Tea, Buddhism and Health

by Orrin Williams

Tea is a drink I’ve always enjoyed. I remember sitting in my beloved maternal grandmother’s kitchen drinking cups of tea and receiving some of the pearls of wisdom that she transmitted regularly to me during the times we got to spend together. In retrospect the tea wasn’t nearly as good nor important as spending time with Grammy.

One day I was “surfing” the ‘net when somehow I started reading an article about the benefits of tea drinking and wound up at a site about the virtues of whole leaf teas. After reading the article I did a search for shops selling whole leaf teas and found one in River Forest not far from where I lived at the time. The name of the tea purveyor I discovered is Todd & Holland and I made a trip to explore the world of whole leaf teas. I walked into a realm that presented me with dozens of choices; black, green, oolong and white teas. I struck up a quick relationship with the owners of the shop especially Bill Todd and I’ve been exploring the world of tea ever since.

Tea ranks second only after water as the most consumed drink on the planet. Tea in addition to being one of the healthiest beverages to drink has an interesting history with an equally interesting mythology and folklore.

In the United States the consumption of tea has increased dramatically during the last few years. Coffee is still the drink of choice in the United States as a trend that began with the protest termed the Boston Tea Party of 1773. The Boston Tea Party created an environment that led to a dramatic reduction of tea consumption that continued until recent times.

In 1990 sales of specialty and conventional teas totaled about $1 billion; it is estimated that by 2010 sales will reach $ 10 billion. Much of this increase will be fueled by the rapidly increasing popularity of loose leaf teas. The increasing popularity of loose leaf teas can be found in the quality of the beverages it produces. Loose leaf teas are generally superior in quality and taste than bagged tea that has been the most popular form of tea in the United States.

Tea and Buddhism

My immersion in the world of tea revealed a history and folklore surrounding tea that is intimately tied to Buddhism.

With the spread of Buddhism during the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 CE) a legend was told of Bodhidharma the founder of Chan Buddhism that was to become known as Zen Buddhism after being spread to Japan vowing to meditate before a wall for a very long time. After meditating before the wall for nine years the legend has it that Bodhidharma fell asleep. Upon awakening he was so disgusted with himself that he cut off his eyelids and tea plants grew in the soil from where his eyelids fell to the ground. There is a version of the Bodhidharma legend that replaces him with Siddartha Gautama, the historical Buddha.

Of course, whether or not any of these legends embody any of the facts about the origins of tea one thing is certain; tea has had a profound role in Asian culture as a beverage with curative and medicinal qualities as well as a status symbol associated with royal and spiritual affairs.

Legends aside tea, is processed from the leaves, buds and sometimes the twigs from the camellia sinensis plant. Two varieties of the camellia plant sinensis and assamica are now grown on five continents. China and Japan only cultivate the sinensis variety. The assamica strain was discovered by the British as they were clearing the Assam region in India.

Many tea merchants in the United States attempt to avoid operations with poor labor practices by dealing with small, family run operations that may or may not be part of fair trade certification programs. More work needs to be done to insure that workers and producers are routinely treated fairly whether certification programs are utilized or not. One step would be for you to ask your supplier whether they travel frequently to the tea lands and if there suppliers are primarily family run operations.

More and more suppliers are also expanding their organically produced offerings; however like organic certification programs in agriculture there are indeed many tea producers that utilize ecologically friendly practices while not being “certified.”

Buddhism was instrumental in the spread of tea throughout Asia. The earliest references to green tea in Japan were written by an anonymous Buddhist monk in the 9th century. Tea was introduced to Japan by priests and others dispatched to China to learn more about their culture. Records indicate that a priest named Saicho brought the first batch of seeds to Japan from China in 805 CE. Tea remained a beverage of the royal classes until 1191when the renowned Zen priest Eisai brought seeds from China and planted them around the temple in Kyoto. Eisai also gave seeds to the priest Myoe Shonin who went on to produce Uji tea. As time went on tea production increased as well as its accessibility to all classes of Japanese society.

