Chado: How to Brew a Really Good Cup of Tea

For hundreds of years, people all over the world have been letting their worries dissolve in a cup of tea. In Japan, tea drinking has developed into a ceremony with deep cultural roots. Before the guests enter the tea room, wash their hands, purify their mouth. Tea ceremony is not only ritual, kind of meditation. Meditation means once we enter the tea room, we have to leave our life, everything outside. This ceremony is also called the Way of Tea. When I was child, since I was a child, my mother always make ice cream tea, and I grow up with this ice cream tea. Not juice, no soda, no water, just green tea. Noriko Nakai grew up in a small town near Osaka, Japan. She loved Japanese culture from an early age, and started learning the tea ceremony when she was young. Also when I was child, I was interested in some of the Japanese culture, wearing a kimono, or making tea, or flower arrangement. And I started to take a class when I was working, start to work. And maybe my teacher, first my teacher in Japan, she was very nice. She taught me many things, not only making the tea. Noriko, Noriko, tea ceremony, you can enjoy anywhere, not only in the tea room. So because if she is very strict teacher, maybe I dislike the tea ceremony, or tea ceremony is too strict for me. No, she was very gentle and nice. So I learned, and I liked more and more. In spring of 2001, Noriko left her home and moved halfway around the world to New York. Struggling to learn English and adapt to American culture, she turned to the tea ceremony as a way to relieve stress and reconnect with her homeland. Since I came here, I started to take the class in New York, and I learned much spiritual aspect behind the tea. Tea ceremony is not only ritual, kind of meditation. Meditation means once we enter the tea room, we have to leave our life, everything outside. So that's, it's kind of hard to survive this country for me at that time. Just a few months after Noriko came to America, the Twin Towers collapsed on 9-11, only two miles from the tea house where she now works. Because I had experienced 9-11, this country, I depressed a lot. I really, if I'm thinking about that, almost I cry because I really depressed. And I really appreciate nothing happened to me. But same routine again, I almost forget. Because if we have a same routine every day, wake up, go to work, finish, go back to home, eating, sleeping. Maybe people have same routine every day and they're feeling boring. So expecting something happen or something new, but we have to appreciate nothing happen. That's I think also basic spiritual things in tea ceremony. Also there is a scroll in this tea room that means it's today safe. Today safe means nothing happen, it's no news. No news is good news. The peaceful, we have a peaceful time. Now, Noriko performs the traditional Japanese tea ceremony for Westerners and newcomers to the world of tea. Hello, thank you for coming. Thank you, thank you. Please come over here. Please have a seat. Like when you walk inside here, it's timeless, it's quiet. You lose yourself into this very calm, very non-New York atmosphere. New York is very chaotic. Usually before go to the tea room, we wash your hand and purify your mouth. So I'll show you how to do. You don't have to purify your mouth, but today just wash your hand like this. You can take that. Yes, a little bit. And please take off your shoes and then enter the tea room. We've never experienced a true Japanese tea ceremony. I have a nephew named Ren Hakuru who is three and a half, four years old. Hi, Ren. And we wanted to, I just wanted to experience more of a culture because I haven't been to Japan and I feel a little left out. When I serve the customer, for example, in this tea room, I'm always thinking about one of the Zen words, Ichigo Ichie. That means each moment, only once, never again. So maybe we have the same customer or the same situation, but never happen the same thing. So that's why I always thinking about my guests, what they want. Because before it's just thinking of just myself. Of course, when I was a child and I was young, everything for myself, nothing for other people. I have to think not only myself, I have to think other people. That also makes me very happy. So that's also nice. Very important, sometimes forget though. Yes, please have a seat. It's extremely heavily choreographed. How she sits and how she moves each of the tea instruments around. Even the way she opens and closes the door. You just clear your head and watch what she does. She has a particular motion and style for everything she does. This is today's sweets, green tea cookies. So please wait to eat. I will let you know when you eat. Usually, yes, matcha green tea, I said I explain, it's a little bit strong. So normally we eat sweets right before we have tea. So I will let you know, so please wait. I'm going to start now. After the guests enter the tea room, the host begins by arranging the tea instruments. Then the instruments are gently cleaned in a purification ritual. Are we allowed to talk? Usually not. Japanese tea ceremony is not only ritual, kind of meditation. Normally we have to live our life outside. So you just enjoy tea, sweets and this time. Every movement is like a concentration. Because when I'm making the tea, I shouldn't think about different things. It's like making tea for the guest. So movement, every move, each movement is like a concentration. In the formal tea ceremony, guest and host alike are bound by ritual and tradition. In the quiet moments of the ceremony, only the sound of boiling water and the tea whisk scraping the bowl breaks the tranquility. She's so quietly reserved with sort of an inner strength. Because she's here to educate you and invite you into the ceremony with her. But she's also a little firm and says you're not allowed to talk and we do things this way. And that was kind of, it was a very choreographed event even though it's a small ceremony. You can see there's a lot of history and time put into it. The legend of tea begins 5,000 years ago in ancient China. One day, the mythological ruler of China, Shen Nong, sat in his garden boiling water to drink. A leaf from a nearby bush fell into the pot. Curious, Shen Nong drank the brew and was delighted with its taste. Tea drinking was born. The earliest records of tea cultivation date back 3,000 years to the Sichuan and Yunnan regions of China. 