I recently attained a travel gaiwan set. After playing with it at home, I brought it to work. With the weather being as nice as it has been I did not want to pass up this opportunity.
I filled up a thermos with water and took it with me on my break. This particular day from the photo I enjoyed Taiwanese spring Oolong I received from Global Tea Hut. It complimented my salmon sushi very well.
I have been a little busy putting things together for some submission deadlines. Writing, documenting, editing etc. Although I was eager the other day to start and almost finish these works. I am very pleased with the simplicity of them. This “Tea” series will continue for some time to come.
On a side note I am also going to begin learning Japanese Tea Ceremony starting this Saturday. I am eager to learn “茶の湯” or Chanoyu. The long Zen Buddhist and cultural history interest me so much it was a must to begin these lessons. There was a book I saw the same day as these pieces were made at Japanese Things (Harbord St, Toronto) which went over the history and context for it, this book will soon become part of my tea book collection.
I also started two more elongated paintings but they are still being worked on. Building up the tea stain on it is a process I am still learning. These paitings have more colour but will not feature any Japanese writing.
I have also begun to knit again, reteaching myself basics through a hat, arm warmers etc for the coming winter. Once these skills are back in place I will fully begin Hysteria II. As for the grid, I am working on cleaning my room so I will have space to work on it and other works at the same time. I found an easel near Queen street, so this will be put to good use (Sorry Matt, I’ll help you set up my other one in the basement studio).
Anyhow keep an eye out. A lot of interesting things are going on over the next while. Till next time~
Lauriam Tea House is located in Bowmanville, around a hour and a half drive to about 2 hours by train east of Toronto. My mom introduced me to the shop when I was still in school and now it is a favorite hangout when I visit my family. Tea is served to you in a white tea pot along side delicate china cups. As I was introduced to Afternoon Tea through this tea ware before it has become quite nostalgic. This tea is a White Tea Puerh, which has absorbed the sweet mandarin qualities of its fermentation “container”. The leaves are dense inside the dried fruit, I had to resort to using a pick from my tea tools to pick enough leaves out. The wet leaves are quite young and very uniform in size, being not longer than an inch. They smell subtly sweet, unlike the dry leaves which have more of a mandarin smell to them.
The resulting tea is creamy and sweet. Coaxing out a salivating sensation. There is a sweet peach taste on the back of my tongue, which is the reason for me keeping such a tea close at hand. The liquor is a beautiful amber hue. I found it slowly dissipated in colour over the infusions I was able to coax out of the leaves. At this finial infusion only the salivating sensation remains and a dull sweetness with no characteristic I can pin point.
I have bought this tea quite a few times over the last few years. Only pulling it out to get frustrated with the “container”, something that I just have to learn more about over time.Much practice is needed for this storage method of Puerh.