It's close to 1 a.m. in New York, and I felt my fatigue leave me just by reading your beautiful description of what became an extraordinary cup of tea, just because of the ingredients, the description. Thank you Kavita

i agree,sometimes a cup of tea has this amazing potential to make us peaceful and become aware of the smaller things in life which we take it for granted..

Dear Kavita

What a Zen post! Recently while discussing the essence of 'being in the moment' with someone I used the very same analogy of tea and with astonishingly similar layers of the inimitable 'cup of tea'. It was a joyous 'deja vu' to read this today. Osho has a wonderful book of Zen sayings called 'A cup of Tea' which all qualify the art of being in the moment.

Thanks for checking us all in on the simplicity and beauty of the present and its simple, fragrant acts.

Love
Jasjit

Kavita,
there is joy in being present to the moment, and yes, everything falls away - war, greed, right/left, thin or fat (had to put that in :)
Just peace and awareness of how good tea can taste.
I'll have another sip!

Hi guys,

I've been devouring everyone's posts over the last few days and I feel like you are all already like old friends. I thank you for this. I would love to post something myself, but have only figured out how to 'comment' but not to post something new. Can anyone help?

With love,

Meeta

Wonderful ... A poem on the healing power of a cup of tea and the healing power of a poem on a cup of tea.

Chryssoula

Hello Kavita and Everyone,

Sometimes it is all too much and I change my focus to simply "being", a spriit in a body, enjoying the experience of feeling, seeing, touching, smelling, hearing, and knowing what a miracle I am.

Hello Kavita and Everyone,

Thank you for the reminder.

very comforting words - thanks for the dedication.

Tanuja

I'm drinking mine right now with a deeper appreciation! You always bring warmth and beauty as refreshing as this cup with your posts Kavita.
Thanks

I am reaching for my cup of tea...flowing with the aromatic essence of peace...

thank you...

I needed that!

{{~_~}}

Dear Kavita and Everyone,

Sometimes there is too much information to handle and then it is time to turn our focus inward...and just be. Allowing ourself to experience the simple joy of Being. Peace

Hello Everyone,

I was testing the posting..I didn't think I was able to post because it was not showing up...until later...that is why I keep posting...I think it is working for me..now....peace..

Woman!
Ur an angel.

Beautiful, Kavita....a wonderful way to start out the day as well....a warm cup cradled in my hands on a chilly fall morning, pressing it against my chest, I close my eyes, breathing in the vapor, the penetrating warmth, feeling blessed, being peace. Thank you.

I drink with ya all..;), the tea I mean,
but I´ll be having a bottle of wodka with me,
for the celebration,
and there is always a reason to(o)?

Love, peace, passion and a smile,

THE RITUAL OF MAKING A CUP OF TEA, by George Orwell

When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:

First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase 'a nice cup of tea' invariably means Indian tea.

Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.

Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.

Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.

Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.

Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.

Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.

Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one's tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.

Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.

Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.

Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

Thanks for this Orwellian gem! My habits are almost like he describes and I would have maxed this out, except, eleventhly, I absolutely must have sugar in my tea. As for the milk-first school - what's up with them?

Kavita, I was actually in the act of bringing my own cup of steaming jasmine green tea to my lips when I read this :-) How wonderful.

I wrote an article a few years ago about green tea and it brought back so many amazing memories of my British grandparents who believed that there was nothing that couldn't be made by better by having a cup of tea. If you were sad a cup of tea brought you up... if you were anxious a cup of tea brought you into balance... if you were happy well, you just celebrated by having another cup!

Tea has a gazillion health benefits because of its high antioxidant count but like other rituals it is already a benefit to be brought so thoroughly and enjoyably into the moment.

And thank you Chryssoula for Orwell's very wise instructions which I follow accept for when I have green tea - then it must be Japanese ;-) I'm also a tea first-er in my black teas and while I don't add sugar on a daily basis I will add some if I'm feeling sick or particularly down because it reminds me of my grandmother's love.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts!

Love, Sheba

thanks every one..I can feel the fragrance all across cyber space..but then we bond very often over a cup of tea dont we?!

Thanks Kavita! I started to read your Post thinking... amidst all these chaos at work everyday, what is so special about this cup of tea ......but it did create a warm peaceful feeling in me when I was done reading it.

Hey that's really interesting. I was doing a similar mental dialogue with biting into an apple...except my gums started bleeding once because the peel was so hard. Oh the mind I tell ya! Sheesh.

I was going to have my usual black coffee, after a long day, standing behind the counter at my bank, but reading this made me crave tea so badly..so here I'm sipping a cup of aromatic tea made Orwellian style, by mom. She won't ever put milk first and still uses a tea cosie!
A rich, fragrant, aromatic cup of tea beats my run of the mill black coffee any day.
Thank you for this Kavita, as always. It has rejuvenated me like your post always does.

Hey Kavita,nothing like a hot cup of tea...ramadhan...had started...so after my roza..i'm drinking tea now...
thanks for a lovely post

Hi Kavita,good topic.Creative writing is not my cup of tea.But still I like to dabble.I like my cup of tea the Indian way.I agree with GEORGE ORWELL and Chryssoula except I like sugar or splenda ,and I feel crushed cardmum,and cloves ,grated ginger(HA ADARAK),give the tea a very distinct flavor.If any one wishes to make Indian tea with above ingredients add them to the pot before adding the tea leaves and follow the directions in Chryssoula's recipe.

awareness makes the most ordinary of events "extraordinary".....i feel the same way very often about bathing, about a glass of water...nothing is mundane when everything acquires a sacred hue....

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