Minimalism and Tea: Welcome & Start Here
Welcome to Minimalist Tea!
We will be drinking lots of great tea and practicing the art of patience, calm and being happy with what we have.
If you’re anything like me, you might have trouble concentrating on one or two things at once and you might also struggle with keeping things simple. Yep, that’s me.
Minimalist Tea is a blog about my passion for enjoying high quality loose leaf teas, the life lessons the leaf teaches me and living more simply. To confess, occasionally, I do love my tea with frills, sugar and cream. But truly, nothing compares to the naturally honey-sweet musk of a high quality Darjeeling tea or the serene taste of a hand-rolled Tai Ping Hou Kui.
I love exploring teas as a meditative and calming activity on my own or with friends for a socially invigorating time to reconnect.
Since replacing my regular coffee habit with high quality teas and getting rid of about three-quarters of my belongings, my mind has found more clarity and peace. I’ve also felt lighter and slimmer as a result of the health benefits in the beverage.
I was born and raised in California and come from a Cantonese family. My parents are both from the Guangdong province in China. One of the mainstays of Cantonese culture is the Gongfu tea tradition.
Turns out, Gongfu tea is not only a ritualized brewing method that yields a beautiful cup of tea, but is also a practice in self-cultivation. This is one of the tea art rituals I’m currently taking a deep dive in.
Drinking Chinese tea for me is like an archeological dig into my Chinese heritage. I’m Cantonese-American, second-generation, if you’re curious!
Also, because the Camellia Sinensis var. Sinensis tea bush, which all tea is derived from, originates from China. So drinking all tea is, in a way, a dive into my Chinese culture—an opportunity I’ve only had glimpses of while growing up in California.
The reason I’m here is so that I can share that learning process with you here along with some philosophy I’m picking up on my journey to become a tea master.
Trés exciting. I know.
One of the things I’m looking forward to doing here with Minimalist Tea is building a community of like-minded everyday tea aficionados where we can explore the art of tea around the world and remind each other to live more simply and mindfully.
Welcome to Minimalist Tea and please subscribe to my newsletter below!
xo MinTea