TEA WITH A VIEW - THE LONG WALK

This photojournal shows the trip that is necessary to get to the teahouse  on the southern peak of Mt. Huashan in China.   The base of the mountain is called "the Heavenly Stairs"

Continuing up the Heavenly Stairs

Below, you will see "towns" that sprang up to support the temples at the peaks.  This area is still fairly safe, and doesn't require much caution.

Now for the exiting part. First you take a gondola ride to the base of the southern peak.

After the gondola drops you off, there is a short distance of path.  The path gets tighter and tighter, until the only way to continue is by sections of planks put together to bridge the gaps.

The railing is a series of chains and carabiners, padlocked to metal stakes that have been hammered into the mountain face.

When meeting someone going the opposite direction, the only possible way to pass is by backing up to the closest landing, then letting the other person pass.

I can't imagine constructing this path. Flags mark which path you're on. There are several paths, which go to other locations; mostly landings that have larger standing areas.

After moving around the side of the mountain, the mountain begins to slope, so we can stop going around, and start moving in a more direct line to the peak. You can make out steps on the left side of this picture.

The final stretch goes straight up the mountain face. Toe holes have been hammered out

Once you make it to the top, there is a long path that saddles the mountain top. This path brings you to the peak.

And finally, the peak! Atop of this peak is the the southern temple, a teahouse which is  probably more revered for its location than its tea.

The teahouse is one of the many Taoist temples to be found on each of the five peaks that  make up Mt. Huashan. As the original inhabitants practiced asceticism, and didn't make a  habit of traveling, they daily meditation was heavily accented by drinking tea.  For this reason, over the years, this temple has turned into a teahouse. When seen on a map,  the mountain range forms a sort of flower shape. The temple was built here because each of  the five peaks needed to be populated in order to complete the flower. Mt. Huashan is located in Huayin, a city 120km east of Xi'an in the Shaanxi Province of China.  For reference, Xi'an is the location were they unearthed the Terracotta Warriors and the  cradle of Chinese culture extending some 3000 years into the past.  This particular teahouse is on the South Peak, which has an altitude of 7,087 feet.

Eating Tea in 2014

After reading the tea leaves to see what new food trends we'll be tasting in the coming year, those in the know predict tea itself is the trend.  Apparently tea leaves will be big in entrees and deserts as well as a whole host of beverages other than tea as we know it.

Take beer - the Yeastie Boys in Wellington are doing a brew with Earl Grey, another Wellington brewer uses Rosehips while Iki Beer in Asia brews with green tea.

Masu restaurant in Sky City make a variety of cocktails with a tea base and many restaurants are using both fruit and traditional teas as a base for smoking food or in deserts.

Try this simple tea based cocktail made with our Earl Grey Special

ROYAL TEA
2 parts gin
2 parts brewed and chilled Earl Grey Special
Squeeze of lemon juice
Spoonful of sugar or to taste
Garnish with lime slices

Tea Breaks Are Good Business

 

Some time ago there was concern in New Zealand that the Government might 'force' employers to give rest breaks.

What Robyn Pearce can't fathom is why employers would need to be 'forced' to do it! Perhaps they and many of their employees don't know about the health and productivity gains we all get from regular breaks in our daily routine.

Robyn Pearce works with people around the world - both face-to-face and via webinars. Because 'sanity breaks' are part of her message she almost always ask her audiences if they take a regular lunch break, and how many take tea breaks - not just the 'grab a cuppa and take it back to the desk' kind of tea break, but a real one where they give their brain a rest, away from their desk. Typically more than 70% of the room don't do either on a regular basis. The next questions are 'how effective are you in the afternoon?' and 'how tired are you at the end of the day?' The look on most people's faces is classic - a kind of bemused 'why didn't I notice that connection before?'

Here's the explanation. Various biological rhythms flow through our body all day, all night. Ultradian rhythms are some of them. Loosely translated ultra = many and dian = day - the many rhythms of the day.They cycle continuously through our body like rolling waves - 90 - 120 - minutes up; 20 minutes down - repeated day and night.

The down cycle is not a negative thing - instead it's the rest cycle that our body needs to recharge, rebuild and to grow. If we keep pushing through these down cycles, if we don't give our body a chance to recharge, we push the poor old thing into flight or fight.

