Top 5 underappreciated benefits of tea

One of the greatest pleasures in life is excellent tea. Personally, I prefer pu-er tea but can appreciate a great oolong and even an excellent smoky black. I am currently expanding my tastes into Japanese greens as well. I’m fortunate to live in a city, Portland that loves great tea. My good friend Paul Rosenberg owns a world-class tea business based here called Sacred Tea. He is a man full of integrity and absolutely dedicated to sharing a very deep understanding of tea and life in general with his lucky customers. I always love visiting with him - he always has something old and wonderful to share and plenty of stories to go with it. But when the stories stop and it’s just us and the tea, that’s when I realize the powers of this seemingly simple beverage. I want to encourage you to visit his site. He is offering tasting sets that will allow you to experience truly incredible teas for a very affordable cost, packaged with the care and beauty with which Paul is uniquely able to provide.

Tea certainly has many health benefits, reported by many sources. That’s great - but it doesn’t get to the heart of the power of tea. I could list the health benefits of tea from a Chinese medicine perspective and at some point I will probably do that - but in this hectic five minutes sitting between box towers in the middle of moving my home I will simply tell you the five least appreciated benefits of tea from my perspective.

1. Invitation to slow down: Give me a simple pot, a cup, and a couple of grams of excellent tea and you give me the space to simply BE. Life is hectic for many of us and it’s hard to find time to just let the mind float, to experience life and to let go of worries. Tea provides a reason to relax and a lovely experience while doing so. I encourage you to get a nice little pot and cup and to purchase good quality tea, even if you can only afford a little bit. This enhances the experience of “specialness” that really helps one to fully engage in the moment. It’s a mini vacation! In a cup!

2. Engagement of all the senses: As I have learned more about tea, I have begun to realize how it engages all of your senses. Your eyes take in the beauty of the leaf both before and during steeping. You can also appreciate the beauty of your tea ware, the steam rising from your cup and of course the sights all around you as you drink. You can smell the complex aromas of your tea before, during and after steeping. You may detect soil, grape, ocean and many more scents that will greatly enhance your appreciation. Although sound isn’t an intrinsic part of the tea experience, I hope you will try to “listen” to what the tea is telling you. Where is it from? Was it harvested and processed with love and care? What is its history? Certainly touch is involved. Feel the tea before you steep it. Is it heavier or lighter than you expected? What is the quality of the leaf? After steeping, handle the soaked leaves. You will also get the pleasant experience of the warmth of the tea being transmitted into your hands as you drink. Finally, the mother of all tea drinking sensations - taste. You can taste tea in a similar way to tasting wine, and that can be fun if you’ve never done it before. Clear your palate and then suck the tea in briskly with plenty of air. Let it course over your tongue and mouth and try to describe the flavors. But when that is done, simply enjoy the tea. Let its complexity and history unfold. Enjoy yourself! Who knows when you will meet this tea again?

3. Appreciation of other cultures: When you begin to learn about the teas you are drinking you will begin to learn about the cultures that produced them. Tea is a vital part of many cultures’ history and just as learning about Chinese medicine sometimes provokes self-education about Chinese culture, tea drinking can promote people to learn about other peoples and places. It’s important to know where your tea comes from and how it is traditionally consumed.

4. Spiritual benefits: In many ways, everything I have been talking about could be part of a “spiritual experience” of tea. If you pay close attention to the tea, if you allow the experience to enfold you - it is nothing short of transcendental. Consider incorporating tea into your daily meditation or journaling time. I like to wake early in the morning and steep special teas while I watch the sun come up just before doing QiGong. I find that it works on me in a similar way to meditation. It calms my mind and opens me to more subtle experiences of this divine universe in which we live.

5. Balancing of your internal environment: Although I will not go into great depth here about health benefits of tea, I do want to mention one thing. I believe many teas, especially those that are aged, resonate with the Earth element in five element symbolism. As such, they provide a “center” for everything in your body. Drinking great tea, especially pu-er, provides a stabilizing and balancing effect that is immediately apparent. Although some teas do have a high caffeine content (like oolong, for instance) many are close to caffeine free and even some that are not provide a mellowing effect that balances your whole system.

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