Cha Dao: The Way of Tea, Tea As as a Way of Life is as much about philosophy and history as it is about the revered beverage of the East. Solala Tower's book begins as a background of how tea was first discovered — and there are several conflicting tales. However essentially, someone first put a dried Camellia sinensis leaf into a pot of bowling water, tasted it and realized it wasn't like bitter herbs at all.
At first tea, or cha in most Chinese dialects, was a medicinal brew because it was made of water purified (by the boiled water) of germs and kept people awake and aware thanks to the caffeine. This was especially prized by the Daoist monks who appreciated the way they were able to meditate for many long hours longer thanks to the tea.
Later, tea became so prized it became tribute for the emperor. Peasants worked an entire month a year at nothing but producing tea for the emperor. Their families went hungry, and the pitiful wages they earned were spent in whorehouses and gambling establishments in the shantytowns that popped up around the fields. Eventually, the economy couldn't sustain the tribute-tea work and the custom died out. However, the middle-class began drinking tea in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 C.E.) A man named Lu Yu wrote a vast treatise on tea and became the emperor's first Master of the Way of Tea.
A Zen priest then took tea to Japan. The Chinese had perfected a way of powdering green tea and then beating it into a froth. The Japanese took to this style with a vengeance. Today this is still done in the Japanese tea ceremony, chanoyu. (The beaten green tea has since fallen out of favor in China). In Japan, the ceremony took on a very austere style. Implements became simple and wooden, sometimes even scratched and bowls or cups elliptical instead of round. This was called raku style. This mirrored the particular, severe type of Buddhism called Chan Buddhism and was popular with the Samurai, who frequented the tea ceremonies. For them the tea ceremony was an isolated place of serenity. They overlaid the teahouse with their own mode of bushido, which translates as bushi, samurai, do, way — a strict code of honor.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Lynn Voedisch
For some reason the link, that was working when I posted this article, is not working now. So here it is again.
Check it out. Much more research has been done on black tea, so don't ignore it. And oolong is also one of your best friends.
2 - Tricia
I hadn't heard of pu-ehr. Like most people I had no idea that black tea could be just as healthful as green. Very interesting. And good for me... I really don't like green tea.
Very interesting book review. Sounds like it's right up my alley.
3 - Lynn Voedisch
I never liked green tea much either, but there are some really good types, and they are in this book. Like gunpowder. Turns out it's an oolong. Never knew that.
Really want to try that Dragon Well, but it looks like a trip to Chinatown for me, since the author so was so forthcoming with help (snark, snark).
4 - Bob
There are several errors here. Matcha (powdered tea) isn't beaten, it's whisked. There are no cups used in Japanese tea ceremony; tea is made in and drunk from bowls. The simple style associated with modern tea ceremony is not called raku, it's called wabi. Raku is a type of low-heat fired pottery associated with tea bowls. Additionally, Chan Buddhism was NOT associated with the samurai; that would be Zen Buddhism.
5 - Lynn Voedisch
Well, blame the author then. That's what SHE said. She said it was beaten and "frothed." (I have a Japanese friend who wanted to be a tea mistress and she also said beaten, so you may be on shaky ground there. Could be the translation.) Author said raku, and said pottery was simply not used. Bowls/cups, all a matter of semantics here. The cups are very small. She was extremely adamant about Chan, which is a TYPE of Zen. All of this is Zen Buddhism.
Take it up with Solala. I'm not going to.
I will talk to my Japanese pal next time I see her.
6 - roger nowosielski
You might be interested in the following company, Lynn - Peet's Coffee & Tea - a California outlet.
Here's a link to their excellent selection of black teas.
7 - Lynn Voedisch
Thanks, Roger. We have that in Chicago too. So very handy.
8 - roger nowosielski
It's good to know, Lynn. I'm of the mind to leave KY, a God-forsaken place, and Chicago is a possibility (though California is still my love of loves).
9 - Bob
Matcha is prepared by all schools of Japanese tea ceremony using a whisk; some make it frothy, but not all. The two largest schools of Japanese tea ceremony are Urasenke and Omotesenke; Urasenke makes tea with a lot of froth, Omotesenke with a minimum of froth.
If the author said the simple style of Japanese tea ceremony we know today is called raku, then she's mistaken, as a simple Google search will tell you. The correct term is wabi, as in wabi-cha or wabi tea. If she said that pottery is not used in Japanese tea ceremony, then she doesn't know what she's talking about. Read the Wikipedia entry on Raku ware.
A bowl is different from a cup, and cups are not used for drinking matcha in Japanese tea ceremony. Large bowls are used -- they have to be large enough to accommodate the whisks used for mixing the tea.
As for Chan and Zen, Chan is the Chinese term for Zen; samurai were Japanese, so it is ZEN that is associated with them.
10 - Lynn Voedisch
This is tiresome. I'm Episcopalian because I am American. But you can also call me Anglican. No harm, no foul. They are the same, because they are of the same communion. Can we get off this, please?
