This high mountain Oolong is giving us a glimpse at the blue note, a very jazzy tea session! It has rhythm. It has energy. It swings. It swirls. It opens up.
The leaves empty their flavors in the cup, just like the jazzman empties his lungs in the instrument, in search for the blue note. We get carried by a tempo, by a music or by the specific aromas of Alishan.
Like a high mountain, music first takes us on a climb. We go uphill with the first notes. The tune plays the music until the climax comes!
The first sip of tea is the first climax after a long preparation. A kettle had to boil water. A gaiwan had to be preheated, so had the cups. The hand had to drop the leaves in the gaiwan. The boiling water had to brew the leaves. The gaiwan had to be emptied. Always the same stoy, but always different flavors, because the tea comes from a different place, a different day. With a band, the instruments are the same, but the music changes with the notes played, the audience in the hall... There are infinite possibilities in both music and tea.
Inspiration and mastering the instruments is how you make tea or music come really alive. The same notes can be played in a dull, lifeless way, just like some teas can be over or under brewed. Perfection is a quality, but the really good players are willing to take risks, to push their music/tea to the edge for the sake of their passion. They are after harmony between the blue note deep inside them and the blue note that their art produces.
Again, the possibilities are infinite. Their are an infinite number of galaxies in the universe. Some of them also play a blue note, one that pulses deep inside.
Between darkness and light, the blue note comes to life in my cup of tea. And I hope in yours too!
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