The Tau Gateway of Araxes Spice Tea Time Oasis Experience
One learns how to create a Time Oasis and with more sharpened senses be able to best appreciate and savor it, entering into another layer of the awareness spectrum.
Like how one learns how to look inward while drinking coffee and better being able to note the subtle qualia, one can learn to even better focus their senses and awareness of qualia thru the creation of a Time Oasis. Tea is nearly ideal for exploring the Time Oasis Gateway of the Tau.
While tea is in secondary position to Coffee with the Araxi palate, Tea cultivation predates coffee in Araxi culture by several centuries as good quality tea can be cultivated in the lowlands while quality coffee had to wait until terraforming was further along. Tea has about a third of the water usage footprint to grow than coffee, but it is still quite high and is mostly still imported. Some specialized teas are grown in small quantities on Araxes for various (usually medicinal) purposes.
Or like myself, I grow in my enclosed kitchen garden about 60 square meters of tea for my personal household use. It only requires maybe an hour per week of attention. I cultivate a very potent Turkish Tea and a very fine and delicate Japanese Matcha Tea. I also grow a small patch of Redbush Rooibos Tea, which is technically not properly Tea but an herbal tea, barbaris but I like it. Whether White, Yellow, Green, Oolong, Red, Black, post fermented dark green is mostly about how the tea leaves are cured and fermented and processed. Or my personal vice, post fermented dark green, which I admit I lack the skills for and I stoop to importing.
I don’t cultivate chocolate, the yield is ridiculously low, like 80 kilograms per acre, and is very labour intensive. I know some people who do and we trade.
Coffee, Tea, Wine, Cocoa, Tobacco and some other very complex organic consumables have very exotic alchemies such that where they are grown determines a great deal of the taste and aroma, and is not reproducible by transplant.
There is some debate about whether the extreme internal singularity of the coffee experience or the interconnected of all things inherent in the 'true drinking’ or experiencing of tea should come first. What is agreed upon by all except the extreme fringe, is that to be truly knowing, one must learn to experience both. Each one enhances the ability to experience the other.
Tea has slightly fewer flavor and organic compounds than coffee, and the various methods of fermenting and preparation of the tea multiples that into over a thousand different flavor and organic compounds.
Although the various flavours and aromas of coffee comes from nearly 1500 different compounds, the distinctive taste of coffee comes from the caffeol oil, only 0.5% of the Qahwa bean, otherwise it would not be recognizable as coffee.
Tea is made from a wide variety of compounds nearly 1200 depending on the tea variety, method of curing and preparation, but no single compound is essential to make it recognizable as tea.
Coffee is defined by that single key ingredient which stands apart from the other flavours, much like the tendency to draw boundaries between the body and spirit.
Tea is about the way many different flavour and aroma components complement each other, recalling the concept that all things are interconnected.
Thus, tea must be experienced in a manner different than coffee.
There are many different theories about how to experience tea. There is no one true path to experiencing tea, the formal styles are not more important than the constant search for the enhancement of the tea experience.
One of the main objectives of the tea experience is to attain a certain state of consciousness experiencing timelessness and mindfulness, and to be able to look at one’s inner self.
Unlike hearing, sight, touch, taste or smell, there is no corresponding sense for time.
The perception of time (or whatever it is that we perceive as time) appears to involve the cerebellum which governs movement, but it also seems to involve memory, and there is evidence that it also involves aspects of higher consciousness.
Deliberate fluid movements, changes in breathing rhythm, changing beat of the music, or by varying the pace of our surroundings, can all affect our perception of time.
The conscious mind has the ability to expand or contract as needed the perception of time intervals.
The ritual of preparing, serving and consuming of tea is one such way to understand how to control the perception of time.
The change of scenery is the first step to altering the personal time frame. The pavilion is set in an isolated area, all communications with the outside are cut off and shut out. The pavilion is solely for the preparation and enjoyment of tea. All legal, political and personal rivalries are left outside the tent.
Everything inside the tea pavilion is as simple as possible, yet carefully arranged to indicate balance, harmony and aesthetics.
Mats placed on the floor to sit. The utensils needed to prepare, serve and drink tea. A simple table decoration often a floral arrangement or a simple objet d’art.
Flowers are extremely rare and somewhat expensive to cultivate in Araxes, most are only cultivated for important medicinal purposes, however some have desired culinary use. The choice of flowers conveys a message of its own. Ideally the flowers are arranged in a simple arrangement yet still indicate balance and aesthetics while still appearing to the casual observer as if placed effortlessly or by chance.
