Hello, fellow Hivers!
This is emeraldtiger and today I would like to tell you a story about Tea, and more specifically, water for tea.
If you want to know a bit more about the content of this blog you can read my introduction here: @emeraldtiger/self-introduction-to-hive-and
Whether you are a seasoned Gong Fu artist preparing tea with the strictest discipline or throwing a teabag in a mug as a mere morning muscle memory, there is a truth that never changes: your cup is made of hot water at 99%!
Water is so important for tea that it is a very serious topic among tea lovers and there is a famous Chinese proverb about it:
“Water is the mother of Tea,
The teapot its father and
The fire is its teacher”
Let us leave the Father and the Teacher aside for a moment, everyone knows that first, there is the Mother. Aren't we also talking about Mother Tongue?
Well, the Mother tongue of tea is Water.
It is through Water that tea expresses itself, transmits its wisdom to us, and communicates with our senses.
The tea tree grows thanks to rainwater, it receives life coming down from the sky. In the same way, the Tea Master brings its leaves back to life by pouring hot water on them.
Each tea has its preferences of course, just as some people enjoy very hot baths, others prefer to dig a hole in the ice before taking a dip.
Nevertheless, the leaves always come in contact and communicate with Water, it must therefore be of the best possible quality!
Then, what does “good quality water” mean for Tea?
Since water is a central element in tea making, it is only normal that countless Tea Masters have thought and written about this.
The first of them is also the first to have produced texts exclusively devoted to tea, and his name was Lu Yu (733-804).
Lu Yu's comment about choosing water for Tea is :
He adds that the "best and cleanest spring water flows slowly over granite or stone. Water sources where many mountain streams consolidate may appear crystal clear but can contain a lot of scum and toxins because they are stagnant. To extract water from this source, one must create an opening to allow the existing water to be replaced by freshwater".
When retrieving water from the river, Lu Yu advises that one should avoid the crowded bit of the river but when extracting water from a well, one should seek out a busy well.
While a river being full of people means that the water is unclear and possibly polluted, a frequently used well produces good water as more of it is being drawn from the earth.
All these advices about water comes from the book The Classic of Tea written by Lu Yu around the year 760. A free translation of this work can be obtained at:
http://archive.globalteahut.org/article/597
For some people it might seem nothing more than common sense, however, the real point of the talk here is that to brew good tea we need Pure Water.
Now you may ask: "Alright, that's nice, but what kind of water do I actually use?"
Indeed, unless you live in Norway and go to draw water every weekend in the mountains (yes, in Norway it is quite possible to drink water from streams along hiking trails !), it has become very complicated to obtain “pure” water.
Some are lucky enough to live close to a small spring and can go there to stock up on water, it seems that effort makes water taste better :)
What is certain, however, is that going to draw your own water changes our relationship and understanding of water.
Effort giving the water a better taste, it may not be that stupid after all! Don't you think so?
Thank you for reading until the end! If you are interested in the way of Tea, you can subscribe as I have many more stories to share!
Until then, I wish you happy tea sessions!
All photos in this post are mine