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Global Tea Hut

@globalteahut

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We are a global community of tea lovers who share our love for the Leaf. Follow us down the dewy path...

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For me, there is something about boiling tea that nourishes a part of my soul in a way that other brewing methods don’t quite reach as deeply. 
Boiled tea opens the leaves fully and patiently, allowing their medicine to release layer by layer as the water and tea move together in a slow conversation. Hours over charcoal allows access to deeper, almost hidden layers of tea.

It invites us to return to a way of being that predates urgency and efficiency, when time was measured by the arc of the sun, the tending of fire, the rhythm of breath. There is no rush. I find that in this spaciousness, we are invited into an experience of slowing down, of the senses opening, and where some of the noise surrounding us is cleared away and purified.

We are gifted an opportunity to come back to this present moment as the cauldron boils gently and the wind soughs the pines. taken in Taiwan by @globalteahut

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8 months ago

One of our favorite teachings of Tea is the virtues of Shen: Love and Compassion.
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Love is the language of the heart, and compassion is the highest manifestation of love. Cultivation of the Shen requires us to gradually learn to love in a detached way and to expand our circle of love beyond our partners, family and friends to include our enemies and strangers. This is universal love, which is the nature of Heaven. Love is a mind that sees others as precious and feels close to them. Just as a fire will warm a room and attract people to gather, love in the heart creates warmth in the soul and nourishes ourselves and others. Universal love can be cultivated into compassion, which is a direct wish to relieve the suffering of others.
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Compassion is the very nature of the enlightened mind because it is the highest expression of Shen. The easiest way to cultivate Shen is to cultivate love and compassion, both through meditation and through wishing to imbue our actions with loving kindness. taken in Ojai, California by @globalteahut

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a year ago

Returning to leaves in a bowl is a most wonderful way to nourish the roots of our tea practice. It is deeply beneficial to periodically spend a week drinking leaves in a bowl tea. Of course, you can practice for longer as well and a week is just an arbitrary time. In fact, if you are starting your tea journey here, you might want to practice leaves in a bowl tea for longer.

There is nothing to this practice. There is no right or wrong way to do it. There is no judgment, no level to attain nor anything to become. Simply put some leaves in a bowl, let go and be yourself. A part of why we return to this methodless method, simply drinking tea, is to renew the beginner’s mind. The bowl is simple and unadorned. The leaves are left as they are, without any concepts, ideas or values attached. The water is clear and without shape and the heat obeys no boundaries. Everything is just-so. by @globalteahut

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a year ago

A reflection by @thealisonlove, who recently shared very special time with us in the Pyrenees Mountains.

“Arriving at Global Tea Hut’s Zen & Tea Retreat on very little sleep, I felt as though I had won a race without racing anyone but myself. The following ten days were sacred because I wanted them to be. I gave myself fully to each day.

There was a familiarity in being around sangha, dharma, and teachings, reminiscent of my twenties, when I lived in a yoga community. While I relished the absence of conversation, I also experienced how silence does not necessarily mean quiet. Footsteps on the dirt path. The inhale receiving the exhale. Thoughts circling and returning. A sneeze echoing through the meditation hall. Pots striking one another in the kitchen. At first, there seemed to be no room for silence at all. Then, midway through the week, a deepening occurred. My self-reflection took me to places that were painful at times and required a purging of tears and even an afternoon of detoxing. Knowing Tea had guided me there gave me comfort and certainty that I was in good hands.

During our final practice, Metta Bhavana, tears began falling down my face. It felt as though a valve in my heart had opened and would not close. In that moment, I let Tea fully in, allowing her waters to cleanse my being while holding nothing back. The tears came from somewhere deeper than thought, from a well I felt I had been seeking for much of my life. And then everything dissolved. The waters I had been seeking were my own. They were here, within my being, within my body, with Tea accompanying me every step of the way.” taken in Spain by @globalteahut

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2 days ago

Last week we discussed Living Tea and drinking tea as a way to connect to Nature. The chaxi is an extension of this fundamental principle and a place where we put into practice our aim to live in harmony with Nature.

As the seasons change, you may notice that the stage we create for Tea changes too. A chaxi is all about celebrating the occasion and the story the chaxi tells is designed to support our connection to the moment.

