釅
釅(音"豔"):酒醋味道醇厚
釅茶:濃茶
"咽一口釅茶覺得爽快 這是大人的可憐處 人生的"苦甜" 如古希臘女詩人之稱戀愛" (周作人)
2007年10月26日
中国茶評論家・工藤佳治
――おいしく飲むコツは、形式にこだわらないこと
「中国茶をいれる時、一煎目は捨てるのですか?」
先日ある協会の講演で、久しぶりにこの質問を受けた。以前よりは少なくなったが、中国茶のいれ方についてよくある質問である。
この質問、中国では皆無に近い。理由は、簡単である。一煎目を捨てるようないれ方、飲み方をほとんどしていないので、質問する必要がないからだ。
日本で質問が出る理由に、テレビとか雑誌、あるいは中国茶を教える先生が、中国茶をいれる時、茶葉を入れ、お湯を入れたあと、「一煎目は捨てま す」ということが紹介されているからだ。ほとんどの場合、このいれ方は、以前にも書いた「茶藝」という「中国式茶道」の紹介で行われている。小さな急須を 使い、小さな杯で飲む、中国茶ではお馴染みのいれ方、飲み方である。茶藝は、広東省や福建省、台湾を中心に行われているいれ方、飲み方である「工夫茶」を 基礎に、様式化されたもので、ここ15年くらいの歴史である。
中国での日常のいれ方、飲み方は、ほとんどがコップやマグカップのような器に茶葉を入れ、お湯を入れてしばらく待って、そこから直接飲むのが主流である。お茶が濃くなれば、そこにまたお湯を足し、自分の好みの濃さにして飲む。
このやり方では、一煎目を捨てるなど、必要もないし、出来ない。彼らの頭の中に「一煎目を捨てる」などの考えもないはずだ。
実は、日常飲んでいるお茶の種類に影響されている。中国のほとんどの地域では、「緑茶」が中心に飲まれている。北部は、「茉莉花茶」(ジャスミン茶)。広東省、福建省、台湾では「烏龍茶」が中心だ。
緑茶は、何と言っても最初の香りこそが大事。その「魅力」の部分を捨てるなどということは、論外である。「おいしい」ところ、「楽しむ」ところは捨てない。
私たちも日本茶を飲むとき、当然のこととして一煎目は捨てない。
ところが、「茶藝」の基礎となる「工夫茶」は、「烏龍茶」を飲む地域の文化である。一煎目を捨てる光景を今でも見ることがある。また、香港で日常 飲まれている「プーアル茶」も、大きなポットに少量の茶葉を入れ、少しだけお湯を注いで、それをまず捨てる。そのあとお湯をいっぱいに入れ、飲む。
プーアル茶は、一煎目をなぜ捨てるのか? プーアル茶は、製造の工程や、長期間ねかせて熟成させる工程など、放置されることがある。その間に、ゴ ミなどが付くことがあるので、それを洗い流すためである。また、少し「カビ臭さ」もあるので、それを多少和らげる意味もあるような気もする。
工夫茶で「烏龍茶」をいれる時に一煎目を捨てる理由は、いろいろの説明がされているが、古くは製造工程上のゴミを洗うなどの目的があったという。 現在はそれほど汚い環境の中で製造されていることもなく、必要性はないといってよい。また、烏龍茶の茶葉の中には、強く揉んで小さな球形にまで丸められて いるお茶もある。このような茶葉の場合、お湯で刺激を与え、早く開かせ抽出を早める効果を目的とする、という説明もある。
いずれにしても、「茶藝」「工夫茶」で一煎目を捨てるのは、現在では形式的な所作である。お茶をおいしく飲もうとした場合、逆に「おいしい」部分を捨ててしまうことにもなる。香りが立つ、発酵度が浅い烏龍茶も増えている。
結論を言えば、プーアル茶など「陳年」(ねかせるタイプ)のお茶のみ「一煎目を捨てる」ということになる。
日常飲むお茶は、「おいしく」が一番。形式にこだわる必要はない。中国茶も例外ではない。
次回は、「過剰包装が目立つ。味を忘れないで…」(予定)です。
宇治茶の木を素材にした「宇治人形」の展覧会=写真=が、京都市中京区の花園大歴史博物館で開かれている。ふくよかな女性の茶摘み姿が、縁起物としての魅力を伝えている。
今では珍しい宇治人形は、江戸後期に土産物として作られ始め、大正から戦前にかけては、皇室が買い上げるほどの作家もいた。5-10センチほどの高さで、赤や緑の彩色が施されている。
180点が並ぶ。花園大講師の田中正流さん(33)は「茶と同様、不老長寿を招く物として親しまれてきた。作家ごとの個性に触れてほしい」と話す。無料。12月25日まで(日、祝日休館)。專心求進。後漢書˙卷三˙肅宗孝章帝紀:其後學者精進,雖曰承師,亦別名家。 聰明進取。漢書˙卷一○○˙敘傳上:乃召屬縣長吏,選精進掾史,分部收捕。 佛教用語。為六度之一。指在修善、斷惡、去染、轉淨的修行過程中,不懈怠的努力。南朝梁˙蕭衍˙覺意詩賜江革詩:唯當勤精進,自強行勝脩。 しょうじん-りょうり しやう―れう― 5 【精進料理】 肉・魚などを用いず、野菜・豆腐など植物性の材料で作る料理。 中国伝来の精進料理「普茶」再現 可児市で教室 |
