Bodhi Dharma's Eyelids

The ancient Chinese were masters of observing coincidence and understanding connections between the synchronicity of events in space and time. When and where are phenomena most likely to coincide.

One of the world's wonderful "coincidences" is the merging of Buddhism and tea in China. And as both are full of legends and sometimes far-fetched tales, it's not surprising that there would be a legend or two involving both.

Enter Bodhi Dharma, a 5th-6th Century Buddhist monk from India, founder of Chan Buddhism (aka Zen) in China, and legendary creator of tea.

Legends abound surrounding Bodhi Dharma's existence already, many involving the loss of body parts, even his entire body in one of them, after he stepped out of it for a moment to move a giant snake that blocked his path, only to come back to find it had been stolen. He made due with haggard body of the thief that was left sitting next to where his original body had been.

In another legend, after becoming disgusted with himself for falling asleep during meditation, he cut off his eyelids not to let it happen again. A friend of mine, who is a monk, suggested that this legend probably arose from him possibly having the biggest eyes anyone had ever seen in China, and he probably didn't actually tear them out...

In Japan, where Zen and tea share a heavenly regard, they extended the legend, adding that when he flung the eyelids to the ground, the first two tea plants sprouted instantaneously from where they landed. He plucked a couple of leaves to chew, recognized their awakening ability, brewed some tea, and continued with his meditation.

Obviously, this creation myth isn't to be taken literally, for one tea had already been around for a few thousand years before Bodhi Dharma traveled to the East, but it shows the cultural importance of the two, taken into the realm of deities. There is very little record of Bodhi Dharma's actually life, but supposedly, he did recognize tea's usefulness for helping to sustain alertness during meditation and made tea an integral part of his daily routine. To this day, Buddhism and tea have maintained a strong bond, even if a few monk have switched to coffee...

Taiping Houkui • 太平猴魁

2009 Taiping Houkui • 2009 太平猴魁

A few weeks ago, I posted about comparing Taiping Houkui at Kkik Da Geo and thought I'd do a follow up.

The comparison was between an authentic 2009 and an imitation from earlier this year. Though the imitation was still nice, it's hard to choose against authentic, and I brought 50g of it home.

Though I fully accept that this blog may put me in the upper echelons of tea snobbery, I'm normally a rather humble guy... To prove it (is trying to prove humility still humble? oops!), I'm not above using a $4 mason jar instead of a fancy $25 French press for steeping! (-_^). It is an Italian mason jar, so I guess it's still a snob-level mason jar... Anyway, I punched a few holes in the lid to pour from and gave it a try.

It wasn't totally ideal, it was tricking to pour (I hadn't considered the heat of the glass) and a little too big, but after a couple of adjustments, it did the trick. Some green teas can stand a little hotter water, this is not one of them. Also, the width of the jar was much wider than the the proper glass vessel, making the amount of leaves to use harder to judge.

I also tried using a "new zhuni" Draon Egg potthat I keep for white and green teas. I thought it's height would be enough but it was still too short to hold the extremely long Taiping Houkui leaves. But after just a few seconds in water, they softened enough to slip into the pot, like pasta in boiling water. The results of the zhuni pot were excellent, the only drawback being that you miss the "phoenix dance" as the leaves swirl around the pot.

Overall, I found this tea to be unforgiving. If the water was even slightly too hot, the taste was unpleasant and other times I wasn't able to get much flavour from it at all. Once I become better acquainted with its mood, I should find more consistency. Though it's challenging bothDragon Well and Bi Lo Chun for top green tea, I think that I still prefer Dragon Well.

What drew me the most to Taiping Houkui are its unique, long leaves. The cultivar used for Taiping Houkui, Shi Da Cha, is exclusively used for this tea, it isn't found in any other tea growing region, and is the reason for its sharp, blade-like shape. Buds with five leaves are initially plucked, then during the processing the bottom two leaves are removed. Most green teas are roasted and rolled but these leaves ate flattened with mesh and baked, leaving their original appearance somewhat intact.