If you are entering the colder months, you may consider working with warmer-toned chabu to create a balanced environment. Similarly, if you are experiencing warmer days filled with sunlight, you may want to bring cooling tones into the space. The art and practice of chaxi is deep and invites us into a more harmonious and intentional way of life. A life of Tea. by @globalteahut

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5 days ago

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9 days ago

We call it “Living Tea” for obvious reasons: it lights you up, and your every cell feels alive, moving to the sway of the Tea dance. What we mean by Living Tea, though, is real Tea. Tea that is grown in the old ways.

There is one serious problem with Living Tea: that there is not enough of it. If all the Tea in the world were Living Tea, there wouldn’t be enough and millions of people would go without Tea. And that means compromise.

Compromise means we also have to have some plantation Tea alongside Living Tea. But while we may compromise on the trees having less room to grow, or some pruning, less (but hopefully still some) biodiversity, the plantation has to be organic. Full stop! That’s where we must draw the line.

How can you sit in a nice Tea room and connect to Nature when the thing you’re using to connect was made in a way that has harmed Nature? All of the medicinal value of Tea is gone when it is grown out of harmony with Nature, Spirit and life on this Earth. Those of us devoted to a life of Tea will always seek Living Tea, but we must also educate and promote organic plantation Tea. Even mainstream Tea should be organic, healthy for the Earth and healthy for man.

From Wu De’s Book—‘Tea Medicine’ taken in Taiwan by @globalteahut

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10 days ago

“Ordinary life requires us to make hundreds of decisions while simultaneously maintaining all the identities through which we understand ourselves: parent, partner, professional, friend, competent person, spiritual seeker. At this year’s Zen & Tea Retreat, much of that scaffolding became temporarily unnecessary. The container was sufficiently strong that I could begin removing layers rather than adding anything new. I thought often of Coco Chanel’s instruction to remove one accessory before leaving the house. This retreat became an increasingly radical version of the same exercise...

What happens if I remove the striving? The performance? My orientation toward other people’s approval? What if spiritual practice itself is not another thing to achieve?”

To read @augustnetta‘s full story from the retreat, be sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter to explore her insightful reflection later this week. taken in Pyrenees Mountains by @globalteahut

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13 days ago

There is an old Chinese saying: “Water is the Mother of Tea, the teapot its Father, and fire its Teacher.”

Water starts the movement of Tea, but fire turns it into alchemy. Coals hold the sun’s energy, gathered in the wood over years. When we wake that energy with a fan and set the kettle above it, we give dried leaves back what they once knew on the tree: sunlight, water and air. The leaf comes back to life, and something in us comes alive with it.

Charcoal brings out a heat you can feel. In side-by-side tests at the Hut, water heated on coals to the exact same temperature as water from an electric kettle still tasted hotter and brighter to everyone present. The warmth goes deeper into the leaves, and then into us.

Comment “FIRE” if you would like to receive the full article on working with fire for tea. by @globalteahut

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16 days ago

We want to thank everyone who made the journey to @casacuadrau.retreats earlier this month to join us for our annual Zen and Tea Retreat. It is a true honor to receive friends from across the world, gathering in devotion to practice and sharing a dedicated period of noble silence together.

We are excited to share stories and lessons from our time in the deep, still mountains of the Spanish Pyrenees over the next few weeks. We hope each reflection nourishes and inspires your practice, and perhaps offers encouragement toward a more conscious way of living.

Above all, we bow in gratitude to the generations of teachers and students who gathered in practice long before us, passing on the wisdom of Zen and Tea. Because they carried these teachings forward, we are all able to sit together today—and through our own practice and service, help preserve and carry forward these traditions. taken in Pyrenees Mountains by @globalteahut

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17 days ago

Raise a bowl if you’ve tried Wonkabar!

This incredible tea continues to amaze us, and it was wonderful to receive a few emails from the community expressing their own delight. For those who are beginning to enter the cooler months—we imagine this tea becoming a close companion on your journey ahead.

Please remember that in our excitement for this tea, we created a special offer. Over the months, we will be hiding golden tickets in a selection of Wonkabar orders. Find one, and you will receive an extraordinary, 40-year-old, intentionally aged, exceptionally stored tea. Whether or not fortune finds you...we are certain Wonkabar will earn its place as a community favourite! by @globalteahut

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19 days ago