2007年10月27日 |
丹羽美代子さん(左から3人目)の指導で調理した普茶料理を味わう参加者=可児市兼山、ガーデンカフェ・ギャラリー兼山窯 |
江戸時代に中国の高僧らが長崎に伝えたとされる精進料理「普茶(ふちゃ)」を再現する料理教室が可児市兼山のガーデンカフェ・ギャラリー兼山窯で開かれ、主婦ら5人が往時の食文化に挑戦した。
普茶は、隠元禅師が承応3(1654)年に唯一の開港地・長崎に弟子らと渡来した際、中国風料理として茶席で振る舞ったとされ、京都・黄檗山萬福 寺を中心に黄檗宗の伝来とともに全国に広がった精進料理。四季折々の野菜を主体に旬の味を生かし、色彩の取り合わせにも工夫を凝らすのが特徴という。
指導したのは、同ギャラリーオーナーで靖風流煎茶(せんちゃ)道教授として普茶料理を会得した丹羽美代子さん(56)。料理は秋の味覚で、マツタ ケ風のサトイモ煮、イガグリに見立てたクリ入りのサツマイモ団子、巨峰ブドウの包み揚げ、高野豆腐巻き、ゴマ豆腐汁など1汁8菜を分担して調理した。
出来上がった普茶料理は、丹羽さんの夫で陶芸家重光さん(56)の大皿や鉢などの作品に盛り付けした。試食した参加者は「旬の持ち味を生かし、素朴な風情の中にも豪華さを感じ、健康にもいい」と満足そうだった。
教室の問い合わせは丹羽さん、電話0574(59)2422。
老舍 {茶館}葉若誠英譯 這本大陸書有台灣版本 不過文中提到"爛肉麵"只翻譯為 bowl of noodle (p.48) 不知道實際情況 | ||||||||||||||||
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烏龍茶(ウーロンちゃ、拼音: wūlóngchá、注音: ㄨ ㄌㄨㄥˊ ㄔㄚˊ)は、中国茶のうち青茶(せいちゃ、あおちゃ)と分類され、茶葉を発酵途中で加熱して発酵を止め、半発酵させた茶である。中国語でいう「青」は「黒っぽい藍色」を指す。青茶に対して、緑茶は茶葉を摘んだ直後に加熱するため発酵の過程がなく、紅茶は完全に発酵させたものを乾燥させたものである。一説によれば烏龍茶という名前は中国広東省で製茶されたお茶の形状や色が烏のように黒く、龍のように曲がりくねっているため名付けられたという。
ちなみに1978年に中国安徽省の安徽農業大学の陳椽教授によって中国茶は緑茶、白茶、黄茶、黒茶、青茶、紅茶、の6種(六大茶類)に区分され、これにジャスミン茶など花茶を加えた7種が現在もっともポピュラーな分類方法として知られている。区分について、詳しくは中国茶の項目を参照のこと。
1, Bishop Lefroy Rd. Kolkata 700 020, India Tel. +91-33-2281-3891 Fax +91-33-2281-1199 |
Type: Subsidiary
On the web: http://www.tata.com/tata_tea/index.htm
You can take all the tea in China and throw it in the deep blue sea and Tata Tea wouldn't care. Tata Tea (owner of the UK's Tetley Tea, supplier to the Queen) is one of India's largest tea growers and marketers, selling its coffee, tea, and spices in India and more than 40 other countries. The company owns both tea and coffee plantations as well as facilities for the production of pepper, turmeric, chilies, ginger, nutmeg, and other spices. Tata bought the venerable Tetley Tea in 2000 for $475 million and is looking for other acquisitions, mainly in the herbal tea market. Tata Tea Group is a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate, Tata Group.
