My son and his wife came to visit me in Paris last weekend. They know I love tea, so they brought me to a Tea Shop located here in the city, called Marriage Freres. This tea shop has been in Paris since 1854. I really enjoyed smelling the different types of tea available. I liked the blooming teas so my son and his wife made a gift to me of one of the blooming teas called (The flower of the Buddha).
Today I had my tea pour with (The Flower of the Buddha). I kept my presentation simple with two lapis cups with a golden dragon on each cup. I used my glass tea pot and tea pitcher so that we could easily veiw this precious tea.
Blooming Teas is a delicate tea art crafted by artisans in China. They bundle dried white tea leaves around aromatic flowers in various designs. When making this tea they may pick up 150-200 tea leaves at a time and tie them together with a cotton thread. They insert flowers in the middle of the leaves and then shape them and gentle tie them into a neat bundle. The tea bundle I was gifted with, look like the head of the Buddha with his little top knot. Once the tea bundle is formed they wrap cloth around the bundle and then put them into drying ovens to cure the tea for five hours. Then the cloth is removed from the tea bundle and the tea is cured for another five hours. Thus you now have a finished product.
I began my tea pour placing my cups and pots on the tea tray preparing them for washing. This procedure of pouring water over the cups is called (The Goddess Strewing Flowers from Heaven). This is symbolic of purifying oneself and preparing to receive the tea. (Tea also being the symbol of
consciousness. I also like to use Evian Water when making tea, since I do not have a well or spring water in my neighborhood. But I feel Evian is from a good quality source and is a gentle water that will not interfere with the taste of the tea.
Everything was made ready, I put the tea bundle in the glass tea pot and poured the water over the tea making sure my tea water was at 180 F which is said to the best for a Blooming Tea. Now the fun begins as the delicate tea leaves unfurled themselves back to reveal a beautiful yellow chrysanthemum blossom adorned with a chain of eight pearl like buds that floated above the radiant sunny central blossom. This all happened in a matter of 3 minutes. The beauty about this tea is that you can get up to four to five steeping from one single tea bundle. You can steep the tea up to five minutes. The taste was very pleasant light, fragrant and aromatic.
The yellow chrysanthemum has symbolic significance in Asia. It was used for Buddhist offerings but also signifies a life of ease, attraction for good luck, abundance and optimism. The emperors of Japan sat on chrysanthemum throne. The flower's strong yellow yang energy brought sunshine into my day.
We sipped our tea and enjoyed watching the floating flowers in the cup and my mind began to look deeper into the meaning of this tea ceremony. The tea bundle was in the shape of the Buddha Head, but as the tea began to open it revealed the light of the Buddhas Mind the symbol of the Chrysanthemum Blossom. The eight pearl like flowers made me reflect on the Eight Noble Truths of the Buddha.
1. Right View Wisdom
2. Right Intention
3. Right Speech Ethical Conduct
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort Mental Development
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration
I say this was a good cup of tea.
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