Tuesday, June 9, 2020 - Professional Tea Cupping

Video Subtitles:

hello Internet happy Tuesday June 9th
today we are going to be talking about
professional evaluation of tea using the
iso certified cupping sets these company
sets are actually used also in coffee as
well as other beverages using this to do
the brewing and then the canton to the
other bowl where will then be using that
or drinking the liquor of the teeth so
just a little side note in the tea world
we call the the liquor is the liquid
that is decanted from the tea brewing
that that's what we actually drink is
the liquor it's it's it's not alcohol
before I get into the tea education
portion of today today's session I
wanted to do a little industry update
liquor soup yeah hi Eric last good to
see you you're right it can also be
called the soup but I guess maybe mm-hmm
that must be a difference between
eastern and western culture because yeah
and an Eastern culture it's called soup
like in China it be called soup you know
you got your soup spoon and you take
your soup but in the Western world would
call it liquor you know so good thanks
for bringing that out yeah so before I
hop into the education portion I did
want to do an industry update one of the
big things to happen in the tea world
over the past few days I'll see you on
Facebook you're not gonna have my nice
flower there though Eric one of the big
things that
has taken over the tea world news and
today I just saw the article in BBC News
so this isn't going into major news
outlets is the story of how major tea
brands are reacting to you know the
protests going on and either their
alliance or I mean I should just say
Alliance only there's nothing to do with
non Alliance it's all alliance with the
black lives matter movement this
particular example which I saw going
down on Twitter that's that's where this
mostly went down involving hundreds of
different users all interacting with
each other was over a major British
style not British style it's just
British period a British tea company
that was called out by someone in their
community for this person was actually
congratulating this brand for not
aligning with black lives matter and
this brand went ahead and you know I'm
not gonna say who the brand is just a
brand major brand they tweeted back to
this user that they are aligned with
this movement and that they're taking
their time to study and educate
themselves before they make any kind of
statement but then they hashtag did
black lives matter and told that user to
never buy their tea again this then
instigated another major tea brand so
now we're talking with the two major tea
brands in the UK using Twitter as an
outlet to you know tell people that if
you don't believe black lives matter
don't buy our tea interesting story it
made for a very interesting comment
reading in the tweets but
you know there's a bigger issue he issue
here that I want to address and that
really got my blood boiling as someone
that's been advocating for the lives of
marginalized people mattering for years
Tila now is over eight years old and
since day one
of launching our social media launching
our business launching our messaging and
doing everything that we do that has
been the core of our work you know and
it's true that the demographic of
marginalized people in the world that we
represent through our work may not be
specifically black it is minorities and
it is marginalized and that's the matter
that we are addressing here and you know
there is a long history long long
history especially with British British
T especially of a colonisation and
oppression end of slavery - and these
are all the bases in the foundation of
the systemic problems of the black lives
matter movement so I think it's you know
I mean I'm enthusiastic know the people
are talking about it yes and I'm
supporting those conversations and this
space is a platform for those
conversations so if you feel if you feel
that you inspired that that you want to
say something you know there's this link
right over here bit dial white / teal at
tea party if you visit that link it will
take you here with me and we can have
the conversations and I'd be more than
happy to have those conversations with
you and whatever nature they are because
that is what our platform is our
platform is accountability our platform
is all about those system
Changez to bring more opportunity
autonomy and dignity - especially
marginalized people in this world which
there tends to be a very strong
correlation between skin color minority
status as well as the status of
marginalization among those communities
and so these major tea brands are now
being applauded for hash tagging their
tweet and telling people not to buy
their tea if they don't support black
life matter it is that fair I mean it's
I I definitely don't think it's fair for
for the efforts of a company like ours
but even outside of that you know remove
my ego from this conversation from the
situation and purely just talking about
the efficacy of this movement and what's
going on around this movement and now
that brands are involved in this
movement how does the brand navigate
this how many blacked-out screens with
apologies of we're educating ourselves
have we seen now even on Instagram it's
it's everywhere