Key numbers for fiscal year ending March, 2006:C Radhakrishna Rao (著) Statistics and Truth出版社: Publications & Information Directorate (1989 (平裝)1996)
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第六卷 |
更新 2007年10月24日 14:36 | ||
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宇部市内の小・中学校の給食のデザートに「小野茶を使ったムース」が新たに加わった。二十三日には、琴芝小や厚南中など十五小学校、七中学校で出され、児童・生徒が「古里の味」を楽しんだ。市学校給食センター(大塚忠行所長)では二十五日までに、全校で提供する。 市では、小・中学生を対象にムース容器の上ぶたのデザインを募集。若山恵梨子さん(厚南中三年)の作品が最優秀に輝き、図案に採用された。若山さんは「自 分の作品が上ぶたになっているのを見て、うれしいような恥ずかしいような気持ち。抹茶の味がして、おいしかった」と話した。 | ||
ムースを食べる若山さん(中央)ら(厚南中で) |
無農藥殘留
無咖啡因成份
無重金屬成份
經SGS檢驗合格,無農藥及重金屬
◆尺寸規格:3g/包; 30包/盒
晚上讀周作人的沈草子注 才知道"椿"就是山茶 它可能是日本創的字
我在十幾年前在日本Okura Hotel 看他們的椿花道 印象很深刻
つばき 1 【▼椿/〈山茶〉】
(1)ツバキ科の常緑低木ないし高木。暖地の山林から本州北部の海岸に自生し、早春、葉腋に五弁花をつける。ヤブツバキとも。(2)ツバキ(1)・ユキツバキおよびその園芸品種。中国産の近縁種などを含めることもある。葉が大形で光沢があること、早春に花が咲くことでサザンカと区別される。普通、花弁は離生しない。種子から椿油を採る。[季]春。《赤い―白い―と落ちにけり/河東碧梧桐》〔「椿の実」は [季]秋〕
不知道它的葉大到可包餅
つばいもちい ―もちひ 【▼椿▼餅】
餅米の粉に甘葛(あまずら)をかけて丸くかため、椿の葉二枚で包んだ餅。つばいもち。つばきもち。「檜破子(ひわりご)・御酒(みき)・―など奉り給へり/宇津保(国譲上)」
つばき-あぶら 4 【▼椿油】
ツバキの種子からとれる不乾性油。主に髪油に用い、また、食用油ともする。伊豆諸島・九州南部が主産地。つばきゆ。
"お茶け" O・CHA・KE 日本酒に京都のおいしいお茶を一晩漬け込みました!! $8.00 | |
"禅"Zen cocktail 抹茶のお酒 $5.00 | |
Oolong tea & Shochu Green tea & Shochu $5.5 |
全国茶商工業協同組合連合会(全茶連)と全国茶生産団体連合会(全生連)が運営する「日本茶鑑定士協会」の設立総会が28日、静岡市駿河区で開かれた。茶の品質を見極める指導者育成などが目的。全国各地の茶研究者ら役員7人が、茶審査技術競技の有段者らに鑑定技術を継承していく。
会長に武田善行前野菜茶業研究所茶業研究官が就き、事業として技術向上研修会や各地の茶品評会への審査員派遣、緑茶商品の品質調査に取り組むことなどを決めた。研修生は茶審査技術競技で実績がある茶商や茶生産者約30人を厳選し、審査実習などを通じて「プロ中のプロ」を育てる。
茶品評会の審査員の多くは茶試験研究機関の職員だが、組織の合理化などで「茶一筋」の人材不足が今後予想される。また、生産、加工の現場では機械化が進み、技術低下が懸念される。このため、茶業の基礎となる茶品質鑑定士の育成を進めることにした。 (松本利幸)
武田さん以外の役員は次の皆さん。
高橋宇正、山口優一、後藤昇一(以上静岡県)、工藤康将(京都府)、大城光高(鹿児島県)村松敬晃(東京都)
袋井・森 茶葉の芽伸びは順調。各茶農家は茶園整備に忙しい。
掛川・小笠 新茶シーズンに向け、生産者は施肥管理や防除作業に取り組んでいる。
島田・金谷 産地問屋は一茶に期待しながら、消費地と情報交換を進めている。
川根 産地問屋は新茶期の情報収集に追われている。
牧之原 産地問屋は消費地と情報交換を進めている。
藤枝 指導機関によると、苗木の植え付けの適期を迎えている。
Mr. Anderson was among the theater’s most visible, serious playwrights of the 1950s and ’60s.
...Canadians and Americans. Nicky Perry has sold chocolate bars from her home country for more than a decade at her store, Tea and Sympathy, in Greenwich Village. Her theory is that the bars from the United Kingdom are made from a better recipe, containing...
WASHINGTON
W. can't get no satisfaction on Iraq.
There's an angry mother of a dead soldier camping outside his Crawford ranch, demanding to see a president who prefers his sympathy to be carefully choreographed.
A new CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans now think that going to war was a mistake and that the war has made the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorism. So fighting them there means it's more likely we'll have to fight them here?
Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged yesterday that sophisticated bombs were streaming over the border from Iran to Iraq.
And the Rolling Stones have taken a rare break from sex odes to record an antiwar song called "Sweet Neo Con," chiding Condi Rice and Mr. Bush. "You call yourself a Christian; I call you a hypocrite," Mick Jagger sings.
The N.F.L. put out a press release on Monday announcing that it's teaming up with the Stones and ABC to promote "Monday Night Football." The flag-waving N.F.L. could still back out if there's pressure, but the mood seems to have shifted since Madonna chickened out of showing an antiwar music video in 2003. The White House used to be able to tamp down criticism by saying it hurt our troops, but more people are asking the White House to explain how it plans to stop our troops from getting hurt.
