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Sunday night I invited some of my brothers over for tea. Actually I invited all of my brothers living in this apartment building to come over, but only three of them—J, M and R—could make it. We had a good time talking about various things. There wasn’t anything really noteworthy that we talked about that I can remember. However the occasion, just being together with some brothers, was wonderful.

Fellowship with one’s brothers is vitally important to one’s spiritual health, yet I had had little time with my brothers for a long time. It was refreshing to have a long evening chat with them. I just wish more of them could have come over.

Two Questions

Before I had these brothers over to have tea with me, I had been thinking about two things: first, how to entertain people and second, what to do about my hobby of tea drinking.

Regarding entertaining people, I wanted to invite people over to my house for a long time, but I am not a cook. Since it is usually expected to serve food to people when they come to your house, I figured it was hard for me to entertain people.

Regarding my hobby of drinking tea, I had noticed that it was actually isolating me from other people rather than providing a bridge for me to reach out to people, and anything that separates me from other people rather than bringing me closer to people actually prevents me from fulfilling my purpose in life. I was wondering what I should do about this. Should I quit drinking tea altogether? Or how could I use it to come closer to people rather than further?

The solution to my two questions was a no-brainer: invite folks over for tea.

No Frilly Laces

Maybe to Western ears it might sound funny to have guys over for tea because teatime is considered a girl thing. But having tea in China is definitely a guy thing. In the West teatime is marked by frilly laces and delicate flowered teacups, but in China it is not so. In fact, in China you can find stores all over that sell three products that are viewed as macho things here: vodka, cigarettes and tea.

In China the process of tea and the utensils are a fine art. On Sunday evening I did my best to brew tea fit for an emperor. I brewed some Iron Goddess oolong tea in my little (4 ounces?) green Yixing pot, and I brewed some Tenfu brand Yunan black tea from Xiaguan City in my gaiwan (a china cup with a lid and a small platter). The teacups I used for the oolong and the black tea were only one ounce and two ounce cups respectively.

You might think that a four-ounce teapot and a one-ounce teacup cannot hold much tea, but actually the size is perfect for brewing and drinking fine tea. A four-ounce teapot allows the flavor to develop better than a large teapot, probably because one brews the tea in it for only about ten to thirty seconds. One should time each infusion carefully to make sure that the tea is not too strong or too weak, and the time depends on how many infusions you have done already. Each successive infusion should be longer than the last one. And each successive infusion tastes a little differently than the last. That is why the teapot and the teacups are so small, so that the drinkers can taste the flavor developing from infusion to infusion.

On Sunday evening we quaffed so many infusions that I lost count. I don’t know if all that caffeine had kept anyone up late afterwards, but I’m pretty sure of one thing. I’m pretty sure that all of them after leaving my house went straight to the bathroom.