The 7 habits of highly effective tea people / 1

Alishan tea plantation in July

Published in 1989, 'the 7 habits of highly effective people' is a book that sold 25 million copies since. My son recently received this book and I thought it would be fun to see how these 7 habits can also apply to tea. So, let's start with the first concept for this article (and I'll do the other 6 habits) in the coming weeks.

#1 Be proactive. 

"Being proactive means taking responsibility for your life. It means recognizing that you are in charge of your own life and that you have the power to make things happen. For example, if you have a problem at work, instead of waiting for someone else to solve it for you, you take the initiative to find a solution yourself."

This is great advice and it can definitely also be applied to tea. It means that you are in charge of making good tea. In case you are not happy with the brew, you are not going to blame anybody else than yourself. You recognize that you have full control over the ingredients, how the water is boiled, the tea ware and how you are brewing the leaves. 

Most importantly, you understand that preparing tea is a skill that requires learning (in theory) and practice. So, you proactively look for a book, videos or a tea master in order to learn about the basics of tea making (and more if you are inclined to). 

Even the quality of the tea is your responsibility! It's so easy to order from a passionate tea expert in Taiwan instead of purchasing tea bags or stale leaves from your local (super)market. 

And if a tea problem arises, the most scientific way to deal with it is to change one parameter at a time. Imagine that you're not pleased with the tea you just brewed. Here's a list of things that you can change, one after the other, in order to identify the source of the problem:

1. If you forgot to pre-heat your ware, try again but pre-heat the vessel and the cups first.

2. Use a different water or a different kettle. Water is the mother of tea, since 99% of the brew is water. So the quality of water is of utmost importance.

3. Use a different vessel. In case of porcelain, the risks of failure are low, because porcelain is rather taste neutral. However, with a teapot or cups made of pottery (like Yixing clay), the vessel can have a powerful impact on the brew. This happened to me 20 years ago: I was brewing my fresh high mountain Oolong teas with a red clay teapot that wasn't suited for such teas, but was suited for roasted Oolongs.

4. Change the parameters of your brew: more leaves or longer brews if the tea was too weak or vice versa.

5. Change the leaves. I place this change at the end, because it's the most expensive. However, tea pleasure is our priority, so don't brew tea that doesn't bring joy. Life is too short to waste it on bad tea! 

to be continued...