Your Cup of Tea?

After visiting Silk Road and Special Teas in downtown Victoria yesterday and doing a bit of research on the history of tea, I began to realize that my tiny teacup has been silently harboring an ocean of tradition and knowledge. I’ve always thought tea was a great example of a “slow food” – a quality food that works to preserve cultural and biological diversity, while emphasizing pleasure and responsible eating – but until yesterday, I had no idea just how accurate that description was.

The story goes that tea was first discovered over 5000 years ago when the Chinese emperor, Shen Nung, was drinking boiled water and several tea leaves from a nearby bush blew into his pot. The emperor enjoyed the new concoction and thus tea drinking was born. Tea was originally popularized in Buddhist temples, where it was used to maintain the balance between alertness and calm during meditation. Since that time, tea has followed human footsteps to nearly every continent and has permeated virtually every society. The rich diversity of teas that exist today is the product of unique combinations of time and place – in one sip of chai is an entire Indian subcontinent, heaps of bright coloured spices, and a sweltering heat, while in a sip of Earl Grey is a calm, drizzling day in 20^th century England.

Traditional Tea Ceremony in the Japanese Garden (2009 Festival, Photo by Greg Aspa)

Both Silk Road and Special Teas strive to honour the unique characters of each tea. They recognize the beauty in diversity, and in doing so, work to preserve agricultural biodiversity and a myriad of rich traditions. Maybe Wade Davis said it best: “If diversity is a source of wonder, it’s opposite … is a fire burning over the earth.”

And if you want to experience the diversity of tea, Special Teas, a family run teashop and store, is the place to be. The second you walk into the store, you are met with a wall of teas from floor to ceiling and cozy decorations that make you believe that you’ve just walked into your grandmothers living room. The helpful counter staff tell me that at the moment they have 420 teas available, although this number varies with season and tea availability. Silk Road, just around the corner from China town, is a fusion of a cultural gallery, tea store, and spa, steeping in the scents of the most recent brew of tea. Tea cakes, a compacted disc of tea, and a variety of teapots line the walls with descriptions of their origins and historical uses. The entire store echoes the history and culture of Asian teas.

I’ll be spending the next few nights curled up to Empress Treasure, a green tea from Special Teas, imagining a history, a culture, and a nature different from our own – and that’s exactly what makes it, and our own, beautiful.

Both Silk Road and Special Teas will be at the 2010 Organic Islands Festival (although, I’ll be back in their stores before then!).

Tags: Food, Slow Food, sustainability