Cindy Sheehan, a 48-year-old Californian with a knack for P.R., says she will camp out in the dusty heat near the ranch until she gets to tell Mr. Bush face to face that he must pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq. Her son, Casey, a 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in a Sadr City ambush last year.
The president met with her family two months after Casey's death. Capturing W.'s awkwardness in traversing the line between somber and joking, and his love of generic labels, Ms. Sheehan said that W. had referred to her as "Mom" throughout the meeting, and given her the sense that he did not know who her son was.
The Bush team tried to discredit "Mom" by pointing reporters to an old article in which she sounded kinder to W. If only her husband were an undercover C.I.A. operative, the Bushies could out him. But even if they send out a squad of Swift Boat Moms for Truth, there will be a countering Falluja Moms for Truth.
It's amazing that the White House does not have the elementary shrewdness to have Mr. Bush simply walk down the driveway and hear the woman out, or invite her in for a cup of tea. But W., who has spent nearly 20 percent of his presidency at his ranch, is burrowed into his five-week vacation and two-hour daily workouts. He may be in great shape, but Iraq sure isn't.
It's hard to think of another president who lived in such meta-insulation. His rigidly controlled environment allows no chance encounters with anyone who disagrees. He never has to defend himself to anyone, and that is cognitively injurious. He's a populist who never meets people - an ordinary guy who clears brush, and brush is the only thing he talks to. Mr. Bush hails Texas as a place where he can return to his roots. But is he mixing it up there with anyone besides Vulcans, Pioneers and Rangers?
W.'s idea of consolation was to dispatch Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, to talk to Ms. Sheehan, underscoring the inhumane humanitarianism of his foreign policy. Mr. Hadley is just a suit, one of the hard-line Unsweet Neo Cons who helped hype America into this war.
It's getting harder for the president to hide from the human consequences of his actions and to control human sentiment about the war by pulling a curtain over the 1,835 troops killed in Iraq; the more than 13,000 wounded, many shorn of limbs; and the number of slain Iraqi civilians - perhaps 25,000, or perhaps double or triple that. More people with impeccable credentials are coming forward to serve as a countervailing moral authority to challenge Mr. Bush.
Paul Hackett, a Marine major who served in Iraq and criticized the president on his conduct of the war, narrowly lost last week when he ran for Congress as a Democrat in a Republican stronghold in Cincinnati. Newt Gingrich warned that the race should "serve as a wake-up call to Republicans" about 2006.
Selectively humane, Mr. Bush justified his Iraq war by stressing the 9/11 losses. He emphasized the humanity of the Iraqis who desire freedom when his W.M.D. rationale vaporized.
But his humanitarianism will remain inhumane as long as he fails to understand that the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute.
E-mail: liberties@nytimes.com
Thomas L. Friedman is on vacation.
数寄 茶の湯の周辺 角川選書 163
多田侑史
數寄: 日本茶道的世界
作者/ 多田侑史
編/譯者/ 羅成純
出版社/ 稻鄉出版社
出版日期/ 19930101
商品語言/ 中文/繁體
裝訂/ 平裝
留言主題:一期一会 |
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bookmobile noun [C] US FOR mobile library (from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary) 這篇紐約時報的報導要付費的,所以只能神遊: Dan Barry takes a ride on a bookmobile that has traveled nearly 165,000 miles around New Mexico. 2007/2/5 訂購{地方前進}一書: 「鐘先生你好: 麻煩你將書籍、報價單 、出貨單、發票ㄧ併寄給我,謝謝。還有要 麻煩你將劃撥帳號給我,我會以劃撥方式付款,謝謝。 本校住址:515彰化縣大村鄉山腳路112號(大葉大學圖書館) 統一編號:05988413 」 「: 書籍等已寄出(便利袋內,另有一贈書:H. A. Simon之{管理行為})。 「計算(機會與成本)」一下,決定將它當捐贈,送給貴圖書館。請笑納。 Hanching Chung」 :「鐘先生: 謝謝你,也謝謝你的慷慨捐贈,我代替圖書館感謝你! 」 いちご-いちえ ―ゑ 2-2 【】 (1)〔茶会に臨む際には、その機会は一生に一度のものと心得て、主客ともに互いに誠意を尽くせ、の意〕一生に一度だけ出る茶の湯の会。 (2)一生に一度だけの機会。 |
High Tea (also known as Meat Tea*) is an early evening meal, typically eaten between 5 and 6 o'clock in the evening. It would be eaten as a substitute for both afternoon tea and the evening meal. The term comes from the meal being eaten at the ‘high’ (main) table, instead of the smaller lounge table. It is now largely replaced by a later evening meal.