is it effective really effective at
these systemic changes I don't know you
know and and in in in those chain of
responses to these tweets so with these
two major brands in the UK a great
majority of the responses in the tweets
what was in support that they felt good
they felt good seeing these brands show
their support for black life matter yet
there are thousands upon thousands of
black lives that are being exploited
every day in that tea bed I know it but
those black lives are somewhere else
so you know we don't see them we don't
know them and III think that there is a
lot of room for education yes and a lot
of room for transparency yes you know to
really say yes these lights do matter
all of them matter not just the one here
in our own communities not just the ones
in the United States that are serving as
an example of this movement but there
are black lives in other places actually
one time I had a I had a somebody on
Facebook this is personal this was just
a personal thing and I was talking about
a specific thing around Caribbean
culture West Indian Caribbean culture
and it was it was an in in regards to
cultural appropriation which is
something that we talk about often or I
talk about often you know in our in our
work here with tea as we are exploring
and connecting with other cultures and
trying to share that that exploration
it's very important to know if you are
sharing if you are acquiring and sharing
those cultures respectfully and so I had
said something you know about Caribbean
culture a specific brand of Caribbean
culture as well like this was very niche
and someone came in and assumed it was
about black culture that I was making
some type of comment about black culture
I was like no no no no this is a very
specific you know part of black culture
and actually it's not just black culture
because this population has a very
diverse you know population of folks so
it's not just black culture but this
person was black and so they they were
offended like immediately offended you
know and so yeah that's something that
we are definitely gonna have to grow
some confidence and is having the
conversations about miscommunication or
whatnot but anyway I I did some research
for this person just to show them the
you know the the picture of what the the
black diaspora looks like around the
world and
the majority of black skinned people you
know people with black skin in this
world live in rural Africa I was amazed
by that like I just like I kind of
guessed that I was thinking that's gotta
be you know like living in rural Africa
their perception of life and their
perception of culture is way different
you know so even that that diaspora is
so diverse and but then you know in this
conversation we often forget about and
those are those are those are people
that are even more marginalized yes
they're not dealing with police
brutality but they're dealing with like
generations upon generations upon
generations of systemic immobilization
of systemic marginalization and T is one
of the major contributors to that
colonization so any T company that is
going to hashtag black lives matter on
their brand needs to take the additional
steps to look at every single life
involved in their product this is not
just an amarka ting opportunity in you
know you can tell I'm very impassioned
by this because thank work as in this
for years like I'm not new to this you
know I I didn't just last week start
caring about the supply chain and the
farmers and and the people involved in
in our agriculture systems you know this
is something that's been going on with
for years and I wasn't always like this
you know when I was younger I I was in a
very different situation I had a very
different understanding of communities
and of Marnell marginalization and
minorities and you know and I'm still
learning but you know right out of
college I had the great privilege of of
realizing that I I needed to to discover
more and learn more and I had a friend
that convinced me to join the Peace
Corps I didn't know what the Peace Corps
was and so I'm
rifle to that friend forever because
that experience is just completely
opened my eyes and I lived in rural
Africa and saw what true marginalization
is like marginalization basically means
like left in the dust well the rest of
the world elevates so it's all the
people left in the dusts and in the
context of of the American story the
American Dream story that's the basis of
what we're doing with here this is an
entire population of people you know
just based off of the color their skin
was left behind to be able to pursue
that American dream like everybody else
this exact same thing it happens in the
tea fields they're left behind the
laborers are left behind and not able to
to mobilize themselves to dream bigger
and to do bigger so yeah that's a that's
my thing about that so please if you're
gonna use the hashtag especially if you
if you work and T because T is like
probably more than any other agriculture
commodity crop is the most connected and
the most brutal and colonialization and
and marginalization of people so yeah if
you see a tea company use that hashtag
please don't be afraid to ask even if
it's an aunt on Twitter to ask and and
that was was something there was a
