Category: About Us Page 3 of 5

Many years ago in a tea shop, a statement from a chic couple caught my attention: “Can’t live without tea”. Instantly, I said “Wah, how glad to meet a tea lover”. But when watched further, I was so disappointed. Because after smelling many different kind of tea from caddy made of tin, she chose the flavored aromatic blend that has very strong floral essential oil flavor. My husband whispered and I tried to covered his mouth promptly while he is right about his concern: “How long can she live healthily by drinking too much non-pure tea daily”.

Basically if drinking tea is not for health, then perhaps the best choice simply is water.

Q: Which tea is the best tea?

A: The one that suits to your conditions at that moment is the most suitable tea to you. The answer one to this question would be:

how much do you know your body and are you aware the change of health conditions and energy level in time?

Indeed many scientific researches have confirmed the health benefits that tea can bring to body, but it is about how it can facilitate the daily healthy lifestyles but not vitamin or medicine to solve any specific health problem.

The answer two to this question would be:

Do you know when to drink what and how much?

Some people say, it is necessary to boost up physical energy in the morning and refreshing head in the afternoon; some people say the other way around; but are you aware the change of your health conditions and energy level in a day? What and how do you need to sustain a balanced energy in your body and mind in the morning and afternoon? The need for each person might be different and even changes in different phases？

My mother has a lot of health problem since the day I have memory, when I was responsible to prepare tea for her and for my father everyday since I was kid, plus the learning of the change of Yin-Yang, here is my suggestion:

• After breakfast : White tea because it is a nice way to wake up your body with soft and gentle manner while enjoying a cup of gentle clean and pure natural flavors and taste.
• 10:00 a.m. : It is time to refreshing your thought and relaxing your body by recharging the refreshing energy with Green Tea.
• Noon time : I simply follow my mind and body to drink tea that go along with food that I am eating. Because the main focus is to have healthy and balance diet, so stomach comes first.
• 16:00 (4:00 p.m.) : It’s time to recharge the physical energy, so I will choose from Oolong or Black Tea. Again, I will pay attention not to upset or stimulate too much to my stomach, so I would choose either traditional fermented charcoal roasted Oolong or Solar-dry Gushu Black Tea.
• 19:00 or after dinner : based on my knowledge about Anhua Dark Tea, I would definitely choose the Fu Cha that cleans those greasy fatty feeling in my stomach with the refreshing after taste.
• 21:00 : It’s time to make a closure for the day, normally it is time for me to enjoy a moment of tea ceremony. I would definitely keep away from green, yellow or lightly fermented Oolong; instead I would make my choice among aged gongfu black tea, traditional oolong, aged white tea or aged dark tea. While visiting Hunan these few days, I would definitely go for aged Anhua dark tea, it is not just because I am currently visiting Anhua where I can easily access to very good quality of dark tea, but it is because it is the tea that I feel good in this humid and in between warm and cheer air region. Yet, it is very important that does not give me too much energy from tea tannin which might cause sleeping problem. With the right choice of tea and slowing down the tea moment, tea and the meditative tea ceremony moment actually serve me even much better than any sleeping pile that I do not need.

Of course this is the tea drinking time table for people who do not have problem with stomach or any specific health problem/s.

Tea provides many health benefits if you know what to choose and how to adapt the tea drink in your healthy diet everyday.

copyrighted of Mei Lan Hsiao, Belgium Chinese Tea Association

I have been doing my best to promote tea and Chinese tea culture in Belgium since 1995, I can’t complain and say that I haven’t achieved a lot, because my efforts were noticed by the local government that I could have opportunities to participate intercultural activities organized by them; also my intention to promote the old traditional Chinese tea culture that we preserved in Taiwan has been recognized by the Taipei Office in Belgium and EU.  My migration story is kept in the Red Star Line Museum.  Currently I have a “Tea Talk” column on the local Chinese newspaper and I am posting my daily learning on my blog so I can leave something behind about my learning journey…. I am doing everything as much as I can.

Frankly speaking, I have indeed thought about having a tea shop, but it has been very difficult to find someone who actually shares the same values and passion for tea.  For me, tea is more than a business but it’s a social as well as cultural ethnic responsibility to promote pure and authentic quality tea.   I am too trying to find the right solutions to promote quality tea via internet, for example a webshop.  With limited of resource under the current low economic curve environment, it is important for me to be realistic of finding some pragmatic online marketing approach that can maximize the return of investment.  And, it is another challenging learning ahead.