The consequence? Stress, burnout, and eventually sickness - sometimes very severe.

Without exception, every person she's challenged on this has agreed that when they push through down cycles of tiredness, thinking perhaps that they're being lazy or that it's not 'ok' to slow down for a short while, they become less effective in the afternoon and end up dragging their weary bodies home at the end of the day - not much use to themselves or loving family waiting for their share of time.

So what to do about it? Morning and afternoon tea breaks and a lunch break away from your desk - they're some of the simple solutions. And what about Winston Churchill's famous technique - the one that kept him operating at full steam through all those tough war years? He was famous for his power naps. When tired he'd pop upstairs (when he was working at Downing Street) and hop into bed for about 20 minutes.

This may not be feasible in your situation but a cup of tea is always at hand.

Not only will employers get higher productivity by making it appropriate for people to slow down but fewer mistakes will happen.

Pyramid Sweepstake

Our in-house hobbit, Tea Baggins, took it upon himself to run the sweepstakes this year, as he's done the last couple.  He arrived in the lunch room with our horse names encased in tea pyramids!  Apart from the flexibility of controlling our own production, an in-house pyramid manufacturing plant allows us to be a little creative from time to time.

Tea, Sympathy and Home Baking

I have spent many hours at home recently, contemplating the choices of tea in an alcove we had made specially for the purpose when renovating some years ago.  Shoulder surgery to my right arm has rendered me somewhat useless at the day to day tasks I take for granted, driving being one of them, hence the time spent in the confines of our house.  Fortunately I have been blessed by a stream of visitors who have helped pass the tedium of home detention.  They're all tea drinkers and excellent bakers.  My luck.

I can still fill the kettle one handed and with a little help, get the lid off the tea caddy, fill my chosen teapot and generally go about tea making duties.  As I contemplate the various offerings in my tea alcove it has become painfully obvious my tea choices are of a narrow focus.  No longer do I house an array of flavoured black teas, greens and the odd herbal to round out my preference for traditional single estate black teas. Over the last eighteen years as The Tea Lady my tastes have morphed from drinking anything and everything to a preference for the subtle nuances of grade, country of origin and time of picking.  In the afternoons I might add a pinch of Lapsang Souchong to my Ceylon tea or branch out wildly and have a Vanilla Rooibos after dinner.

My visitors are perplexed at the lack of exotic choices but they're unfailingly polite about the tea proffered, either with milk or without but rarely with sugar.  It would seem a shame to detract from the flavour of home baking that is bought, shared then left behind for our consumption.  Pumpkin and date cake, coconut and coco rounds, fruity slices and an assortment of biscuits all lovingly baked, artfully presented, unfailingly delicious.

The time honoured tradition of tea, sympathy and home baking as a way of nurturing and caring for friends resonates strongly with me.  I relish a rainy afternoon dedicated to baking, inviting friends to join us for a slice of something and cup of something else.  The bestowing of these blessings in return has lifted my spirits and no doubt aided my recovery.

The power of tea, sympathy and home baking should not be underestimated.
Anna Salek

Tea and Tanks

The news out of Syria has been one long, terrible stream of horror and atrocities. But even in the midst of war, the country's fighters have been captured putting aside their weapons for an afternoon tea.  READ MORE below for a startling collection of images from Reuters.

Free Syrian Army fighters use poster of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to start a fire for heat and making tea in Aleppo.

 

 A group of unemployed Iraqi men drink tea in Sayydeh Zenab, an Iraqi neighbourhood near Damascus. Since the start of the U.S.-led war on Iraq in March 2003, Iraqi refugees, who fled the country, have started to create their own community inside the Syria. An estimated 1.4 million Iraqis are now living in Syria..

 A member of the Free Syrian Army blows a fire under a teapot, as he stands near curtains used to provide protection from snipers loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, in Deir al-Zor.

Bespoke Teapots

In my opinion there is nothing more beautiful than a bespoke teapot.  I'm not a great collector of teapots preferring function over form when it comes to tea making although there are a few meaningful pieces dotted around our house.  A blue and gold whimsical piece given to us for our wedding, a gnarly old fairy astride the spout of another made for my fortieth and a teapot entitled 'The Lovers' which I paid off over a couple of months having just started in the tea business.  All have significant meaning not just for their beauty but also for the sentiment behind the piece and yes, they all brew nicely.  Obviously I'm not alone in my love of bespoke teapots as I happened upon a New Zealand blog entitled Pots and Tea.  Below are photos from their site.