couple in this in this big Twitter
fiasco that happened there was a small
handful of people that called them out
and asked about well what about what
about the supply chain what about the
the history of slavery and colonial
mindset when when when these tea
industry were being built in countries
that were colonized of course the brands
didn't respond to those tweets but the
more that that gets out you know the
more
people will ask and it's very important
you know if we're gonna become active in
supporting the marginalized people in
our own communities that we deal with
every day you know I don't think that we
should stop that concern in our own in
our own borders like this is something
that's happening all over the world
obviously this is a problem not just in
the United States these are the United
Kingdom companies that got involved in
this in this Twitter and and ultimately
they're winning right they're hashtag
help them both of them have the hashtag
incredible yeah the term the term used
on Twitter is virtue signaling so I'm
gonna look that word up just to give a I
mean I've heard it a lot I could
probably define it within context but I
want to see like if this is like an
official like define word so cambric
dictionary has has it let's read it an
attempt to show other people that you
are a good person for example by
expressing opinions that will be
acceptable to them especially on social
media that's that's fine this is like a
whole term in a whole word that has
completely developed a purely from
social media so here's the example
virtual signaling is the popular modern
habit of indicating that one has virtue
merely by expressing disgust or favor
for certain political ideas or cultural
cultural happenings so yay
at least we have something good you know
to jump on to get behind but really get
behind it you know that's it I know this
was supposed to be an update and I'm
really just using as a platform ayat for
my opinion but this is big thing so yeah
we go Google like T news actually this
is like the tea industry this is the top
news of the day if you just google tea
industry in the
but it specifically just maybe tea tea
company blacklivesmatter twitter just
google that and and and you'll you'll
get it you'll get right to that news all
right moving on thank you for letting me
express that very passionate subject
that I have rotary signaling is uh I
mean I guess it's something I've been
talking about was years I mean even with
the term direct trade and ethical
sourcing our company does ethical store
scene what does that mean like let's go
deeper like you really want to do
ethical sourcing let's involve everybody
in this definition that we have as
ethical you know before we just assume
that it must be good because that's you
know that was the downfall of something
like Fairtrade certification alright so
the little bar says to education so time
to move on to tea education this is my
professional cup being said I usually
don't drink tea from this but I did our
first taste the people taste the
people's tea event series this morning
and so I had these out for that and I
figured I just keep them out um I have
3d break sets here excuse this one in my
spoon this is my cup of water to keep my
spoon clean each cupping set consists of
the canteen bowl and the steeping add or
apparatus
so speaking apparatus just has a little
hole there has the lid sometimes the
blip will have a hole to help with air
flow and the tea look it's steeped
inside here and decant it into this bowl
I have three teas here only one of them
I prepared steeped the tea in the proper
way the rest of them I did differently
and I'll explain that but so you see in
this bowl I have the teeth well I've
actually drank a lot of it but
as a this is black tea so all these teas
are coming from alfredo lean and not til
Taiwan
this is his 1818 Ruby black tea
very nice teeth so what's cool about
these cupping sets is that after you've
steeps the tea and you want to look at
the the wet leaf it's very easy to put
it on display you see you can see the
leaf there this is the steep leaf and
the dry leaf here so this is this is
usually not part of the cup and set this
is just it's like up I have in the front
to show the dry leaf so really great way
to see the dry leaf the Steve leaf and
the soup as mr. glass would like me to
call it and the cup now in these two
cups you'll see I had actually used the
bowl for steeping itself and that's
where the spoon is very handy because
when you're doing the the bowl
evaluation which is this is like a very
typical way in Asia for them to do the
evaluation if you go to like India or
any of the colonized you know industries
you'll see the the certified set is what
they'll usually use in there cupping but
in China and Taiwan
they'll just steep it directly in the
bowl and so yeah you've got your leaf
here directly in the bowl see here so
this is actually the white tea this is
the Ruby white mr. glass is your father
okay well sorry excuse me Eric glass so
this is actually doing steeping for a
long time and that's kind of the purpose
of doing the bowl seeping is that you
can actually see the evolution of the
steep over time because when you steep
it in the the cupping sets and you
decant it
I did here you really only get to
