A Tea Reader (28 page)

Authors: Katrina Avilla Munichiello

BOOK: A Tea Reader

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Credits

“
Bi Luo Chun
” by Roy Fong, copyright Â© 2010 Roy Fong.

Translation of the “Song of Tea
or
Writing Thanks to Imperial Grand Master of Remonstrance Meng for Sending New Tea” by Steven D. Owyoung, copyright Â© 2008 Steven D. Owyoung. First published on the
Cha Dao
website in an article entitled “Lu T'ung and the âSong of Tea': The Taoist Origins of the Seven Bowls,” April 22/23, 2008. Reprinted by permission of the author and of
Cha Dao
.

“Tales from
All In This Tea
:
Part Two” by Gina Leibrecht, copyright Â© 2010 Gina Leibrecht.

“Tea Pilgrimage” by James Norwood Pratt, copyright Â© 2001 Fresh Cup Publishing, Inc. First published in
Fresh Cup
magazine's
Tea Almanac 2001
.
Reprinted by permission of the author and
Fresh Cup.

“The Invisible Companionship of Tea” by Winnie W. Yu, copyright Â© 2008 Winnie W. Yu. First published in the Teance company newsletter, October 2008, in a segment entitled “Tea Journeys.” Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Tea in Tibet” by Elizabeth Knight, copyright Â© 2006 Elizabeth Knight. First published on the “Elizabeth Knight: Tea with Friends” website under the title “Tibetan Tea Traditions.” Reprinted by permission of the author.

Acknowledgments

Not one word of this book would have been possible without the love and support of my husband and best friend, Michael. My children, Roman and Teresa, have made me smile throughout the process and our newest baby Mila has the special place of being born along with this book. Thank you to my parents who were “always proud no matter what” I did, and to my brother, a talented writer in his own right, who always challenged me to keep up. I am grateful to my grandparents, who taught me about hard work and what it means to chase a dream, and to my aunts, uncles, and cousins who have provided me with more material than I could write in a lifetime.

Without my new “sisters,” Mary Germanotta Duquette and Chrisanne Douglas, I never would have had the courage to embark on this crazy journey. Thank you to Linda Zoeller Anderson for giving me the courage to call myself a “writer.” I also extend thanks to Kristi Bates, who has always been quick to offer babysitting, moral support, and friendship.

I thank the writers who have provided me guidance, encouragement, and mentorshipâmost particularly Babette Donaldson, Frank Hadley Murphy, and Laura Childs. I am grateful to Cynthia Gold, who treated me like a professional right from the beginning, and to Jane Pettigrew who has inspired me to immerse myself in the world of tea. I want to thank the magazine editors who took a chance on me and who taught me how to succeed, in particular Anne Nelson, Justin Shatwell, Valerie Schroth, Alicia Woodward, and Beth Hillson. A particular thanks to William Notte, the Acquisitions Editor at Tuttle, who believed in this project and made it real, and to my editor Jon Steever for his patience, enthusiasm, and restrained, but transformative, editing.

Thank you to those amazing tea writers who contributed to this book. The words you have written have inspired me, made me laugh and made me cry. I must also thank my dedicated illustrators for their beautiful and inspired work: Stephanie Sewhuk-Thomas and Katie Sloss.

Finally, I cannot thank my Tea Pages readers enough for their support and for continuing to read my work. That blog is what brought me to this day.

About the Author

Katrina Ãvila Munichiello
is a freelance writer, blogger, and tea lover. After nearly a decade working in public health and non-profit administration, she launched a new career as a writer. Specializing in writing about tea, parenting, and food allergies, she has been published in
Yankee Magazine
,
The Boston Globe Magazine
,
Living Without
,
among others. Other interests include knitting and crafts, cooking, and, of course, tea. A native of Maine, Katrina, her husband Michael, and their three children now live in Massachusetts.

About the Writers and Artists

FIRST STEEP:
Tea Reveries

Frank Hadley Murphy
was born in Boston and is the author of the 2008 book,
The Spirit of Tea
.
He is the owner of Jade Mountain Tea Company in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and he has served as a judge at a Chinese tea competition and an international tea competition. He lectures nationally and has contributed to
TEA: A Magazine
and
The American Tea Journal
.
Murphy graduated from the American Tea Masters Association's tea mastership program and is a senior student of tea master and Taoist priest Roy Fong. He is currently working on his second book, a piece of comedic tea fiction set in New Mexico.

Stephanie Wright
is a psychologist and writer living in South Carolina with her three daughters and fellow psychologist and partner Michael. She is the author of
The Witch War Histories, Volume I
which was published in 2004. She and her writing can be found on the web at wrighterly.com, wrighterly.livejournal.com, sixsentences.blogspot. com, and other locations.

