chaos.

Freedom, indeed, means to recognize and able to claim own rights, but meanwhile it also means to embrace and to recognize own obligations to follow the basic laws and order that can create calm and peaceful society; it also means one is able to take action to show how s/he willing to respects the rights of other parties.

If you quickly jumped to the decision that the other parties who do not follow your decision means they against you, then probably you are far from knowing what freedom means or even against the practice of freedom.

When follow what are covered in the media that you can easily access to, the hardest process and decision will be are you willing and able to see the truth from your heart.

The practice of freedom means to build peace but not conflicts or wars. No matter what, freedom is not excuse to deny the rights of other party/ies, certainly is not the excuse to practice racism, discrimination or bullism.

When tea and tea culture are booming worldwide, more and more people like to talk about Gongfu Cha. But what is the difference in Gongfu Cha (工夫茶）vs. Gongfu Cha (功夫茶）？These two share the same Chinese PinYin, but not all teas can be classified as GongfuCha.

A lot of people are confused by Gonfu Cha in 工夫茶 or 功夫茶. Hopefullly the following brief outlines are useful for you to distinguish few fundamental differences based on Chinese definitions:

Gongfu Cha 工夫茶

Gongfu Cha 工夫茶 started from Chaozhou,Santou and Southern part of Fujian in the Soong Dynasty, it was named as 工夫茶 because of its unique manufacturing methods. In the Wuyi Tea Song writen by Zen Master Shi ChaoQuan in the late Ming Dynasty： 如梅斯馥兰斯馨，大抵焙时候香气，鼎中笼上炉火温，心闲手敏工夫细, the poet clearly mentioned fine quality tea that has gone through complex manufacturing processes and time consuming. It is named as Gongfu Cha because the selection of tea leaves, withering, baking, rolling, fermentation and roasting, storaging and brewing require very particular attention.

In short, Gongfu Cha 工夫茶 is attractive because of its unique complex fraquence, the refinement in the delicated roasting process and most importantly the refinement in the workmanship in the manufacturing and the brewing process.

In the “Qing Dai Tong Shi” edited in 1915 by Xiao YiShan, it mentioned famous teas exported to the West were “Gongfu tea, Wuyi tea, Souchong tea & Pekoe tea”, from it we understand the Gongfu tea were meant for various fine quality black tea, i.e. MinHong Gongfu (i.e. ZhengHe Gongfu, TanYang Gongfu & BaiLing Gongfu from Fujian), Keemun Black tea and Dian Hong; Gongfu Cha is no longer to name Wuyi Rock tea.

Gongfu Cha 功夫茶

The most direct interpretation of Gongfu （Kungfu 功夫）is “martial art, skill; “Gongfu Cha 功夫茶” refers to tea making, tea brewing techniques and the way of tasting and drinking. The unique brewing from Chaozhou played a crutial role to lead the development of Gongfu Cha 功夫茶 mainly to brew traditional Oolong tea。Places known for Gongfu Cha 功夫茶 are Chaozhou, Xiamen/SanTou & Taiwan, among those regions, Gongfu Cha in Chaozhou plays the most influential role.

There are many different disciplines in Gongfu Cha 功夫茶，but few characters are in common:

1. Brewing with with boiled water
2. Small tea pot with small tea cups
3. More multiple brewings are permitted
4. Complex brewing procedures allow tea lovers to appreciate its complex layers in fraquences and tastes from each brewing

Tea and tea culture began from China more than 4000 or more years from now, medicinal and health benefits from tea in various ancient herbal scripts have all been confirmed by modern scientific research in various countries in recent years.  Since the COVID-19 outbreak first happened in Wuhan last year, scientists from different science research disciplines launched different research programs on how to combat against COVID virus through natural and alternative remedies based on ancient TCM wisdom, in which also included deepened research specifically on if EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate) in Camellia sinensis could disactivate the COVID virus, and the research results from tea by Hangzhou University and Yunnan Agricultural University are very encouraging.

But wait, there are few things you have to be aware before jumping into the conclusion that drinking tea can disactivate COVID:

• EGCG, namely epigallocatechin gallate, molecular formula C22H18O11, is the main component of tea polyphenols, is a catechin monomer isolated from tea。 Indeed the compound of EGCG in light fermented tea, i.e. green and white tea, is richer than other tea types
• EGCG requires lengthy time in very high melting temperature, 222-224°C.  Indeed more EGCG can be dissolved in such conditions, but on the other hands, the taste will be very strong and bitter with higher dissolvent from Caffeine (Tea Tannin) that can be irritating to stomach and digestion system
• No one can drink tea at that kind of high temperature but leave it to cool down, but during the cooling process, the oxidation process with the air will reduce the compound of EGCG in tea
• The above information meant how to abstract EGCG from tea through brewing, but this is not the method they use in the research laboratory.  In the lab, scientists break tea leaves and inject the abstracted EGCG to the testing white mouse, but not injecting tea water or feeding tea to mopuse.
• How can any one expect to have the same result from different approaches? That’s a logical question.

Tea is more than just a cup of delicious beverage, it reflects a way of living and health.  The unexpected change from the COVID pandemic accelerates more health problems besides COVID itself, because of anxiety and emotional stress. 

The more unexpected stress we are facing, the more we need to maintain rational thinking and actions to preserve our health and safety.

Chinese tea ceremony is more than a tea ritual, in the process of enjoy fine and pure flavors and taste from pure quality tea, it facilitates the practice of alignment in body, mind and energy through relaxing, practice of good social behaviors with positive energy by increasing self-awareness.

Health is not something you should it lightly by taking risk.  Indeed tea provides many health benefits, but only under the circumstances if you know the basic of What, Which, Who, When and How and follow the basic principle for health by eating less and drinking mild.

©Mei Lan Hsiao, Belgium Chinese Tea Culture Association, 14/01/2021