Tea Grotto Blog

Darjeeling and Dooars

The purpose of this tour is for tea professionals to deepen their understanding of tea processing and tea tasting. You will have the opportunity to visit tea plantations and experience the whole process of tea making, from plucking to withering, and even firing and sorting your own picked tea. This tea tour will take place in the Darjeeling and Dooars regions, and will last 10 days.

For each step of the tea making process you will be given a class, which will allow you to appreciate the finer aspects involved in tea making. You will also be given the opportunity to fine-tune your tasting skills by differentiating teas that have had too harsh of a wither vs. teas that has been fired or oxidized too long.

In Dooars, you will see an in-depth look at CTC processing. There will also be a day to experience the charming city of Darjeeling where you can take the toy train, visit Tibetan monasteries, and shop at any of the quaint markets.

We are pleased to present new events at The Tea Grotto.

Live music every Saturday in April from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Sunday Afternoon at the Tea Grotto (see below)

Gallery Stroll every third Friday (music, tea tasting, and a new artist) We also have all new food! Sandwiches, soup, burritos, tea pairings and desserts.

The Tea Grotto and SoulSalt, Inc present: Sunday Afternoon at the Tea Grotto 2:00 – 3:00 pm First Sunday of each month

April 6th Health benefits of tea by Rebecca Sheeran and Living by your core values by Lyn Christian, SoulSalt, Inc.

May 4th Colors of tea by Rebecca Sheeran and a Color presentation by Kristan Frei

June 1st Chai by Rebecca Sheeran and Adding spice to your life by (Shelley Jarrard)

July 6th Tea as a lifestyle by Rebecca Sheeran and Spiritual aptitude by Deb Sylvester

Living By Your Core Values by Lyn Christian, SoulSalt, Inc.

So what exactly is a core value system? Great question. To find the right answer, we have to actually ask ourselves a different question: What are my highest priorities, the themes and aspects of character that draw me out, attract my admiration and resonate with my soul? While there are enduring and globally inherent elements that could seem to standardize the definition of ‘core value system’ for the human race, the truth is, each person has a unique way of expressing and articulating not only what their own values are but also what the concept of a core value system means to them.

According to researchers at the University College London, those who drink black tea are able to de-stress more quickly than those drinking a placebo. The stress hormone cortisol (associated with all manner of ails), spikes during a fight-or-flight response, and it’s abatement in the body is much faster for someone who’s recently had a cup of black tea.

Additionally, people who drank black tea regularly (four times daily for six weeks) were found to have lower baseline levels of cortisol.

So—as if you needed any more reason to steep up your favorite black tea—go ahead and add serious stress reduction to your long list of tea health boons.

Hello everyone, just wanted to let you know that we experienced a couple days of downtime because we’d forgotten to check the automatic renewal of our hosting services. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for visiting us!

In Tucson, Arizona summer begins earlier than in most places. We actually have 2 summers here. The first is hot and dry with temperatures well into the 100’s and the second is the Monsoon season, a time of moisture, rain, magnificent cloud formations, and thunder and lightening. It is this life giving water that once again revitalizes the high, Sonoran desert; succulents and cactus swell in size producing buds and flowers, desert plants thrive and the animals, bird life, and insects are abundant. This is the source of that wonderful Prickly Pear that so delights the ice teas blends that we enjoy.

Now that I have traveled to two tea producing countries during first flush (spring picking) tea processing, I can really see the differences they talk about in all of my certification classes. Last year in India I saw big rolling tea fields with major factories for processing. This year in Taiwan I saw lots of spotted areas of little tea fields and families each processing their own picked tea. India produces some of the worlds best black tea while Taiwan some of the worlds leading Oolong teas.

It is that time of year when the natural world beckons, calling us to be present and appreciate it splendor and bounty. Easily we move ourselves out of doors as the weather warms and the springtime bursts forth in its amazing display of foliage and life force. As we step outside we are reminded what a “miracle of vegetation” tea really is and that the Ancients experienced tea drinking directly within the mountainous regions of old China, Korea and Japan. Here hermit aesthetics and sages, founders of both Taoism and Zen developed the true ‘way of tea”.