Dictionary: beaten: (of food) whipped to a uniform consistency.
whisked: beat or stir (a substance, esp. cream or eggs) with a light, rapid movement.
Is it me, or is there not much difference at all?
Anyway, you keep at this as if I wrote the book. If you have any more objections, write Solala Towler in care of her publisher and have it out with her. I'm not going to answer any more questions on these extremely picky issues. I have other things to do.
11 - roger nowosielski
Details, details, and more details.
The devil is in the details.
12 - doug m
Looks like Bob wins. All this does have me in the mood for a cup
13 - roger nowosielski
the question is - who are your companions?
14 - Bob
What I find strange, Lynn, is your rather extreme reactions to my comments. If the issue, as you say, is with the author rather than yourself, I can't imagine why you're behaving as though my comments are a personal affront.
Details are important. When we speak of Chan Buddhism, we're speaking of a particular type of Buddhism as it is practiced in China, versus Zen Buddhism, which refers to a particular type of Buddhism as it is practiced in Japan. To say that the samurai practiced Chan is to be inaccurate. The same applies to "beaten" vs "whisked." For example, in English we usually say eggs are beaten. By the same token, recipes often call for "whisking in" certain ingredients like milk, but never for "beating" them in. In Japanese, the term for making tea in a tea ceremony is "tateru," for which there is no English translation; all English sources on Japanese tea ceremony with which I'm familiar describe the motion as "whisking." The differences are slight, but, to those of us who care about accuracy, important, not "picky." And while we're attending to details, one would not use the term "tea mistress," even for a woman. The term is tea master.
But again, since you are not, as you say, responsible for the errors, I fail to see why you're so upset about them being pointed out -- unless the errors are a result of your misreading the text, that is. I find it very hard to believe, for instance, that anyone writing a book on tea would confuse Raku with wabi, or make the outlandish claim that pottery isn't used in tea ceremony (just what are all those "cups" supposed to be made of?).
15 - Miss Bob Etier
Bob--Beaten any dead horses lately? Lynn is offended because you started your barrage with comments that made it appear that she had made the errors, rather than the author. I am sure there is an audience (of, at least, one) for all the nitpicking, but it's about as entertaining as listening to someone show off their expertise behind an alias.
16 - roger nowosielski
I'd tend to agree. Even the best argument can be beat to death.
17 - doug m
It's rather clear that Bob only said there were errors. It's not his fault some readers are overly sensitive. Maybe a cup of tea would help level out the horomones
18 - Cindy
15 - (bob prefers to whisk them :-)
19 - roger nowosielski
Bob is a fastidious creature. I wouldn't want him as part of my life.
20 - Bob
I never implied the errors were Lynn's until my third post, but I'm now fairly certain they are or she wouldn't have reacted the way she has. It seems pretty clear that she didn't read the book carefully, has no specialist knowledge of the subject, and didn't do any research before writing this review, all lazy enough for a lay person, but worse for a self-proclaimed "experienced journalist" -- she didn't even get the author's sex right: Solala Towler is a man, not, as Lynn Voedisch repeatedly says, a woman.
21 - A Geek Girl
Bob, since when do you have to be an expert on the subject to review a book? Are you a total nimrod are what? Go have some tea, decaf I hope. Or write a book. Better yet... go research a book, since obviously an author shouldn't be expected to understand their subject. It's the job of the reviewer to research for them.
Seems like it's not just the tea that's green around here. Yes, she's a professional writer. Just chafes, doesn't it?
PS. I don't think they have your sex right either, missy.
22 - Bob
"since when do you have to be an expert on the subject to review a book?"
You don't, not for a non-academic review of a book of this sort. But you do need to actually read it carefully and have some understanding of the subject matter, or else why review it? And failing to get even basic information right? That's just laziness. It took me all of 30 seconds to confirm the author's sex using a magical tool called Google, but our intrepid reviewer didn't bother.
And it should go without saying that the onus is on the author to get it right, but here the reviewer is claiming the author didn't despite having no special knowledge
Finally, the comment section for a book review was the last place I would have expected to have my masculinity/sexuality clumsily and childishly challenged (as though that would provoke me to take offense or respond with a flame war). Being called a girl doesn't bother me, "Geek Girl"; it only demonstrates your own ignorance.
23 - A Geek Girl
"but here the reviewer is claiming the author didn't despite having no special knowledge" I have no idea what that means.
No. You don't have to have any understanding of the subject matter to write a book review. A well-written book is a well-written book, regardless of a reviewer's academic knowledge on the subject.
Bob, Why are you so upset by this review?
Girl. Def.
24 - Bob
My sentence got cut off, but no matter.
I'm not upset by it. Why are you upset by my pointing out the errors in it?
25 - A Geek Girl
What errors? I don't see any.
Congrats Lynn. This Book Review was picked up by Seattlepi. You rock!