THE Himalayas rose almost out of nowhere. One minute the Maruti Suzuki hatchback 斜背式的汽車(後門往上開的汽車) was cruising the humid plains of West Bengal, palm trees and clouds obscuring the hills to come; the next it was navigating a decrepit road that squiggled up through forests of cypress and bamboo. The taxi wheezed with the strain of the slopes, and the driver honked to alert unseen vehicles to our presence — one miscalculation, one near miss, could send the little car over the edge and down thousands of feet, returning us to the plains below in a matter of seconds.
For an hour or more, as we climbed ever higher, all I saw was jungle — trees and creepers on either side of us, with hardly a village to break the anxious monotony. Finally, though, somewhere around 4,000 feet, the foliage opened just enough to allow a more expansive view. From the edge of the road, the hills flowed up and down and back up, covered with low, flat-topped bushes that looked like green scales on a sleeping dragon's flanks. Tiny dots marched among the bushes and along the beige dirt tracks that zigzagged up the hillsides — workers plucking leaves from Camellia sinensis, the tea bushes of Darjeeling.
Flying to a remote corner of India and braving the long drive into the Himalayas may seem like an awful lot of effort for a good cup of tea, but Darjeeling tea isn't simply good. It's about the best in the world, fetching record prices at auctions in Calcutta and Shanghai, and kick-starting the salivary glands of tea lovers from London to Manhattan.
In fact, Darjeeling is so synonymous with high-quality black tea that few non-connoisseurs realize it's not one beverage but many: 87 tea estates operate in the Darjeeling district, a region that sprawls across several towns (including its namesake) in a mountainous corner of India that sticks up between Nepal and Bhutan, with Tibet not far to the north.
Each has its own approach to growing tea, and in a nod to increasingly savvy and adventurous consumers, a few have converted bungalows into tourist lodging, while others are accepting day visitors keen to learn the production process, compare styles and improve their palates — a teetotaler's version of a Napa Valley wine tour, but with no crowds.
Still, such a trip requires a certain amount of fortitude, as I discovered when I set out to blaze a trail from estate to estate last March, during the “first flush” harvest, said to produce the most delicate, flavorful leaves. (The second flush, in May and June, is really just as good.) It wasn't just the roads — once marvels of engineering, now tracks of terror that produce daily news reports of fatal plunges — that made the journey a challenge. It was the egos.
The men who run the estates are royalty — and they know it. When visiting their domains, you are at their disposal, not the other way around. At times, this can be frustrating; at others, delightfully frustrating.
I HAD my first such encounter — the latter sort — at Makaibari, an estate just south of the town of Kurseong, around 4,500 feet above sea level. Founded by G. C. Banerjee in the 1840s, during the region's first great wave of tea cultivation, Makaibari remains a family operation, run by Banerjee's great-grandson Swaraj — better known as Rajah.
Rajah is a Darjeeling legend: He's arguably done more for Darjeeling tea than anyone else in the district. Back in 1988, he took the estate organic; four years later, it was fully biodynamic, the first in the world.
Today, it produces the most expensive brew in Darjeeling, a “muscatel” that sold for 50,000 rupees a kilogram (about $555 a pound, at recent exchange rates of around 41 rupees to the dollar) at auction in Beijing last year. You won't often spot his logo — a five-petaled flower that resembles the underside of a tea blossom — on grocery store shelves, but you'll find his leaves in boxes marked Tazo and Whole Foods.
After checking into one of the six no-frills bungalows he has erected for tourists, I marched into the Makaibari factory (opened in 1859), climbed the wooden steps to Mr. Banerjee's office and sat down across the desk from a vigorous patrician with thick gray hair, a clean-shaven angular jaw and black eyebrows in permanent ironic arch. What, he asked, smoking a borrowed cigarette, did I hope to accomplish at Makaibari?
“Well,” I began, as the smell of brewing leaves wafted in from the adjacent tasting room, “I guess I'd like to see how tea is made.”
“Ha! You've come to the wrong place for that,” Mr. Banerjee declared with an eager grin. “This is the place to see how tea is enjoyed!”
Then he poured me a cup — bright but mellow, with a faint fruity sweetness that lingered on my tongue. It was to be the first of many perfect cups.
Enjoying tea at Makaibari was an involved business, one that began before I'd even woken up. At 7:30 every morning, a knock would come at the door of my bungalow, and Mr. Lama, the grandfatherly caretaker, would present me with a cup of fresh, hot “bed tea,” which I'd sip groggily before leaving my woolen blankets for the chilly mountain air.
At breakfast in the glassed-in common room, more tea, after which I'd march down to the factory. On one side of the road were the dragon's green flanks. On the other, the red, white, yellow and blue prayer flags of a tin-roofed Buddhist monastery fluttered in the Himalayan breeze. Uniformed children on their way to school would shout “Hello!” while their parents, many of them Makaibari employees, would put their palms together and quietly say, “Namaste.”