Continued learning has always been the primary attitude that I have for every job in the past, certainly it has even higher demands in tea and Chinese tea culture. So I have to manage different planning for marketing, culture promotion activities;  cooperation with local partners and tea farmers/makers in China and Taiwan; carefully update the quality evaluation and constantly practice of Chinese tea ceremony in order to deepen the understanding the essence in our culture. Not to forget to manage the office administration and household…..In short, I am a crazy woman who is devoted to tea and Chinese tea culture; I am a story teller for tea.  Sometime I feel tire, frustration and even stress, but I only give in for few minutes, after having a cup of tea, keep my head up and continue my efforts again.

Few days ago, a friend asked “Can I buy Taiwanese tea from you?” I replied “Of course”. But somehow I would feel more relax if people could have an opportunity to taste the tea, know more about the tea that s/he would like to purchase and know how to brew tea at home afterwards.   Because I truly believe my responsibilities are not limited to sell or to promote tea, but are helping people to have better understanding about tea, knowing how to brew tea correctly so s/he can enjoy the benefits from tea in their daily life.  Tea and Chinese tea culture are not just a simple business model that standard calculation of ROI, but it is something I must take the social and cultural responsibilities seriously.

That’s why some of my friends joked and said I am just like a prodigal girl who spends a lot of money on quality tea and tries to promote the Chinese tea culture without considering the profit gaining in Europe.  But for me, this is something that I can do and I think I should do my best.  When following my heart and doing my best, I am not just promoting quality tea and Chinese tea culture, but also it gives me a chance to know myself better that I can indirectly reciprocate the upbringing from my parents.  Also I hope I can establish a good example for my children.

Belgium Chinese Tea Arts Centre in an unique center for tea and Chinese tea culture, we offer tea lovers :

• A home-like comfortable and cozy environment where people can taste various fine quality tea and enjoy reading
• A calm and serene space for individual and/or small group of people to learn tea and Chinese tea ceremony
• A reliable tea room where you can purchase the pure and authentic quality tea from Taiwan and China

Reservation in advance is needed.  For more information please contact Mei Lan Hsiao via email: info@chinesetea.be  or telephone +32494506899

Which can persuade you the organic nature of the tea? A piece of expensive certificate that money can buy? or priceless actural growing conditions?

we work directly with tea farmers who care about #nature and #traditionalinherit.

We do not sell organic certificate, we simply do #organic #organictea  We can not afford to pay for a fairtrade stamp, we simply do #fairtradetea.

#belgiumchineseteacentre

these are photos of tea garden of our traditional #meizhan #tieguanyin #jinxuan.

in order to support this #batenicalteagardens and his family,  #wkp works for another tea estate for living.

Tea is more than a business, it is about #consciousness and #honesty. If the taste of tea can not convince you, then what a piece of expensive certificate can do?

Thanks to the question from a tea friend on Face Book, Ferdinand ludo, who asked what do we do to clean the Yixing or other clay tea pot after each use.

Besides useful advice from other tea lovers, i.e. dedicate one teapot to one type of tea, rinse the tea pot with hot water inside and outside. I advised further as follow:

• With new naked ceramic tea ware, suggest to cook the teapot thoroughly till the strange dusty flavors are gone, then cook the teapot further with the tea that plan to use it in the future and cook it through again.
• After each use, clean the teapot with hot water and then let it either air dry or dry it with a soft towel
• The more you use the Yixing or naked ceramic tea pot, the longer we use the teapot, the darker color it will become.
• If you dedicate teapot for one type of tea, the teapot will eventually has some fine flavors from that tea, but it ‘s not intentionally to scent your teapot
• I would never use naked teapot either Yixing, Caozhou or other, with aromatic tea, certainly I would avoid use such teapot with teas with essential oil, such as many milky oolong sold in the market. (Actually, in our centre there are only pure and authentic quality tea, but no aromatic teas)
• The flavor from pure authentic quality tea or tea ware won’t give you any flavors problem. Even when it starts to develop flavors due to long time usage, the natural flavour are still very mild and not upsetting.
• Darker color is not same concept as stains on teapot. If you clean the tea pot with hot water after each use, then you won’t have stain problem.
• The naked ceramic gives a warm woody feeling to connect with earth, so normally I dedicate either naked ceramic or wood-fired tea wares with traditional Oolong. With light fermented oolong, I prefer porcelain, because porcelain will give more complete reflections on flavours and tastes. Subject to the fermentation and roasting level, then I play with the fun of using Yixing, Caozhou or wood-fired ceramic teapot.
• Some chemical blended teapot (also naked ceramic) could give very strong and unpleasant flavor. If I couldn’t get rid of those unpleasant chemical flavors after thorough preparation works in advance and afterwards, then I will seriously consider to use it or not. Notmally, not!
• Basically porcelain teaware fits with all tea types, the clay and glaze allow teapot give full reflections on flavours and tastes; however, Yixing, other naked ceramic and wood-fired tea ware will soften the sharpness in flavours and tastes, the fun with tea will then enter another domain with the matching tea with tea ware.
• One last thing about Yixing, Caozhou, naked ceramic or wood-fire ceramic tea ware is to avoid cleansing with detergent, certainly not in the washing machine.

