茶 One Leaf, Multiple Ways
Comparing Japanese Chadō & Chinese-Taiwanese tea cultures
May 21st is the International Tea Day. And I have been celebrating it everyday. Most days, I drink the same teas — yet they never taste exactly the same. My routine is Japanese matcha in the morning, Taiwanese Four Seasons oolong in the late morning, Chinese tea in the afternoon when I have time.
In Japan, I have been visiting historically significant tea sites from Hakata, Toganoo, to Uji. Of these, Uji has brought me closest to the tea leaves. This month, I have been harvesting tea (茶摘み chatsumi) in Uji once or twice a week, for five hours each time, with a fifth-generation tea producer family. I am lucky that the first tea cultivar that I learned to handpick is the Asahi cultivar, one of the highest grade for producing gyokuro and tencha (to be grounded into matcha).
Today, I will continue to be in the tea field to handpick the Samidori cultivar with other obachans. Old ladies who don’t understand English and a good immersion for me to practice Nihongo. With our inability to communicate, I just get the space to focus on handpicking only young tea leaves from the sea of green.
Tea harvesting has become my moving meditation.