The
Outlook
Editor-in-Chief,
Lyman Abbott
(1835â1922), is likely the author of the uncredited essay: “The Spectator on Tea.” The son of writer Jacob Abbott, Lyman left his law practice to study theology. He was ordained as a minister in 1860. He became the Editor of the
Illustrated Christian Weekly
in 1870 and later served as Editor-in-Chief of Henry Ward Beecher's
Christian Union.
The latter publication became
The Outlook
in 1893. Lyman Abbott succeeded Beecher as minister at a church in Brooklyn, New York. There were three other editors of
The Outlook
during this period:
Ernest Hamlin Abbott
(1870â1931),
Hamilton Wright Mabie
(1846â1916), and
Francis Rufus Bellamy
(1886â1972).

Peter Anthony Motteux
was born in the early 1660s in Rouen, Normandy, France with the name Pierre Antoine Motteux. He left France when the Edict of Nantes was revoked, making Protestantism illegal. He settled in London, England and became an author, playwright, and translator. Motteux is best known for editing a translation of Francois Rabelais's works with Thomas Urqhardt. He was also the editor of England's first magazine
The Gentleman's Journal
from 1692 to 1694. He died in 1718, leaving a wife and three children.

Roy Fong
is the founder/proprietor of San Francisco's Imperial Tea Court, the first traditional Chinese teahouse in America. A native of Hong Kong, Mr. Fong was introduced to tea early in life, and has spent many years developing close relations with tea growers and producers in China and Taiwan. He is an ordained Taoist priest and he previously served as Head of Research and Development for the International Tea Masters Association. Fong's writing has been published in
The New York Times
,
Forbes
,
Gourmet
,
TEA: A Magazine
,
and other publications, and he has appeared on the National Public Radio program
Talk of the Nation
.
He lives with his wife Grace and their two daughters in the San Francisco Bay area. His book,
Great Teas of China
,
was published in 2010.

Babette Donaldson
is the author of five books in the Emma Lea children's series, including
Emma Lea's Magic Teapot
and
Emma Lea's Tea with Daddy
,
as well as the booklet
Family Tea Time
.
She has a B.A. in Creative Writing and a B.F.A. in Ceramic Art from San Francisco State University and received her tea certification from the Specialty Tea Institute, the education division of The Tea Council of the United States. She is currently the director of Tea Suite, a nonprofit organization supporting art education. She is co-founder of the International Tea Sippers Society.

Lu T'ung
(790â835) was a poet born in northern China and lived a reclusive life, referring to himself as YÃ¼-ch'uan-tzÃ», the “Philosopher of Jade River.” T'ung composed the
Song of Tea
during China's T'ang Dynasty (
A.D.
618â907) A great lover of tea, he unexpectedly received a package of Yang-hsien tea from a member of the imperial court. He was overwhelmed by this gift as Yang-hsien was grown solely for use by the emperor. He wrote his poem in honor of the occasion. T'ung died during a mass execution at the capital where he was visiting at the invitation of Emperor Wen Tsung.

Stephen D. Owyoung
was born in San Francisco and is a graduate of the University of Hawai'i. He served as a curator of Asian art at museums including the St. Louis Art Museum. He has spent twenty years lecturing on Chinese and Japanese tea and writing about the history, literature and poetry of tea in China.

Kien-Long
(also
Qianlong
)
(1711â1799) ruled China from 1736â 1795, making him one of the longest ruling emperors in history. His given name was Hung-li. In 1795 he abdicated his position to his son so as not to surpass the length of his grandfather's reign. Kien-Long was a great lover of the arts, an essayist, a calligrapher, and a poet. In his lifetime he composed more than 40,000 poems.

Aaron Fisher
graduated from university, where he began studying tea and Eastern thought, with a Bachelors degree in anthropology and philosophy. After a decade traveling the world, living in several countries, he settled in Taiwan. Fisher is the senior managing editor of all English publications at Wushing Publications, Ltd. and contributes to
The Art of Tea
.
He is also a co-founder and the editor-in-chief of the online magazine
The Leaf
.
He has contributed to
Puerh Teapot
,
Enjoying Tea
,
Fresh Cup
,
and some smaller publications. In 2008, he helped translate and edit
The Ancient Tea Horse Road
by Sian Yan Yun and his books
Tea Wisdom
and
The Way of Tea
were published in 2009.

SECOND STEEP
Tea Connections

Jodi-Anne Williams-Rogers
is a qualified and experienced environ-mentalist, social development officer and freelance writer living in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has a keen interest in writing, poetry, spirituality, nature and researching South African heritage and life histories of the late 1800s. She has had articles published in
Renaissance Magazine
(Republic of South Africa),
Vision Magazine
(R.S.A.), and
Kindred Spirit Magazine
(U.K.)

Anne Thackeray Ritchie
,
born in 1837, is the oldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray (author of
Vanity Fair
)
and Isabella Creach Shawe. Ritchie published a dozen texts and spent her life among some of England's best known authors, including the Brownings, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and the Carlyles, among others. She died in 1919.