#nakedceramic #yixingteapot #yixing #woodfiredteaware #woodfired #teaware #teapot #matchingteawithteaware #lifetimelearning

Once I met an over-sized Belgian couple who asked me which tea could help them to lose weight, I tried to explain it is not just about which tea could them to lose weight, but they have to check and consider to change their life style. Belgium is known for find food and drinks, there are more and more people are searching for quick and easy solution for weight losing or fat burning which they hope to find it from tea.

As matter of fact, the speed for fat burning goes fast when we are able to improve the metabolism in the body . So which tea you think can meet your needs most effectively? Green tea or black tea? According to the research, the following tea types are able to regulate the hunger hormones and calorie burning index effectively according to research in China in 2017:

No. 5 : Green Tea – aid to stimulate the metabolism in body

No. 4: Oolong tea – aid to melt fat

No. 3 : Mint tea – aid to destroy the hunger feeling

No. 2 : White tea – aid to intercept fat

No. 1 : Pu’erh – aid to scavenge fat

Because no tea can effectively help for weight losing or fat burning if one couldn’t give up the excessive consumption of delicious foods and drinks, i.e. sweeties, cookies, fries, bier, carbonate drinks, junk food, cheese ….etc. and do no sport.

Many people are seeking for quick and easy solution for weight losing or fat burning.

Last night I posted a question on Instagram

What does a title of ‘tea sommelier’ or ‘tea master’ mean?  Is it a job title to show the progress of achievement? Or a passport that helps us to stay on the right track in life with tea? 

Actually that’s the basic question students who follow the Tea Sommelier Certification Program in the Chinese Tea Academy.

I am very grateful for the reader’s feedback from a German tea lover:

I get different associations from both words. From tea sommelier more of someone frequently dealing tea trade and therefore a lot of tea tasting for commercial reasons. And tea master suggests a deep knowledge of tea culture and most importantly a profound philosophical and medical approach to tea. Also the methodology of tea preparation is advanced and refined. While it is true that both titles share some fields of activity, I get the impression they differ in their approaches, aims, means and values. 

The feedback helps to stretch my self-reflection further:

Actually I do think it does not matter which title is using, we always should remember what attracted to us at the first place, not to forget our original passion and commitments to tea and learnings through tea. It does not matter how differ from original aims, approaches or methodology, we should always keep the learning windows opened and learn to listen to TEA.
The world of tea can be even bigger with the collaborating and respectful attitude towards diversity, maintain positive energy with calm and assertiveness; of course, how to implement it might be very challenging because each person might has his/her own ideas and/or agenda, but there is no excuse not to try it.  It does not matter how the title was granted, received or claimed; it serves as a passport for the journey of tea and responsibilities as a traveler.
Correctness in information and knowledge in fundamental theories are critical basic requirements to plan and to manage our journey; but it does not set the limit to only information or technical know-how that we can find either from internet, book or even workshops, the most profound requirement is the sub-conscious attitude.

Of course, I have to admit that I have higher expectations to tea sommelier, after all, anyone can sell tea and to organize tea tasting without receiving or claiming a title.

Tea and the learning in tea and Chinese tea culture have great values in my life journey, because now I know myself better, what and how to manage the focus in life better.

Mei Lan Hsiao, Belgium Chinese Tea Culture Association / Belgium Chinese Tea Arts Centre, 14/02/2019, Antwerp, Belgium

You fight, you fight, you fight。

You try, you fail, you succeed, you learn, you keep on trying and fighting.

At end you would realize what support your trying and fighting are not because of  IQ, cleverness, knowledge, position  or power; but it is because you refuse to give in and give up. You realize key things to learn are how to thicken the layers of wisdom and apply EQ gently in problem solving.

Keys for success can be shorten in 3 assembles:

1. Purity in heart as LOTUS, the dirty mud won’t corrupt your roots
2. Recognize strength with ease and advance patiently as BAMBOO
3. Endure longlyness .maintain confident and wait for the sunrising moment then soaring as A GOLDEN CICADA.

Yielding is not because you are weak or less, adversly, it is becsuse “YES, I CAN”