Some people just get tea

She came in with her fiance. A lovely young indian women with hair that flowed past her shoulders. Her boyfriend a slightly bigger man, stepped in like a man unsure of how to act in a new place. I greeted them and told them they could sit where every they like. "Let's sit at the bar." she said confidently and with purpose. She ordered for the both of them, a Phoenix if I do recall, and we began to chat. She told me about how she had met Shunan at a tea show and how Shunan had been joking about all the tea she had drank and how tea drunk she was.

As I began to serve the tea she showed a knowledge of tea. She would tell her boy friend some facts and then turn to me to verify or to ask me a question. "You seem to know about tea" I said pouring out the first brew. "No, no" she said, but then flawlessly explained why we poured out the tea to her boyfriend.
When the first cup was poured she offered me some to share. I accepted and we began to sip tea and chat.

As we talked I tried to get a sense of her tea knowledge. She was obviously very comfortable with tea, but she swore she didn't know that much and she seemed to believe it. While she obviously wasn't an expert on tea, there was something about her that said she knew more than she was letting on. This bugged me even after they left. (I am skipping over a lot for the sake of my point, but we really did have a lovely time).

I later realized what it was; she may not have known about tea, but she understood it. She understood tea was something you had with friends, that's why she sat at the bar and offered me tea. She understood that tea was quiet and humbling, that's why in all her knowledge she still looked toward me for information. She understood the true spirit of tea.

I have seem many people who know about tea. One lady at Harney and Son's was the complete opposite of this lady. She came in talking about how she had been trained uptown in the matcha tea ceremony, but when I brewed her tea she criticized that it was a little watery. Now while she was right, I had added a touch too much water, her attitude and arrogance showed a clear lack of understanding about the heart of tea.

Tea is not being able to have a perfect cup. Tea is about fully experiencing the cup you have. That is what makes tea ceremonies and specialized tea pouring systems so great, they fully emirs you in the tea right in front of you.

Some people get that. Some can take a bad cup of lipton and turn it into a fine afternoon.
Other people don't. Other people see tea as materialism, and miss the finer point of tea drinking for the fancy terms and useless knowledge.

A tea experience is made up of two parts, what the tea brings and what you bring. You are as much as important part of the tea drinking as the tea its self. Remember that, it can kind of be a big responsibility.