The practice of drinking tea in gardens was contrived and developed to preserve this pristine environment and experience. Nature inducted the monks and lay practitioners in to heightened states of awareness and meditative bliss. Tea taken in these surroundings awakened an inherent sensitivity. When the senses are engaged in tea drinking the whole person is enlivened and one is more likely to experience “ …the taste that tea and meditation are one”.

I have once again returned to my element sipping wonderfully refreshing, fragrant teas in my back yard garden in the early morning. I am entertained by mockingbirds, sparrows, finches, and hummingbirds both serenading and performing flying dances that confound my eyes. Enlivened by night-blooms of various exotic cactus plants, datura blossoms, aromatic herbs, and perennial flowers from calendula to roses I sit entranced savoring the tea. Without much effort nature invites us to open up and enjoy the gentle warmth of the air, the aliveness of the season, and the relaxation contained in enjoying this moment with a cup of well-brewed tea.

While staying in my hotel I met a lovely woman who didn’t really speak English and I spoke even less Chinese. I was able to say xie xie meaning thank you and ni hao which is hello and of course cha for tea and that was the extent of my vocabulary. She spoke more English than that but not a whole lot. This lead to quiet an adventure between a woman with great hospitality and love for helping people and another woman with such a love for tea she’d follow you anywhere if there was a promise for experiencing something new about tea.

I’m in Taiwan and happen to be with one of the major tea importers and exporters of the country, Jackson Haung. Mr. Haung has been in the tea business for 45 years and was the former chairman of the Taiwan’s tea manufacture association. Taiwan is famous for producing some of the world best Oolong teas. It has over 13,000 local tea family farmers, now that the government doesn’t control production of its tea plantations. It produces 20,000 tons of Oolong tea each year, while importing 25,000 tons of black and green tea.

I learned something else fun from him yesterday during our conversations. Sencha and Matcha powders can be powdered in two different ways:

1. Using a traditional stone grinding technique or
2. by freezing the loose leaf tea to make it hard then using high pressured air to powder it.

Speaking of matcha, the U.S. is just now learning about how healthy Japanese Matcha powder is. When one consumes the ground leaf, they are getting the added benefit of protein and beta carotene that do not steep into the liquor when drinking loose leaf. Additionally, because you are drinking the leaf, you get more vitamin C and catechins (colorful compounds with antioxidant properties) than you would by drinking regular tea. I learned yesterday from speaking with Mr. Haung that powdered sencha delivers even more nutrients than matcha powder, as matcha is shade-grown and sencha is grown in sunlight. He drinks a cup of powdered sencha every day along with three cups of guava “tea” for insulin and 3 cups of Oolong.

Tea is naught but this:
First you heat the water,
Then you make the tea.
Then you drink it properly
That is all you need to know.

Rikyu

Having recently returned from Kyoto, Japan home of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Chanoyu, the living presence of “hot water for tea” is alive within me. The wabi/sabi aesthetic of the many tea rooms we visited, especially those handcrafted gems of antiquity whose earthy simplicity and rusticness blend the art of both man and nature, captures the zen of tea.

Matcha the green tea powder derived from Japanese tea called Gyokuro is composed of shade grown leaves minus the stems and then steamed and ground. It is a smooth, grassy, umami flavor unique in both it’s texture and taste. Whipped either to a frothy foam in Usucha, thin tea or kneaded in to a thicker tea drink called Koicha it is always the right amount (about one-third of a cup) of hot, good quality water that makes the tea superior or inferior.

Being present to watch the tea being made and all the preparation involved in making a simple bowl of tea is what makes the experience so profound. In our book Tea Here Now Chapter 5 The Japanese Tea Ceremony we say:

”...Chanoyu teaches us to move slowly treating every utensil as a prized possession, and helps the body to absorb these movements through artful, focused repetition. When the whisk for whipping the tea into a frothy foam is set down on the mat, it is placed just so, as we move from our center with our hands, arms, and even each finger in a certain manner. We breathe keeping our head straight, allowing our shoulders to be relaxed, and not forgetting that the tea is being made for a special guest.”