Steeped in the Moment

Point of View thought to what tea might be like in its natural state? I had only experienced it when it was ready to use, completely dry and curled. STEEPED IN THE MOMENT, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 64 While Josephie talked, we sipped tiny Australia and Texas (which made for cups of several teas with particular his- a fabulous accent). She was teaching a torical significance. “You have to use all wildly ambitious two-hour course on the of your senses when drinking tea,” she history, preparation, and culture of tea. said. “The sixth sense is your soul. You I was eager to meet Josephie because I’d might find that, when you really smell the heard that she was beginning to grow tea tea, it will bring back memories.” She was in Idaho, the first attempt in the state. right, of course. When I stopped and paid She’d planted seedlings from Russia and attention, I could suddenly be in a small Nepal, and they’d already survived nearly tea shop in Seattle, sipping too-hot lav- two winters since her arrival in 2015. ender black tea too quickly, or sitting on In 2009 Josephie began to grow a test the floor in my college boyfriend’s apart- plot of tea plants in East Texas, becom- ment, trying strong, fermented Pu’er for ing the first female tea farmer in the the first time. United States and the first tea farmer Several weeks later, I met Josephie in all of Texas, ignoring those who told for tea at Gaiwan. Once settled at our her it wasn’t possible to grow tea there, table, she removed two sets of carefully since no one ever had. “There always has wrapped Chinese teacups and taller, to be a first,” Josephie told the crowd. cylindrical scent cups from her purse, “Just because no one had done it, didn’t and placed them on small wooden trays. mean it couldn’t be done.” A few minutes Next, she pulled out a gaiwan, a Chinese later she added an additional word of tea infusion bowl invented during the advice. “Don’t tell a woman she can’t do Ming dynasty. something.” She filled thegaiwan with tea leaves In her early days, there were only and waited just a moment for the tea to a handful of American tea farms, but steep before pouring some into my scent cup. She demonstrated the proper technique, placing the cup on top of the scent cup tightly, Steeped in the Moment Each batch changes, releasing flipping it, and slowly re- I thought I knew tea. Then I met Josephie. / BY CARA STRICKLAND leasing the scent cup. The moisture and transforming, teacups cooled slightly, start every morning with a cup of British for her the way she liked it, with just a splash of ready to take on moisture and we buried our noses black tea, a remnant of several months my milk. I would place it at her bedside, and only in the empty scent cups. I family lived in the United Kingdom when I then would she begin to stir. in exchange for flavor again. “What does it smell like to was young. At 16, my first job was in a tearoom, discerning you?” Josephie asked. My mother acquired a tea habit, and by the the palates of guests in hats and floral dresses, “Honestly, it’s a little time I was 8, I knew how to make a proper pot. helping them choose from our selection of more like barley,” I said. I started the electric kettle, and when it boiled, than 50 teas and tisanes. I moved so quickly that more have begun to pop up around the “There are no right answers,” she said. I poured a small amount of hot water into the I would barely touch the ground as I made tiny country. She harvests Camellia sinensis “It’s all about how it smells to you, what it teapot and swirled it slowly before emptying it pots for a group of five people, trying to keep all leaves, using them to make a variety of makes you think about.” into the sink—hotting the pot, it’s called. Next, the flavors straight in my head. After they were teas, including black, green, white, and As the tea dried in the scent cup, the I would add in the tea bags: PG Tips from the gone, I did the dishes while sipping dregs from a oolong; they retail between $600 and smell changed, almost jarringly. My bar- U.K., as ubiquitous there as Lipton but with a chipped teacup. $800 a pound. ley scent became a strong honey aroma. distinctly British flavor. The formula, my mother It was no surprise, then, that I would make Early in the presentation, Josephie Only after we’d thoroughly noticed said, was one for each person and one for the my way to Gaiwan Tea House in Coeur d’Alene, showed pictures of her Texas tea and its the scent could we begin to sip the tea. pot, so I always added four, for her, my brother, Idaho, along with 30 others, to meet Josephie bright green leaves, about 10 times larger and me. Then, I allowed the tea to steep until Dean Jackson, a newcomer to Idaho by way of than what I shook into my little pot every five minutes had passed and I could pour a cup CONTINUED ON PAGE 65 day. How could it be that I’d given so little 64 SouthweSt december 2017 ILLUSTRATION BY EMMA KELLY december 2017 SouthweSt 65 Josephie told me that in Chinese The next day, Josephie flew to culture, it’s polite to hide your Texas to check on her tea. When teeth as you drink, and that you she returned, a week later, she sent should finish the cup in three sips. me a text: “Have a little tea leaf She poured out the excess tea plucked from TX and shall be guid- from the gaiwan into a stoneware ing the core members of tea class pitcher from her purse and refilled how to make tea tomorrow. Let me it with water for a second steeping. know if you would like to come.” “It’s even better the second time I texted back immediately, ask- around,” she said. ing for the address. As we sipped, we talked about resilience. “The tea leaf has been NOTHING PREPARES ME for abused,” she said. “Its water has the glossy green leaves that Jose- been taken from it. When it comes phie pours out of Ziploc bags onto back to life, it’s called the dance the kitchen counter. Our small of agony.” She paused to take a group of tea enthusiasts is made sip. “But when you taste it, it’s all up of the faithful members of Jo- worth it.” sephie’s weekly classes at Gaiwan, Beauty out of hardship and and none of us can wait to touch suffering is a metaphor close to tea leaves in their natural state. Josephie’s heart. As a divorcee, We begin to sort them into piles immigrant, and single mother, by size; Josephie regales us with Josephie made a living in the stories of traveling through airport male-dominated oil and gas field. security with eight plastic bags of When her daughter rose above damp tea leaves. bullying, she reminded Josephie A day of tea-making can last of her own potential. Later, newly 14-16 hours. There are so many married and blending a family, she leaves to sort; I despair that we will decided it was time to grow into ever make the tea at all. “When you that potential. She planted her first drink tea from here on in, you’ll tea crop. think about the people who did Even when everything is going this,” Josephie says. well, it takes four to seven years But after a while, a meditative before you see a harvest from a tea calm descends over the room. The plant. Josephie’s first plants suf- members of the tea class are no fered through drought and insect longer second-guessing their sort- ravages. Still, they carry on. ing technique. We have entered She removed a small bag of into the experience fully. traditional Chinese black tea—she Somehow, that pile does get called it Texas Cha Cha—from her sorted, and then it’s time to decide purse. As she steeped it, she re- what kind of tea each pile will minded me that this was the tea make. The smallest leaves with the James Norwood Pratt, a noted tea most buds will be white tea, Jose- authority, once called the best phie says. Two others will make U.S.-grown tea he’d ever consumed. two different kinds of green tea; We had been drinking good tea there will be an oolong and a black. at Gaiwan, but something about She spreads the future white tea this experience was different. I on a cookie sheet and pops it into had never tasted tea in the pres- a low oven to wither. One student ence of the person who grew and puts larger leaves into a skillet on processed it. I didn’t know if it was very low heat, gently rotating them really that much better, or if my with his hands. Another steams brain had tricked my taste buds, leaves in a silver bowl. but it was delicate and slightly When Josephie pronounces the floral. “It tastes a little like a Dar- leaves withered, it’s time to roll jeeling, doesn’t it?” Josephie asked.

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