Taste History

Join us Thursday, February 13th from 7pm to 9pm for the momentous return of our tea talk and interactive workshop series, “History in a Bowl of Tea: Tea in the Song Period,” as we explore the unique history, art, and craft of tea culture during the Song period (960-1279). Learn how today’s matcha craze has its origins in the tenth century as scholars, monks, and emperors alike celebrated the flavors of powdered tea in poetry and prose, paintings and elegant tea gatherings. Examine antique teawares from the Song period and learn about the diversity of ceramics that marked this time as a “golden age” for tea.

Delve Into Song Period Tea Practice

This tea talk and interactive workshop will include a step-by-step demonstration of the grinding of Song period-style powdered tea followed by a 點茶 diǎn chá tea tasting, conducted using historically accurate reproduced powdered tea recipe served using antique and period-appropriate teawares, giving the audience a rare opportunity to experience and drink tea as would have been done millennia ago!

Sign Me Up!

Admission is $35. RSVP with Floating Mountain Tea House in advance to secure your spot at the tea table!

Click here to RSVP.

In Zen Buddhist monasteries, a sesshin is an intensive practice period where members of the temple community meditate, chant sutras, and work together, all with the intent of strengthening their own practice. More focused and rigorous than their daily practice, sesshin can sometimes lead to great “breakthroughs” in a participant’s own practice, opening their mind to new and unfathomable potential and understanding.

Taking inspiration from this approach, “Three Practices, Same Path” is a week-long intensive guided study period where participants will meet daily to cultivate their skills and knowledge on the three interwoven arts of tea, incense and meditation. With each day featuring a specific art, from 功夫茶 gōng fū chá, Korean tea meditation, 香道 Kōdō (the “Way of incense”), and 茶の湯 chanoyu (Japanese tea ceremony), participants will be given the opportunity to critically engage with each art as its own form of mindful practice. Additionally, each day will be held at a different location, in a different context, ranging from a tea house, a public park, an artist studio, a private practice space, opening their minds to the boundlessness of practice.

Participants will meet for two hours everyday, either in the evening or in the morning. In additional to tea and incense, each participant will be given a compendium of texts, translations, traditional manuals, and subject specific notes to offer a greater depth to the practice period.

Subtle and fleeting, scent of incense is ancient in form yet calls us to appreciate this very moment. In the ongoing series “Introduction to Incense”, we will delve into the history of incense in East Asia and its many aromas, culminating in a demonstration of “listening to incense”.

Informed by the traditional art of 香道 Kōdō (the “Way of incense”), in “Introduction to Incense” participants will learn how rare incense is prepared, a process where incense wood is heated and its fragrance is slowly released. Part meditation, part interactive workshop, this event will expand participants’ minds to how Incense has been enjoyed throughout history, while focusing on the ancient practice of Kōdō.

Explore the Path of Tea

Gong Fu Cha is a method of brewing tea developed in China more than five hundred years ago. In this approach, through first being challenged by a tea, one acquires the skills needed to brew it correctly, revealing a tea's full range of flavors and recognizing its qualities. In "Introduction to Gong Fu Cha" we will explore the many different types of teas grown in China and learn the specific ways to unlock their full potential.

Using nothing but curiosity and our senses, paired with a chosen teapot, this workshop will be a practice in "doing more with less" and understanding the practical basis of how to brew tea through direct experience knowledge.

All tea and teaware will be available to use, though it is encouraged to bring your own (Yixing and/or Chaozhou) teapot to this workshop as this will help you to become more adept with your own wares.

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