Tea friends. I write to you today to praise, once again the thrill of a good Bai Hao Oolong, also known as Oriental Beauty.
Its been six months since my last confession, er, article on tea and I admit to you, dear readers that I blame none of you for worrying about me or for totally forgetting me. But here I am and guess where I am! California? You assume, or back in Portland which is where she lived and loved before. But no! I am, as of three weeks ago an official resident of KENTUCKY. Yes, Louisville Kentucky,  and I am writing to you with frozen toes on a chilly and wet December day from a BASEMENT. Me! In a basement. Tea-child of open spaces and fresh breezes! Until a month ago I had never even seen a basement and I now own a house with one. Hey, California friends! Did you know the wall sockets are four feet up on the wall inside of cleverly hidden by the baseboards? BASEMENTS! Did you know there are walls made out of cement and no matter how hard you try you CANNOT get a nail in to hang your Buddha art? BASEMENTS!
And yet somehow after three weeks I find myself in perfect contentment as I sit here in this basement. And I have Oriental Beauty specifically the good stuff from www.floatingleaves.com to thank.
I have multiple unpacked boxes of teaware, both rare and common. Eight different sized white porcelain gaiwans for example, three gooseneck kettles, hundreds of cups both mass produced and one of a kind artist created, but today I learned to reach perfection, all I need is one pot, one water receptacle for refuse, one cha hai, a digital scale and some tea.
I've been asking myself for three weeks, " Can I live here? NOT just survive but thrive? Are my tea writing days behind me?"
Today I dragged in the old tea table where the Bekin's movers dumped it in the icy garage three weeks ago, grabbed a Bonavita gooseneck kettle, ( I have THREE, as previously mentioned; one for the car, one for the kitchen, and one for the holy tea-space), the tea and a cup Andrew Goodman of Smatcha gifted me with, and I used that cup from him to toast my new life. As a Gong fu Cha devotee, right goddamn here in Louisville, Kentucky.
So! No more shall I sit here like a lump of fuckin' terducken, I am BACK!
New reviews pending!

Preparing the mind is key for being ready to experience new things!

I am trying to get fired up about something enough that I make a bee-line for the blog, but so far? Meh.
If the tea is OK, I have posted pics and links on IG under BuddhaMomTea, but until something makes me swoon? Well, I shan't be writing!

Many samples still to try!

Punk rock me, still in there somewhere comes out to meet middle-aged tea maven me.

Ok, so I'm not daintily sipping tea with the Queen listening to the Sex Pistols. I am, after all, over fifty years old and the only queen I know lives in San Francisco, (Hi, Dovey!), but for the past six months the only music I've had 'in attendance' when drinking tea have been artists such as Sheila Chandra,  Deva Premal, and random sitar music, yes, even when notdrinking chai, you moron. Oops, that would be the punk coming out. Forgive me? Kisses. (Notice I am leaving the slur in, the punk seems settled into herself for awhile)
So, its a match and as Green Day is screaming in the song blaring from my 'ghetto blaster' on top of the fridge, 'I'm not fuckin' around!' neither is this oolong.
I did a little slam-dancing a little too near the tea table, but nothing got hurt. My child has shut herself away in her room to draw the hideous characters from something called 'Five Nights At Freddy's' so she is not one to judge my weirdness (thank god) and tea and getting some thrashing out of my old bod seem to go hand in hand. This is not making me want to slam some whiskey shots or whatever I used to want to do when I listened to angry white boy music, this is good news!
In case, dear reader you doubt my provenance, I was the first punk rock girl many people had ever seen in Orange County, California, way back when. They sent newspaper people out to interview me. Twice. I spent almost every night in garages watching Black Flag, Circle Jerk, The Germs, The Plasmatics and the Cramps shows and slept in alleys. So don't go saying I'm a poser, alright? I was the real deal. Of course I never would have considered Green Day acceptable punk rock, but now that I am an old person, it is as hardcore as it gets for me, due to my not wanting to die young after all.
So moving back to this oolong for just a minute. I think for fear that the tea vendor will not appreciate being associated with this particular post, I will not specifically review this 'not fucking around' oolong and will instead dedicate a full post to it at a later date. But its a good tea, and like me, I bet it has a myriad of sides to show you, a soft meditative quality and also an intense buzzing kick if you brew it just right......And now, back to the dance.

Tea and living a good life

Drinking tea helps you meditate on life to better understand it. Drinking tea is not only about the health benefits on the tea’s surface, but it also elevates the spirit to enrich our lives. For young generations, if they can understand the benefits tea brings, they will benefit from it for life.

We all used to be young and ambitious; telling everything in black and white, fighting and arguing for our own existence. It sometimes seems that we want to plan and control life, but as we age, we realize that we are so small in this universe and we have been places that we thought we would never go.

Drink this cup of tea and keep the attitude of having an empty cup towards life. Learn to accept and absorb new things. Don’t judge things on their surface but instead by their inner logic. Find out the positive meanings in your life.

Tea can be the medium to shorten distances between human beings. With this cup of tea, it can lead conversations to anywhere. Life's journey is truly manifest in this cup of tea.