In Makaibari's wood-paneled offices, I'd have a cup while waiting for Mr. Banerjee to arrive — it was with him, not some hospitality manager, that I would plan my days. Sometimes he'd show up early, other days late, but the office was filled with memorabilia with which to pass the time: portraits of Mr. Banerjee's father, grandfather and great-grandfather; certificates announcing new record prices; a chart of tea-tasting vocabulary; and a small tea plant that concealed two “tea devas,” curious insects whose bodies mimic the shape and color of a tea leaf.
After making his entrance — sometimes on his black gelding, Storm, but always wearing a high-waisted safari suit he designed himself — Mr. Banerjee would expound on everything from Rudolf Steiner's biodynamic farming theories to the fall of Atlantis to his youth on Carnaby Street in London, where he made a fortune before retreating to Darjeeling to grow tea.
Eventually, we'd move into the tasting room, where Mr. Banerjee would inspect the day's production. No tea bags here — this was “SFTGFOP,” the labels noted: super-fine tippy golden flowery orange pekoe, the healthy, unbroken leaves from the very top of the bush. Earlier, an assistant had weighed out precisely two grams from several batches, steeped them in nearly boiling water for five minutes, and strained the tea into white ceramic bowls.
As with wine, tasting tea is no simple process of gulping and grading. Mr. Banerjee first inspected the infused leaves for color and nose, and only then sipped from each bowl, inhaling sharply to oxidate the liquid and release its flavors, and sloshing it loudly around his mouth before spitting it into a nearby tub. Then, with hardly a moment's hesitation, he'd move on to the next bowl, and the next, and the next.
Then it was my turn.
“Taste those two,” Mr. Banerjee ordered the first day, “and tell me which you prefer.”
I did as he said. Both had the gentle floral aroma typical of first-flush Darjeelings, but the second had a pronounced strength and astringency that appealed to me, even though I knew that Darjeeling growers try for subtlety over punch. I told him my decision.
“Bah!” he said after resampling them. “That one only has undertones of peach. The first one has peach flavors and is much more complex. It's far superior!”
I blushed — I had much to learn. And for the next few days, I studied hard.
First, I followed the tea pickers — mostly ethnic Nepali women — into the fields, where they spent all morning and all afternoon moving across the steep slopes like mountain goats, with bamboo baskets on their backs. “Dui path, ek suiro” was what they plucked — “two leaves, a bud” — slowly transforming each bush from bright yellowish green to the deep sheen of the older leaves.
In the factory, massive steel machines were turning the harvest into drinkable tea by the “orthodox” method. After 16 to 20 hours in withering troughs that remove much of their moisture, the fresh leaves go into rollers that curl them into precise formations once achieved only by hand. Then comes the fermentation, during which the tea develops its flavor, becoming a half-fermented oolong or a fully fermented black tea. Next the tea is fired — baked — to stop the fermentation, and the leaves are sorted, graded, packed and sent to the tasting room for Mr. Banerjee's approval.
One day, he asked his manager, Deb Majumder, to bring me into “the inner sanctum,” the room where he prepares his special biodynamic fertilizer ingredients: oak bark, valerian flower, chamomile, dandelion. Another, quartz crystal, is ground up and mixed with large quantities of water in direct sunlight, supposedly absorbing cosmic energy and transferring it to the crops.
“At first,” Mr. Majumder said, “I didn't think it would work. I thought things would go down. But after a few years, things began to improve.”
The harvest increased, but he said he noticed other benefits: two troublemakers assigned to mix the quartz solution calmed down and became friendly, a result perhaps of the cosmic energy.
After a few days of studying tea, exploring Makaibari's hundreds of acres of wilderness and devouring home-style vegetarian meals, it was time to move on. For one thing, other teas were awaiting my taste buds, but I was also growing uncomfortable in my bare-bones bungalow, with its low-wattage lamps and frequent water problems. (Mr. Banerjee is in negotiations with hotel companies to turn the bungalows into an upscale eco-resort.)
A COUPLE of days later, however, I found myself no more relaxed. Instead, I was on a spine-shaking early-morning jeep ride down the worst roads I'd yet experienced. In 90 minutes, we'd traveled only 20 miles from Darjeeling town, the gritty, urban heart of the district, and I could hardly imagine a pleasant ending to the journey.
Then we reached an oasis, Glenburn. This century-old planter's house, meticulously restored, stood on the edge of a plateau, its porch, strewn with sofas and chairs, looking out to the terraced slopes of the valley. The suites were vast, kitted out in teak club chairs and four-poster beds that evoked the Raj.
Breakfast had just begun, a fabulous spread of fresh-baked croissants with pomelo marmalade, a spicy Parsi scrambled egg dish, bacon, sausage, papaya, custard apple, orange juice. ... I sat down among the other guests, a mix of 10 Indians, Britons and Americans, and gorged in bliss.
The man responsible for Glenburn's tea was Sanjay Sharma, 33, whose self-satisfied smile suggested he was well on his way to developing a Rajah-size ego. And perhaps with good reason — at 28, he was appointed estate manager, the youngest ever in Darjeeling, he said. He has tried to push the production in new directions, and he asserted that Glenburn now ranked No. 17 in the district.