The message of the flower choice and the aesthetics and balance of their presentation is an important aspect of the tea experience; everything present should be a viable subject of contemplation or meditation, conducive to focus and mindfulness, yet carefully not to be cluttered.
The balance between flowers and its vase are the first to note, and that the height, the inclination and the width should be noticed next. Flower decoration in the tea ceremony is quite different from the traditional flower arrangement in which the technique in arranging flowers is more cherished and the objective is to appreciate total beauty.
Depending on the time of day, the kettle is set up to warm the guests during night-time chills or to be diverted outside in the daytime. Very skillful tea hosts can handle the transition of the heat from the kettle from the chill of night to the heat of day with fluid grace. The kettle is carefully designed so that the steam sounds like soft rustling or desert winds.
On the face of it, nothing out of the ordinary occurs in the tea pavilion. The actual preparation of tea is very simple, simplicity is one of the basics for preparing a bowl of tea for the guests. However, each step of the preparation has fixed movements, and utensils have to be placed at pre-decided locations on the mat. The objective is for the drinking of tea and serving of tea to have spiritual depth enjoyed with a deep serenity. The host draws water, makes a fire, carries in the teapot and the bowl, and cleans and brews the tea. Every motion of the tea preparation, serving, and drinking, even the manner of exchanging hospitality gestures is carefully choreographed.
The extremely rigorous courtesies and manners are not merely ways of greeting or means of smoothing human relationships, but as an ongoing exercise in refining one’s personality and sense of morality towards others.
Guests have a sitting order which have fixed duties to perform during the tea experience. The principal guest is the main person to communicate with the Host, and will ask the Host where certain tea utensils are from, where they were made, or who made them. The principle guest uses humble language, a clear voice, and consider the correct timing so to coordinate harmoniously with the host and the other guests, and always thank the host for providing an answer.
The Serving of Tea is a carefully choreographed ritual of preparing and serving tea, pouring all one's attention into the predefined movements. The Serving of Tea teaches about mindfulness, self awareness and empathy.
Usually one of the first things brought in is a bowl or dish with sweets. The Host will sit in front of the principle guest and place the dish with sweets in between them. The Host bows and verbally indicates that these are sweets for the guests to eat. The principle guest bows back on behalf of all of the guests and with both hands moves the bowl to the right. These sweets are not to be eaten immediately but only when the host has warmed the tea bowl with hot water and discarded the waste water into the another bowl reserved for such water.
The host of the ceremony considers the guests with every movement and gesture, everything from the placement of the tea utensils to the table decorations is considered from the guests view point. The aesthetics as much as the ritual of preparation must show as being from one's innermost self.
The motions are meant to be fluid and harmonious, yet bristling with inner experience that the guests are drawn into the moment as if it were a spectacle. The folding of the cloth that the host wears on the belt, the skillful and careful manner in which the tea is withdrawn from its container, even the irregular shape of the blow; every detail is magnified and becomes an event in itself.
Dance, Martial Arts, and the serving of tea, all involve certain key elements to be refined: positioning, body formation, carriage, continuity in motion, tempo, strength of body and limbs, and the suitable nobility of presence, all must be continually refined and enhanced. These key element focus both the host performing the movements, and the guests observing them.
The entire experience can take up to eight hours, yet very little time will be perceived to have passed; the perception of time has been diluted to an extreme.
The guests and host are so engrossed with the ceremony that their conscious mind pays no heed to time. The tea experience is an opportunity to both turn your focus inward, but also to learn how to focus on the moment and the minutia, without realizing it the senses are sharpened and the perception of time ironically is heightened.
The Araxes Cinnamaldehyde NanoCrystal Spice infused with the tea combined with the profound tea experience, allows the mind to be more easily trained to create the awareness spectrum time oasis. This is another important gateway to mastering one’s mind and inner process. With the inclusion of the Araxes Cinnamaldehyde NanoCrystal Spice, eventually one is more easier able to enter into the Time Oasis mindset when needed, eventually able to effortlessly do so.
There are two very distinct schools of thought about what sort of tea should be prepared. The older and more traditional school of thought feels one should prepare simple green tea with no sweeteners.
When green tea is harvested it is quickly preserved before it might oxidize, processing is either steam or dry heat, but not fermented like black tea, oolong tea, white tea or pu-erh tea.
Green teas have a range of tastes and aromas, depending on where they were grown, how they were processed, when they were harvested, etc.. Good quality green tea are usually sweet, bittersweet, nutty, vegetal, buttery, floral, swampy, fruity, and oceanic. Steamed green teas tend to taste bittersweet especially in the aftertaste, while other green teas tend to taste sweet.
