A SMELL OF LIME AND APPLE CAKE

No ceramic today, sorry. But I have drunk my lime tea in style!

The taste was so pure, sweet and tender, that I was suddenly overwhelmed by impressions.

I had no 'madeleines' to dip one in my fragrant glass of lime tea, but a piece of apple cake has had the same impact on me as Marcel Proust has described in his novel In Search of Lost Time.
A short excerpt here:  

I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory - this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. I had ceased now to feel mediocre, contingent, mortal. Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I sensed that it was connected with the taste of the tea and the cake, but that it infinitely transcended those savours, could, no, indeed, be of the same nature. Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? 

 photo's: Iris Weichler

MY YIXING TEAPOT
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I’m very proud to have my first Yixing teapot. I’ve bought him in Brussels last week and before using him, I’ve prepared him because the teapot has ‘to drink’ the tea first.

Yixing teapots are created in China since the Sung Dynasty (960-1279). Potters use the specific zisha clay, which was first mined in Yixing province of China. The exceptional quality of the teapots is obtained by the unique chemical composition and the characteristics of zisha clay and the accurate craftsmanship of the Chinese potters.
Yixing pots are made in many shapes and colour nuances. The longer I look, the more I like my dark brown, simple but good finished teapot very much.     

For my Yixing teapot, I’ve chosen an Oolong tea from Northern Taiwan, Ming Xiang.
Because the teapot is porous, it’s good to choose just one kind of tea for a teapot, so that the pot can aware of the flavour of the tea. Before using the pot I’ve cleaned him with a bit of water. I’ve filled him with the Oolong tea and put him in a cooking pot, filled with water and added a few tealeaves. I brought the temperature of the water till 90°C and than let it slowly cool down. After these preparations, I could enjoy using my teapot and the rich taste of the Oolong.

It’s still freezing outside. While my fingers gliding on the smooth and warm surface of the Yixing teapot, the snow covers my doubts for a while and let everything shining.

Ceramic tea boat, grey clay, stoneware. Teacups and presentation vessel, white clay, resp. stoneware and earthenware (made by myself)
photo's: Iris Weichler

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MATCHA in the snow

I have started an adventure, a trip to known places in my mind, but undiscovered.
I will taste and smell the colours of my ideas, will look for everyday beauty and will create with my hands, so fluently as water and sounding like the wind.

It begins with making, … a cup of TEA

In this cup, I see, when I am concentrated and allert, the world, as the Chinese people say.

Look in a cup of tea, and view the world

It’s not evident. Time, surrounding, atmosphere have to make a constellation in wich you can open your eyes and you can feel as a part of the world.

I will not only look in the cup, but also at the cup and all the attributes. While I’m brewing tea, I feel the peace and the spirit of my act, followed by drinking the harmony of  the whole scene. Where the taste of different cultures meets the acquirement of craftsmanship, I will keep my thoughts for a second, to warm me up and to inspire me and then let to vaporize them like the steam of my hot tea.

It’s winter now. I enjoy a japanese MATCHA, sitting outside on the  edge of our garden, I can hear the silence of the breath of our lawn under the snow.

 photo's: Iris Weichler