teaoretically

Josef Albers - Hommage to the Square -- Insert, 1959 (Smithsonian American Art Museum)       sometimes i am asked: "what do you need to successfully brew a nice cup of tea?"  

Arshille Gorky - Aviation Evolutions of forms under aerodynamic limitations I (1935-1936) i have come across this video from james. he points out two things that i would like to expand on. first and foremost i want to expand a bit further on the topic of tea and money. similarly to james i pointed out at the end of my previous post about this topic that you probably will learn more studying 100g of one particular tea than 10 different 10g samples. at the beginning people often start out by buying a whole range of different teas. they amass a huge range of samples, but chances are high that there is going to be a lot of shit tea in there. there will be some good teas in there as well, but will you as a beginner realise which one is which? could you accurately separate the wheat from the chaff? most likely not. don't get me wrong. it might be good to try the one or the other sample at the very beginning just to get a very basic feeling about what tea is and that there is something ...

"Brain Chain" by Willem den Broeder, 2001 so what does it indeed all mean? "it" being tea, the object of our interest here. we could look at this topic from several angles. from the technical standpoint it is quite simple. tea is a product made from the leaves of camellia sinensis plant. at a closer look it's not that simple anymore. there are things often called tea that are not tea. herbal infusions for example or non standard camellia varietals produced in a similar way than tea. however i am of the opinion that if its not camellia sinensis or its variatals (e.g. camellia sinensis var. assamica) ...                                     ...  it                                                  just    ...

  Eser Gündüz | Retro-futurism   since we are all voyagers through space and time exploring the contents within - let's employ one of the great science fiction writers of the previous century to illustrate an important concept.    i'm talking about the concept of " to grok something " which was created and explained by robert a. heinlein in the 1961 sci-fi novel "stranger in a strange land". the book is about the man michael smith who was raised on mars and how he understands and integrates the culture on earth and terrestrial concepts.  without going too much into the details of the book i'd like to explore what "to grok" means and supply several definitions by various sources: a) to understand intuitively or by empathy, to establish rapport with. (oxford dict.) b) to understand (something) intuitively, to know (something) without having to think intellectually ( wiktionary ) c) when you grok something, you just get it — in other words, you...

Zoro Mettini | Die Euphonie in Beethovens "Neunter"     Song of Tea by Lu Tung The first cup moistens the throat; The second shatters all feelings of solitude; The third cup purifies the digestion, re-opening the five thousand volumes I’ve studied and bringing them to mind afresh; The fourth induces perspiration, evaporating all of life’s trials and tribulations; With the fifth cup, the body sharpens, crisp; The sixth cup is the first step on the road to enlightenment; And the seventh cup sits steaming — it needn’t be drunk, as one is lifted to the abode of the immortals. as written previously in my posts #1 and #2 tea can inspire a lot of things in people. poetry, philosophy, a feeling of company...  however if one wants to hear - you yourself need to shut up first.  it is vital to first take a back seat in the experience and take your ego out of it. understand what the tea needs. let the tea guide you rather than brewing it how you would like it to behave. there ...

Andrzej Karpiński 1994   i generally don't recommend going cheap on the hobby. you loose more than just your money. you get bad tea, you might risk your health, you waste your time and you don't really gain any valuable experience nor do you learn anything about what makes tea good.   the sooner you accept that you have to pay real money for the good stuff, the sooner you will start making progress in my opinion. good tea is never cheap. but beware! that does not mean in reverse that everything that is expensive is also good. western faced vendors do mark up their tea at very high rates sometimes. sometimes you are the end of a long chain of resellers and might not realise it. i've seen markups as high as 1000%. definately do your research! what helps you accept the fate of an empty wallet is to calculate the price per session. if you are frugal - 4g in an adequate gaiwan can be more than enough for a good time. let's say the tea costs 0,75€/g - and you get good tea at ...

Edward Munch - The Scream, 1893   now after the realization that tea is more than just a drink, and now that the second chapter of our obsession has begun - fundamental issues and conflicts of identity arise. not only the identity of what is in front of us (the tea) but also how it interacts with ourselves and our ego. i want to pick up the last post's question: so if tea is more than just a drink - what else is there to it? i have already written about how one would have to try to understand tea at a more fundamental level than just the simple dimension of taste . but what else is there to it? why even bother? what's all the fuss about? i should say in the beginning that i don't think that i have figured it all out yet. it's a process, a trip, a journey and there is no hurry - it will unfold itself. on a superficial level tea can be many things for people. it can be an investment, just a drink, a social lubricant, tradition, or just something their ego feels grea...

Ingravidos levitaciòn by Angel J. Sanchez (ig: @angeljsanchez )     of course - for most connoisseurs of this incredible hot beverage, it is just that - a drink. some particularly strange characters, however, see it as a hobby. this makes an essential difference for the consumer. while for most it is merely a means to an end - be it for the caffeine kick or to simply quench the thirst - for the hobbyist it has intrinsic value. for them it is not just an object but a great subject - as they might tell you at every dinnerparty. however, there are only limited possibilities for communication between these two hostile groups. while there are indeed transitions between the groups, fundamental rifts remain. for some, it is incomprehensible how the f... one can develop such an obsessive relationship to a few leaves in hot water - for the other side, the hostility expresses itself in fundamental incomprehension how one could or want to understand such a complex thing only superficiall...