In my limited experience, it could have been No. 2 after Makaibari. Mr. Sharma's first-flush teas had that wonderful flowery scent and a long, lingering aftertaste, with just a hint of bite.
Alas, Glenburn was booked, so I endured the jackhammer trip back to Darjeeling, consoled by a single thought: soon, I'd be checking into Goomtee, a resort recommended by Nathmull's, the best tea shop in Darjeeling.
In terms of luxury, Goomtee stood somewhere between Makaibari and Glenburn. The comfy planter's house recalled 1950 rather than 1850, with huge rooms and a garden of azaleas in purplish bloom, and since the owners of the cypress-dotted estate were strict vegetarians, so were the guests — myself and four Japanese women from a tea-appreciation society. After checking in and getting a traditional welcome dollop of green-tinted rice pressed to my forehead, I followed them and their translator to the fields.
And I began to fade. Maybe it was that I'd seen too many tea bushes, maybe that I couldn't understand Japanese, maybe that later I once again found myself waiting in the office of another estate manager, wondering if I'd ever get a taste of his leaves.
I was about to drop off entirely when an assistant brought in a full tea service and poured us each a cup. I sipped. This is what they mean by “brisk,” a bright flavor that fills your mouth and wakes you right up.
“Oishii!” the women cooed. “So tasty!”
I soon learned more about briskness, when I set off one morning for Muscatel Valley, Goomtee's far-flung organic fields. It was a more serious hike than I'd expected, about four and a half miles up narrow, rocky paths that eventually led to an awe-inspiring landscape.
If Makaibari had been wild and Glenburn a fantasyland, then Muscatel Valley was positively prehistoric, with massive stone outcroppings amid lonely fields of tea bushes stretching into the Jurassic distance. Sunlit mist shrouded the far mountains, and all traces of civilization vanished. There was nothing but me and the tea.
When I returned to my room, I flopped down in exhaustion. It wasn't the hike, though: I was tea'd out.
How, I wondered, could these professionals differentiate among the infinitely subtle gradations of flavor and scent? What stuck in my mind was the tea-ness of tea, floral aroma, hints of fruit and wood on the palate, and a fragile astringency that buzzed in my mouth long after the liquid had gone down. But which cup had that been, the Makaibari or the Glenburn? Or had I just imagined it?
A day later, on a slow Internet connection, I received an instant message from a friend in New York: Could I bring her some first flush?
“It's for a dear friend from Darjeeling,” she wrote. “He's dying, and he hasn't lived in India for more than 60 years, but he still dreams about the tea.”
I had a mission. On my way home, I bought a wooden box of Makaibari's first flush and delivered it to my friend soon after my return. A few weeks later, she forwarded me her 97-year-old friend's thank-you e-mail note.
“It was so precious,” he wrote, “that I shared part of it with the Namgyal Monastery” in Ithaca, N.Y. The “beautiful little casket” of tea now sits at the feet of the monastery's Buddha, he added, and “in the major pujas to come, it is your gift that will be brewed.”
Prayer ceremonies in the Finger Lakes, I thought: a fitting end for this tiny box of fragrant leaves. Namaste to that.
VISITOR INFORMATION
HOW TO GET THERE
Continental Airlines has daily direct flights from Newark to New Delhi; round trips start about $1,250 in early November. From New Delhi, Jet Airways (www.jetairways.com), Indian Airlines (www.indianairlines.in) and Air Deccan (www.flyairdeccan.net) fly to Bagdogra Airport near Siliguri, about 50 miles from Darjeeling.
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway or Toy Train — a quaint, steam-powered narrow-gauge railway — will get you to Darjeeling town in seven hours from Siliguri; first-class tickets are 247 rupees; second-class, 38 rupees (about $6 and $1, at 41 rupees to the dollar).
A taxi ride will take three hours and cost 700 to 1,000 rupees. Hotels or tea estates can arrange for one.
VISITING THE TEA ESTATES
Makaibari (91-354-233-0181; www.makaibari.org) charges 750 rupees a person a night or 1,400 rupees for two, all meals included. Reservations can be made through its Calcutta office (91-33-2287-8560). Homestays with Makaibari workers can also be arranged.
Those seeking more comfortable lodging can book Cochran Place (132 Pankhabari Road, Kurseong; 91-354-233-0703; www.imperialchai.com), a colonial-style lodge about 15 minutes' walk from Makaibari. Doubles range from 2,200 to 3,700 rupees with breakfast, but 50 percent less during monsoon season, mid-August to mid-September. Cochran Place will also arrange tours of Ambootia, another organic estate.
Glenburn (91-33-2288-5630; www.glenburnteaestate.com) charges non-Indians $400 a night for two, all meals included; day trips from $50 a person, including transportation. Glenburn will arrange helicopter arrivals for those unwilling to brave the bumpy journey.