Women In The Tea Industry

The tea industry in India is one of the oldest industries and one of the largest employers. Over 12 hundred thousand permanent and almost the same number of casual and seasonal, workers are employed in the tea industry. Over 50 per cent of the workers, and in some operations like tea plucking, over 80 per cent of the workers, are women.

There are broadly four categories of personnel on the plantations – management, staff, sub-staff and workers. But the workers who work on the plantation comprise the bulk of the workforce of the plantation. The ‘field workers’ are engaged in plucking and activities related to the maintenance of the plantation and the bushes. Nearly all of this most difficult and hazardous work is performed by women workers. Women carry heavy loads of green leaf on their backs every day for years from very young and later whether they're pregnant or old. 

Over 90 per cent of the tea workers are either Scheduled Tribes or Scheduled Castes – the lowest in the caste, ethnicity, class and resource hierarchy. Most of the families of the workers have been forcibly or fraudulently brought to the tea gardens several generations ago.

The work of tea workers is arduous in addition to being low paid and insecure. Tea pickers are on their feet all day with heavy baskets on their backs, often on uneven terrain and in harsh weather conditions. Injuries are common, as are respiratory and water-borne diseases.

Over the years, however, the majority of workers came to be members of one trade union or the other. Most unions in India, including those in the tea plantations, are affiliated to and controlled by political parties. What this means for workers, their wages, and their rights is a different matter.

Though women workers constitute the majority of the workforce, most top level leadership consists of men. The higher level positions in the union are generally occupied by non-(tea) worker male leaders, mainly middle-class men. Either there are no elections, or elections are held which tend to be uncontested, and the same (male) leaders get elected over and over again. This could be one of the reasons why a vicious cycle of ineffective trade unions and non-representation of the interests of the majority of workers exists. 

In a process that the Progressive Tea Workers’ Union (PTWU) began in April 2010, a series of workshops were organized where over a 100 women from about 30 tea plantations participated. All the women workers had participated in several struggles and in the process of organizing.

This resulted in a process whereby women workers from different plantations and also different ethnic groups began meeting and looking at common issues, including questioning the union on why women are not represented in their committees. This is a new beginning and an ongoing process.

Why I drink tea

In a recent interview, a journalist asked me why I drink tea.  I paused for thought.
I drink tea to relax, for that 'ahhh' moment after the first sip.  I drink tea to find a moment's peace and to create a little space for myself.  I drink tea to replenish and do myself some good.  I drink tea for the pleasure of the ritual that is making a pot, waiting and finally pouring.  I drink tea to savour the taste and to accompany food.  I drink tea because, for me, there is much joy in sharing a pot of tea with friends and family.
Anna Salek
The Tea Lady

The Dangerous Habit of Tea Drinking

Teas is considered both a popular pick-me-up and a health elixir so it's hard to imagine that sipping tea was once thought of as a reckless, suspicious act, linked to revolutionary feminism. Quelle horreur!

The feminist complaints came from 19th century, upper class Irish critics who argued that peasant women shouldn't be wasting their time — and limited resources — on tea. If women had time to sit down and enjoy a tea break, this must mean they were ignoring their domestic duties and instead, perhaps, opening the door to political engagement or even rebellion. In the 1800s, tea was an affront to the virtues of frugality and restraint, which underpinned rural Irish culture.

In a dialogue between two women of that time it is clear that tea-drinking was considered lavish, irresponsible behavior that could be habit-forming. Though the characters don't know the language of addiction, they use the phrase "hankering after it" — as if to suggest that once you'd had your first cup of tea, it would impossible to stop or control your longings.

The reformers' campaign against tea took on another moral outrage too: slavery. Since tea was typically sweetened with sugar at the time, reformers in Ireland tried to convince people that tea-drinking was akin to drinking the blood of slaves who were forced to work the plantations where sugar was produced.

Fortunately for tea drinkers these 'dangerous habits' are now deemed perfectly normal and perhaps even virtuous.