Those who promote that the Time Oasis should use green tea claim that its quintessential simplicity is an integral part. I personally believe that one should be introduced to the gateway of the Time Oasis by the preparation and consumption of green tea.
While I appreciate the importance of the quintessential simplicity of the green tea, I found that the enhanced awareness spectrum allows one to more fully appreciate more elaborate preparations.
The actual purpose of the tea experience should dictate which you choose.
When I had guests I wished to honour visiting from the Imperium, such as the Imperial Observer, I use a Chaya Masala or Karha, which is still considered Ayurvedic. It is essentially a brewed black tea with a mixture of aromatic spices and herbs.
Up until 575 years ago, the Gh'è minga Space-Time Distortion Effect made Tellurian spices difficult to obtain, so I used them when I can get them. Cocoa, Cardamom, Mace, Nutmeg, Cloves, and Vanilla all have a very high water usage footprint, so rarely are they grown on Araxes, and are almost always imported. Anise and Coriander are marginally better to import, but are still only grown in small amounts in enclosed gardens. Curry, Ginger, and Turmeric are nearly cost effective to grow on the small scale locally, but are pricier than imports.
Green cardamom pods, cinnamomum-verum sticks, ground crushed ginger, whole cloves and black peppercorn together with black tea leaves.
Brewed with the milk, in this case almond milk, which I make myself using a blender attachment used extract milk from nuts and soy.
The tea is brought to temperature with the milk long enough to extract intense flavour, but not so long as to release the tannins which add a bitter aftertaste.
I use a strong Assamese Mamri fully oxidized black tea, so that the spices do not overpower it. Mamri black tea is tea that has been cured in a special way that creates granules instead of leaves.
Alternately, I use a Ceylon variety of gunpowder green tea. Gunpowder tea is a green tea rolled into small pellet form resembling how gunpowder used to be stored. I prefer how the Mamri and gunpowder tea infuses.
The Karha spice mixture I use ginger I put thru a garlic press and green cardamom pods. For a social occasion I put in a cinnamomum-verum stick, a star anise, fennel seeds, 5 different colour peppercorn, nutmeg and whole cloves. It is decorative and adds a certain heat as well flavour.
When I am making tea just for personal but not formal guests, I have ground rose petals or use rosehips. When I have fresh roses imported, I float a rose petal in each cup. I add a saffron stamen on one of the petals.
I have some guests who don't care for the cloves and black peppercorns, it offends their sense of what chaya should taste like.
I have recently evolved a Kashmiri version, which uses green tea instead of black tea. For some guests of mine from the high altitude regions, I add a pink salt from the mountains, and baking soda which they are accustomed to.
I add turmeric when I am making comfort chaya for guests who are infirmed or recovering.
I keep nutmeg, mace, black cardamom, chili, coriander, liquorice root and even cumin handy for visitors with eccentric tastes.
I have a supply of palm and coconut sugar which I use as a sweetener for offworlder guests who need things to be sweetened. I have a small supply of Demerara Sugar, which is a golden raw cane sugar. Some offworlders have some strange aversion to molasses content, it is only 25%, get over it. I like it.
I use Jaggery, which looks like honey does when it gets solid. It is made from dates, sugar cane gore (juice) and palm sap, without separating the molasses and crystals. I find it rustic and delightfully flavourful.
When in doubt, I use the rare spice agave honey from the borderlands. Subject to availability, and it is highly seasonal.
Some people for common preparation blend and cook all of the ingredients together, but I add the spices towards the end, else I lose most of the delicate flavour to the air. For more formal guests, I add the star anise and cinnamomum-verum sticks right at the table. The peppercorns, cardamom and cloves need longer to steep, so they can't wait.
Ground pepper and ground cloves tend to dominate too much, so I use the whole peppercorn and whole cloves, and let them steep more gradually.
Post Notes of Interest:
So powerful was the Araxi Spiced Tea Time Oasis that during the Spice Wars, the Imperium Occupational Governor tried to forbid tea gatherings out of fear for that individual members of Great Houses, whilst supposed to be attempting to invade Araxes, might 'go native' and discuss politics and policy frankly and openly with the Araxi.
Among the gifts given by the Emperor to commemorate the signing of The Great Compact which ended the Spice Wars, included eighteen volumes commemorating all of the famed tea ceremony utensils in existence used by the Concordat Dynasty of the Trantorian Galactic Imperium.
Comments
Post a Comment