Reservations for Goomtee (www.darjeelingteas.com) are handled by Girish Sarda at Nathmull's Tea Room in Darjeeling (91-354-233-5066). Doubles are 5,600 rupees a night, all meals included.
The best place to stay in Darjeeling town is the Elgin (91-354-225-4082; www.elginhotels.com). Doubles with all meals are 6,445 rupees. It offers quite a nice high tea every afternoon (250 rupees).
BUYING TEA
Every estate sells its own tea at a good price, but for the full spectrum, head to Nathmull's Tea Room (Laden La Road, Darjeeling; 91-354-225-6437; www.nathmulltea.com). It sells the best of the district, except Makaibari.
MATT GROSS writes the Frugal Traveler column for the Travel section.
法兰克福书展会场笼罩在金秋和煦阳光的沐浴之中。那里,人潮如涌,音乐声、作品朗诵和演讲声不绝于耳。参展商们似乎个个劲头十足。国际出版业的发展态势由此可见一斑。
这是德国传媒巨头-贝塔斯曼图书集团公司与中方辽宁合作伙伴举行介绍中国历史、文化和文明新书的首发式。近旁便是阵容强大的中国业界展台。中国音乐在大厅上空飘荡。
茶、曲阜孔庙、丽江古城、殷墟等装桢精美的图书 摆放在书架上,营造出一派地道的中国文化氛围。但这仅仅反映了中国亮相世界图书种类的很小一部分。随着中国的经济发展,国际地位的提高,中国图书出版业也 出现了新的亮点,那便是,外国人对中国当代文化、教育和科技,尤其是语言类图书需求量的增加。处于体制转轨时期的中国出版业也同时加强了国际间的合作。
借此书展之机,中国最大的出版集团-中国出版集 团公司副总裁李朋义向国际出版商提出了5项建议:“了解中国政策,比如台弯,宗教等,选准合作伙伴,要找到有实力,专业对口的大型出版公司,不能期望中方 定价过高,另外还要考虑到中国13亿人口中有10是农民的现实,所以不能要求中方有很大的印刷量,最后一点便是要有耐心。”
在中国573家出版社中,销售规模雄踞第三位, 年均增长率为30%的外语教学与研究出版社也看准了这一市场空缺,带来了大批教外国人学中文的各类文化图书。社长于春迟已将目光投向了2009年中国作为 主宾国的法兰克福国际书展,“届时的整体亮相对提高中国出版社的声誉和影响力有很大的帮助。尤其是国际出版界对中国出版业缺乏了解,带有很大的片面性和狭 隘性,借书展机会,增加外国业界对中国的了解,会为今后的合作减少很多麻烦。”
在教科书、工具书占中国大陆图书出版业较大比重 的同时,台湾同行已率先走上了精品创新之路。区区2千3百万居民的台湾岛的确是一方出版乐园。6、7千家出版社为优质产品的出版发行创造了特天独厚的条 件。国外华人学者和作家也纷纷利用这一优势,发表自己在别处难以发表的作品。另外,台湾出版业也同时开始关注发展有本土文化特色的图书,比如介绍品种繁 多,台湾特有的洋兰的精装制作,介绍法国158家顶级酒庄的“法国波尔多”等本本堪称世界精品:图文并茂,带给读者美好的精神和视觉享受。
台湾当代著名作家李昂因其“看得见的鬼”一书于 今年5月在德国市场发行也来到了展会现场。伴着一杯红酒,李昂侃侃而谈:“书中5个复仇女鬼后来都找到了自己的快乐,它们隐喻的是现实社会中诸多的女性问 题,比如家庭暴力。华人世界的女性受到儒家文化对女人三从四德的约束,限制女人几千年,而我这一代女人刚好处在从保守走向进步,从传统到现代过程,所以给 了我一个很好的发声的机会。”
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afternoon tea noun [C or U] MAINLY UK
a small meal eaten in the late afternoon, usually including cake and a cup of tea
"午后校長現身門外,請我到住家附近那家迷你豪華咖啡店喝下午茶(為什麼沒人說下午咖啡?)。......"--rl
2007/10/13 補充:10月起開始有blog the world of tea
這blog的緣起是我這兩月內經常去苗栗看牙科和高中老友
第一次老友多邀兩家來吃飯 其中有一家經營 Mr. Tea
可能是很大的oem供應商 我查 Oxford 竟然沒有 類似 Oxford Companion to Wine 所以開始筆記 二周之後 我發現資料太多 甘脆來個blog 看看
剛剛讀到Wikipedia的 :
現在我們起碼知道德國人是這樣說的
In Germany the traditional intake of sustenance in the afternoon is called Kaffee (coffee), Nachmittagskaffee (Afternoon Coffee) or Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake). Only sweet foodstuffs are served, with cream-based cakes taking priority (such as Black Forest gateau),The front cover of the US first hardcover edition of The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. | |
Author | Douglas Adams |
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Country | United Kingdom |