Julie L. Carney
has worked as an animal control officer, an elected city council member, an online bookseller, and as a volunteer at the Sun-dance Film Festival. She enjoys writing and photography, and living in the most beautiful part of Upstate New York.

Stephanie Lemmons Wilson
enjoys many forms of creative expression including dancing, sewing, tea parties and writing. Find out more about these endeavors at her blog,
Steph's Cup of Tea
(stephcupoftea.blogspot.com).

Louisa May Alcott
,
born in 1832, was the famous novelist daughter of transcendentalist Amos Bronson Alcott and his wife Abigail May Alcott. She spent much of her life in Massachusetts, most notably in Concord near Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The most famous of her thirty books and story collections include
Little Women
,
Little Men
,
and
Jo's Boys
.
In addition to being an author, Alcott was a suffragette. Alcott died in 1888 at just 55 years of age.

Sir William Robertson Nicoll
was born in 1851 in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire and became an ordained minister. He wrote under the pseudonym Claudius Clear. In 1884, he became the editor for Hodder & Stoughton's
The Expositor
and he founded the
British Weekly
,
in which “Correspondence of Claudius Clear” was a feature. He is credited with discovering J. M. Barrie who later penned
Peter Pan
.
Nicoll died in 1923.

Russell Hires
is a single dad living in Tampa, FL, who discovered tea a couple of years ago.

Kirsten Kristensen
is the founder and owner of Tea 4 U. She is certified at the highest professional level by the Specialty Tea Institute of Tea USA and is a freelance writer specializing in tea and health topics. Kristensen is also the first Vice President on the board of the Brookdale Community College Alumni Association. In 1998, in Denmark, she published
When Penelope Travels Along,
a practical book about expatriation, cultural adjustment, and assimilation. She is married with two daughters.

Jehiel Keeler Hoyt
was born in 1820 and died in 1895. Hoyt was a journalist, the editor of the
New Brunswick Times
(NJ), and was also a compiler of
Hoyt's Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
in 1881.
The Romance of the Table
was published in 1872 by Times Publishing Co.

Dorothy Ziemann
is a married mother of two daughters who works as a pediatric emergency room nurse. She is passionate about knitting, reading, and of course, tea!

THIRD STEEP
Tea Rituals

Sir Edwin Arnold
was a poet and journalist who lived in England. He was born in 1832 in Kent, attended Oxford, and became a schoolmaster. He spent seven years in India as a school principal. He became a journalist for the
Daily Telegraph
and a well-regarded poet. His third marriage was to a Japanese woman, Tama Kurokawa, and he spent time living in Japan, leading to the writing of
Seas and Lands
in 1891. He died in 1904.

As the lead writer and editor for
Gongfu Girl
(gongfugirl.com),
Virginia Wright
(aka Cinnabar)
has been researching and writing about tea for over two years. Her interest in tea practices is broad, ranging from cave-aged Chinese
pu-erh
to Japanese
Gyokuro
to Turkish
Ãay
and beyond, with great focus on the specificity of each culture's traditions. Of course, she enjoys drinking tea as well!

George Robert Gissing
was an English novelist born in 1857 in Yorkshire. He was a decorated student, winning the Shakespeare prize in 1875 at Owens College. He was later expelled and spent time in prison for stealing to support a girlfriend. He re-applied himself to a writing career and gained regard in the field. His better-known works include
New Grub Street
,
In the Year of Jubilee
,
and
Born in Exile
.
By the time of his death in 1903, at the age of 46, he was in his third marriage.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling
was born in Bombay, India (then a British colony) in 1865. He was sent to England at age 5 for school, but returned to India at 16 to serve as assistant editor of a local newspaper. Kipling later returned to England and then to the United States after his marriage. In his early 30's he came back to England permanently. He was a very successful author, with such celebrated works as
The Jungle Book
(including the story “Rikki-Tikki Tavi”),
Just So Stories
,
and
Kim
.
In 1907 he was granted the Nobel Prize in Literature and he was offered the position of British Poet Laureate and knighthood, but he refused both. Kipling had three children, two of whom predeceased him; one died in combat in World War I at age 18. Kipling died in 1936.

At Mr. Kaji Aso's request and with her deep gratitude,
Kate Finnegan
continues his way of tea ceremony at Kaji Aso Studio's tea house, House of Flower Wind.
In addition to serving as the Director of Kaji Aso Studio (
www.kajiasostudio.com
), Finnegan is a painter who has exhibited in Japan, the U.S., and Italy. She is an instructor at Tufts University and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.

Debbra Summers
is fifty-four years old chronologically, nineteen years young at heart, and five foot one and a half. She was born, adopted, and raised in 1960s suburbia. She now lives on a farm near Peterborough in Ontario, Canada with her husband of 30 years, Eric, and their current furry entourage of six cats and an English Bull Terrier named Rosie. She has always loved words and her Gran.

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