evaluate how the steeping has been for
that prescribed amount of time but when
you have it in the bowl like this you
can come through and pull some of the
soup
that's Eric said from here so here I've
got a spoonful of soup and you can
evaluate it that's good and over time it
can continue to seep in the same bowl
and you can keep pulling and the spoon
you know work so you can like you can
move it over sometimes you don't even
want to drink it you just want to look
at the the color of the liquor or the
soup and and look at it it's like
clearness hi Jake got some ruby white
here your favorite so yeah you can see
how how nice and clear this liquor has
has steeped so this has actually been
steeping for almost an hour still taste
very good so that's something else you
might have noticed ice alert when I took
that in it's not just for style purposes
I know I look really cool doing it but
that's not why I'm doing it I'm doing it
for purpose that purpose is to better
release all of the tea onto my palate so
you take it with like you take it with
some air and so when you slurp it in
with the air it like will fully spread
all the liquid all the liquid all over
your palate not just on your tongue but
on the sides of your palate as well as
the roof of your palate so you even
evenly coat everything and actually this
form of sipping or slurping I learned
from coffee when I was in my undergrad
degree we went to the Specialty Coffee
Association of America and we'll learn
how to cut the coffee there and so
that's how it's done there and it's how
its
and even in wine and liquors because you
just you want to get the full expression
all over your palate additionally after
you take your sip it's good practice to
release air like excel through your nose
so that way all the volatile compounds
when they come in when you drink it can
exit and you can better connect with
your evaluation of those volatile
compounds some tea masters in Taiwan
have even told me you should take a big
drag of a cigarette before you take it
and that will like better clean your
olfactory receptors so that you can
evaluate to see better just a little tea
master joke it was very interesting the
culture of tea valuation like here in
the States people put a little bit of
reverence into it they prescribed a
little bit of reverence and importance
and and and how serious you need to take
your tea tasting but you know in places
like Taiwan where they're evaluating
teas that are potentially going to cost
hundreds and hundreds of dollars you'll
see the tea master chain smoking
cigarettes at the tea table all they're
evaluating the teas they say oh this
helps my this helps me develop more
confidence and and everything with my
palate I don't I don't fully agree with
that actually I don't agree with it
even a little bit but just an
interesting little side story about
about the tea industry and how he is
around the world so yeah this is just
bol evaluation and you can keep it
steeping for as long as you like and
just keep pulling from it even after the
tea is cold cooled so in this case in
all cases the tea has cooled because I
brewed all of these over an hour ago
but there's relevance to knowing how the
character of a tea will change as its as
it's cooling you know that's probably
not how most people are gonna enjoy this
see they're probably gonna enjoy it gum
ku style in there guy want but
when you're evaluating a tea before
purchasing it or deciding you know how
you're gonna make a blend or whatnot
it is very useful to understand how the
tea reacts to different brewing recipes
and how it reacts over time so even you
know if it let's say we Bowl brew all of
these teas and evaluate that this tea
comes out amazing after it cools that
could be good Intel to motivate you to
try brewing it cold brew and seeing how
how it comes out versus the hot brew
another reason why these cup cupping
sets are used and why standardized
brewing recipes are used in evaluating
teas particularly a brewing style called
trial by fire so trial by fire is
brewing in these caffeine sets with
boiling water for a very long time so
maybe even five minutes that's all the
time for brewing brewing leaves in such
a small space you put like two and a
half grams or three grams here this is
you know not not more than four ounces
and so basically you're over steeping
the tea you're putting a lot of pressure
on the tea when you're steeping it and
this is a good practice because if you
have to evaluate over 20 teas which is
often the case when you're at a tea
brewing competition so air-glass
mentioned that these cupping sets are
used in Taiwan competitions but it's
were that reason because they have to
evaluate dozens of teas and when you
steep it at a higher degree like the
trial by fire you are bringing out
everything in the tea that you can taste
including the good stuff and the bad
stuff bad stuff being you know too much
tannic bitterness astringency like the
the extremes of the quality
characteristics a good quality tea
should be able to brew well even at the
high temperatures so like this white tea
you know I've been steeping it I started
out with pretty hot water and it's been
steeping for an hour and still coming
out quite good quite mild enjoyable and
so yeah a tea like this is gonna stand