In Korea tea was mentioned as part of a ritual offering to ancestral gods as early as 661 CE to the spirit of King Suro. The historical record also mentions that during the Goryeo Dynasty (918 – 1392 CE) tea offerings were made at temples to the spirits of revered Buddhist monks. Buddhist monks were responsible for the importation of tea seeds and the cultivation and processing of the plant during the spread of tea drinking in Korea.

Tea Culture

Buddhist monks were responsible for creating rituals around tea that produced a variety of ceremonies in Asian societies. The modern Japanese tea ceremony called chado, “the way of tea” began under the guidance of the monk Sen-no Rikyu in a tradition that continues to this day. Likewise in China the ritual of Gong fu tea was first mentioned in the classic text of Lu Yu, the Classic of Tea. Lu Yu is known to have been raised by the abbots of the Dragon Cloud Buddhist Monastery until he escaped at the age of thirteen because of his unwillingness to become a monk only to become know as the Sage of Tea.

Tea is an important element in virtually all Asian societies and since its spread through Asia it is now a drink that is important all over the world.

While I don’t do the chado or gong fu tea rituals I am proponent of mindful consumption of tea. I like to take my time; I bring my water to a boil, measure the temperature making sure it is just right for the kind of tea I’ve selected. Then I measure out the right amount of tea, warm the pot and cup. When the water temperature is correct of the tea selected I then pour it over the tea leaves in the pot. Next set the timer and wait patiently for the leaves to brew their magic. Then I follow the tea Dharma transmitted by Thich Nhat Hahn:

Drink your tea slowly and reverently,
as if it is the axis
on which the world earth revolves
- slowly, evenly, without
rushing toward the future;
Live the actual moment.
Only this moment is life.

Brief Overview of Tea

The six colors of tea created under the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644 CE) correspond to the different manufacturing processes that produce, white, green, yellow, red, blue-green and black teas. Again all tea comes from the camellia sinensis plant the difference in color is the result of the oxidation process the leaves are subjected to.

White tea may have been the original way tea was consumed as its processing requires little from humans. White tea essentially is picked, spread out to dry for two or three days and withered for ten minutes before being ready for consumption. Infuse with water cooled to about 170 degrees for 4 to 8 minutes.

Yellow tea undergoes a light fermentation during fixing before being rolled and dried. Infuse with water cooled to about 160 degrees for about one minute.

Red tea is an oxidized tea that goes through a process that includes withering, rolling, oxidation and drying. Infuse in boiling water around 212 degrees for 3 to 5 minutes.

Blue-green or oolong teas are semi-oxidized going through a process of withering, semi-oxidation, drying and roasting. Infuse with water cooled to 180 – 190 degrees for 3 to 5 minutes

Black teas are created by steaming, rolling/post fermentation under cover, compressing, maturing and drying to halt the maturation process. Infuse in boiling water around 212 degrees for 3 to 5 minutes.

The tea journey is about experimenting; sample various teas and find out what works for you. Brew yours a little longer, use water that is a little cooler; adjust the amount used per every six ounces of water used. Each supplier offers brewing instructions for their teas, give them a try. The guidelines are rough approximations and you’ll learn that there is a wide range of brewing instructions for each tea with some instructions saying 160 degrees for white tea and another saying 180 degrees. Some will say the brew time should be 1 minute while others say 4 minutes. See what works best for you. Whites and greens are less forgiving than oolongs, reds and blacks. So pay attention to your brew times. Err on the side of slightly too much tea leaves rather than too few when measuring the amount to use. Six ounces is typically the amount of water in a “cup” of tea. Measuring the amount of tea can be difficult because of the differences in the leaf after processing. Many people are now weighing their teas rather than trying to measure them in a teaspoon in an attempt at uniformity.

Join the journey for the long haul and enjoy the benefits of this healthy brew.

There are many excellent books about tea. My favorites are New Tea Lover’s Treasury by James Norwood Pratt and Tea: Aromas and Flavors Around the World by Lydia Gautier.

Tea suppliers:
Todd and Holland
TeaGschwender
Argo Tea