Philadelphia

Philadelphia — No Comments
14
Aug 10

Backyard Chanoyu

The Philly Tea Club (and guests!) assem­bled in the back yard for an intro­duc­tion to Chanoyu.

Being far from a proper tea room, Pamela L — a third year stu­dent of the Urasenke school — per­formed one of the more casual forms, o-bon temae.

This cer­e­mony is per­formed with the uten­sils arranged on a round tray, and draws hot water from a tet­subin rather than ladled from the kama.

She selected a fan­tas­tic sweet to pair with the tea — can­died Yuzu, a slightly sour cit­rus fruit. This was much more to my lik­ing than many other Chanoyu treats I have tasted.

The tea used was quite deli­cious, being a fine Koicha grade. It is pre­pared here Usucha (thin) style, for which it is cer­tainly suited. Lower grades of matcha are some­times not smooth and mel­low enough for some drinkers to enjoy when pre­pared in the thick style, but the refined and mel­low taste of Koicha grade tea can be equally enjoyed as thin tea.

More on Usucha and Koicha at Wikipedia.

A bowl of tea was served to each guest in turn, and they learned both to thank the host for the tea, and to excuse them­selves to the next guest for drink­ing before them.

After all the guests were served, the host­ess served her­self a bowl.

All that was left was for the equip­ment to be cleaned again, and car­ried out of the tea space in sequence.

Being a tea gath­er­ing in my home, it was quite impos­si­ble to resist prepar­ing a few pots of aged puerh. This favorite — 1985 8582 — was the per­fect intro­duc­tion to our guests, drink­ing well aged puerh for the first time.

The menu — also includ­ing Golden Bud­dha, a new cul­ti­var rock tea, and 2008 1000 year tree puerh — ended with the last of my Shin­cha for the year. We are both sad to see it go, and very excited to move on to the vari­ety of sen­cha selected this year by the ladies of The Tea Gallery.

Pho­tos by Bran­don and Pamela D — More in my Flickr set.

Music / Philadelphia — 1 Comment
6
Aug 10

Classical Revolution at Random Tea Room

This Thurs­day at the Ran­dom Tea Room Philadel­phia, the crowd was hang­ing from the rafters for the cham­ber music flash mob “Clas­si­cal Rev­o­lu­tion,” and, of course, tea.

In their own words: “The mis­sion of Clas­si­cal Rev­o­lu­tion is to present con­certs involv­ing both tra­di­tional and mod­ern approaches while engag­ing the com­mu­nity by offer­ing cham­ber music per­for­mances in highly acces­si­ble venues, such as bars and cafes, and col­lab­o­rat­ing with local musi­cians and artists from var­i­ous styles and backgrounds”

As the 8 o’clock start time drew nearer, the Tea Room began to fill up with musi­cians car­ry­ing instru­ments of all sorts, as well as spec­ta­tors. The Philadel­phia group was rounded out by many tal­ented grad­u­ates of Temple’s music pro­gram — some past col­lab­o­ra­tors, and some meet­ing for the first time.

Music by Mozart and Bar­tok blended with clas­si­cal gui­tar and solo flute.

Nat­u­rally, tea was enjoyed through­out the evening. To the hard­core fans at the bar, Becky served 2003 raw puerh from Jing Mai, and I served a favorite Rock Tea. Pro­pri­et­ess Becky was also quite busy serv­ing iced tea bev­er­ages like Moroc­can Mint, as well as her new Vir­gin Tea Cock­tails to those look­ing to cool off.

At the start of the evening, most of us had no idea what to expect. By the end, music, friends, and tea left every­one feel­ing quite euphoric and look­ing for­ward to the next event at Ran­dom Tea Room.

A few addi­tional pho­tos from the set will appear here.

Philadelphia — 3 Comments
5
Jul 10

Yixing Travel Pouches

Our friend Evan has been pro­to­typ­ing travel pouches for Yix­ing, made from fine silk (with some addi­tional padding.)

The qual­ity and con­struc­tion have advanced rapidly, and he is ready to show off.

Check them out and drop him a line — I col­lab­o­rated to fit some com­mon sizes, but they can be cus­tom made to your own spec­i­fi­ca­tions. Larger sizes are also good for your favorite chawan.

Music / Philadelphia — 2 Comments
4
Jun 10

Mono returns to Philadelphia

This past Tues­day my favorite band reap­peared on the north­bound leg of their US tour. Gui­tars were beaten, thrown, and my ears rang for two days.

After Yearn­ing, some­one in the crowd shouted “Fuck every other band!” I agree.

I won­der if Mono loves Shincha…