up to trial-by-fire much more than you
know a lower grade white tea or oolong
tea or whatever that those negative
characteristics could come out with that
trial by fire so yeah it helps you
narrow it down so you know that's the
thing like when we go to like Nepal and
there's hundreds of teams hope we have
to evaluate cuz all the small teak or
just come come out and share their teas
and want feedbacks we'll have to go
through so many of them and it's like
how do you how do you even start how do
you even decide which ones are the top
tier for us to hone in our focus on and
the trial by fire really helps with that
because yeah you can just go with your
spoon and down the line and bitter
bitter bitter bitter bitter okay this
one's also bitter this one's still
interesting other character and the tea
is shining through all those negative
characteristics if they are there and it
allows you to hone in your focus on the
teas that will actually be what you're
looking for so yeah that's another
important reason that we use these
copying sets but really we would only
use these copy and sets for for like
professional evaluation these are
definitely not and they're definitely
not sexy I'm not I'm not feeling very
sexy with these in front of in front of
me the bowl brewing I think is kind of
sexy that's pretty fun the fun way to to
learn about tea and to Triana tea but
you know these things are not really I
don't think they're really creative for
for having a very presentable sexy tea
service I'd much rather use a guy wand
or a teapot
than one of these ISO certified teacup
insects but for the sake of the events
that I did earlier today I did want to
show the folks that were a part of it
which actually if you guys want to be a
part of it too there is still time you
can you can get involved if you go to
the T and it's people.com website it's
the first you know thing that you can
select on that website to browse you can
still get in on the events all of the
live videos are recorded and are
available for playback privately so
unfortunately unless you purchase
tickets to this event you won't be able
to access those presentations yeah Eric
tastes the people's tea I was promoting
it for weeks I guess you didn't see it I
launched it on international tea day but
yeah Eric if you want to join in you can
totally get tickets and I can I can get
the teas to you if you're in the u.s. I
can get to the teas to you in time for
our next event which is next it's
Thursday so it's in two days the there's
60 nuts total and they're all happening
on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12 p.m.
Pacific time that is for you and so yeah
if you get in late you can see the
playback of the video I did today of
these three teas and drink these three
teas with us and then we have five more
events and there is three teas with each
of those oh you haven't been on social
media well thank you for coming with us
here and joining us today Eric loves hmm
so yeah the next class we're doing on
Thursday is Genki tea factory Yahoo
tomorrow we're gonna focus on her story
of how she became a tea maker and the
touch of tea that her and her family are
making now and we'll taste three
different teas from her Factory and then
in the following weeks we will feature
the key musica family
Alexander Helene Oh Eric Jake says a
little hot via Instagram Eric was on
Instagram you guys could have been
chit-chatting with each other there on
Instagram he's on Facebook now but and
then yeah Alexander Halim from Indonesia
and then Raj Endora from Assam India and
then closing it out with the Lee family
of non-null you none so these
presentations include tasting and
they're in private zoom meetings so I am
able to answer your questions about your
brewing or about your brewing tools and
actually all the people that bought
tickets for the that class bought the
entire series so it's kind of cool we'll
all be able to to get friendly with each
other and get to know each other oh hi
oh that's cute you guys are saying hi to
each other Minster grandma sleep uh-huh
Jake Eric are you guys drinking tea
today I'm gonna I'm gonna put a guess
out there that Jake is drinking this tea
I know he recently procured some this
Ruby white maybe he needs more so I
believe out of all these so that's
what's cool after you keep these heating
water what are you what are you going to
brew Jake cease a different this is even
even brewed you can see a different like
this black tea is so much more compact
than the the White T's so wiry
oh wait forests
that's a lovely tea forest from the pool
broke way hmm that's interesting so Eric
says that he's drinking a robo a Colts
of are grown in Taiwan and meet as a bow
John that sounds pretty interesting
it sounds create delicious actually to
be honest I'd be curious to try that see
that's that's Taiwan that's actually
what I was like it was a recurring theme
in the class that I was doing for these
three teas is that Taiwan is such a
unique tea producing country it's
relatively new amazing I bet Jarrod it's
relatively new in the history books of
tea making in Taiwan
you know taiwan's tea industry is
actually newer than india's tea industry
and when when tea plants were first
being tea in to Darjeeling and and into
a song to develop the estates there