1,200 years ago, the oldest surviving book on tea was written by a famous scholar, Lu Yu. Lu Yu wrote, The refreshing nature of tea makes it a good choice for a beverage. It is especially suitable for people who are virtuous in nature and content with a simple life. Over the centuries, tea spread to the Middle East and Africa via the Silk Road, to South and East Asia via trade, and eventually to the West. Today, high-quality tea leaves are still harvested by hand in the mountains, just as they were in ancient times. After the leaves have been plucked, they begin to oxidize or turn black and wilt. How long the leaves are allowed to oxidize determines what kind of tea they will become. But originally, all tea comes from the same plant, the Camellia sinensis. A contemporary of Lu Yu, the poet Lu Tong, wrote the following poem, praising tea. 九文字五千卷 四碗发清汗 平生不平事 尽向毛孔散 五碗击骨清 六碗通仙灵 七碗吃不得也 谁觉两叶 兮兮清风生 When we make tea, you have to consider several things. You have to make sure the water quality is good. Basically, what you want to have is water with just the right amount of mineral content. Da Yin Chen is a tea host at a Chinese tea house in Manhattan. Second, you want to have fantastic quality tea leaves. You want to make sure it's all full leaf. It's a loose leaf tea, traditionally not in a tea bag. You have to make sure the temperature is correct. For example, green tea needs a lower temperature and black tea needs a higher temperature. You want to make sure your temperature is correct. Finally, when you begin steeping the tea, you don't steep it in the water for too long. You want to control the time. So you have temperature, quality of the water, quality of the tea, and time of the steeping. And then those things all factor together, you should have more or less the perfect cup of tea. The tea makes people very happy. I just try to do my best to make them happy. Because I cannot do anything, I don't have any special skill. But, for example, some customers are very tired. Maybe I smile, and then maybe I serve good sweets and tea. Maybe they feel happy and relaxed. Sometimes, of course, I forget everything and I'm thinking just for myself, I want to buy this, I want to buy this, I want, I want, I want, I want. But when I'm in the tea room and then see scroll, I don't need anything. And I'm really happy, I'm glad. Now it's time to have sweets. Please take the piece to the paper and enjoy your sweets. Middle of the 16th century, one of the persons, Sen no Rikyu, made this style, the way of tea. At that time, many samurai warriors used to do the tea ceremony. One of the reason, they wanted to show how much luxury stuff they have. But on the other hand, at that moment, we have war in Japan. Every day, fighting, killing people, they lost their family, co-workers, they had a stressful life. So they needed this healing time. So because once we enter the tea room, we have to forget everything. The samurai, of course, they have a sword. So I explained there is a small door. So they cannot bring from that small door, they have to leave their sword outside. That means they have to leave their life outside. The powdered green tea used in the Japanese tea ceremony is called matcha. Matcha is made by grinding high quality green tea leaves into a fine powder. The techniques for making and brewing matcha were brought to Japan in the 12th century from China, and have been used in Japan ever since. Thank you, Bob. This is for you, Luca. Japanese tea ceremony, we serve one by one. First, you drink tea. During his having a tea, Patrick, I'm sorry, you have to wait. So please bring the bowl between you and Patrick. Yes, and we usually say osakini to him. So osakini means, excuse me, I'm going to have tea first, may I? Would you like to try? Okay, good. Yes. On your left hand, yes. And hold it from the side. A little bit bow. So this is to express appreciation. And please turn the bowl clockwise twice. One more time. Two, perfect. Hold it from the side. And please try. How is that? Okay, good. You like that? Good. All right. Thank you very much. And I'm going to make it for you. Thank you for waiting. So you don't have to say any osakini, but still please bring the bowl between you and Luca. And this time, a little bit long words, oshoban itashimasu. Itashimasu. So that means, let me join you. Yes. And after that, do you remember, it's the same. Yes. And yes twice. Two, perfect. That's all. Very serene and kind of, you're supposed to meditate a little bit and kind of separate, she described it as separating yourself from the rest of the world, which here in New York we're not really good at that. So I gave the meditation a try and I think that was the most interesting part from our perspective of it's not something I do every day. I try and clear my head of thoughts and it just usually doesn't happen. But then I'm just waiting for the blackberry to beep again and time to go. In the future, maybe I'll keep studying, I mean I'll keep learning about the tea and this kind of studying for entire life, we never finish. Because it's not like mathematics things. So Sri just thinks it's more, more, more, never finish, right? I think so.