The Cloudwalker Sessions — Pu-Erh Tea — Exploring Tea's Echo

— with empty tea cup

“So, what would a typical tea lesson look like for you in Taiwan?” my guest, a mathematician from Eastern Europe, asked over the second cup of the second tea — a 40 year raw Pu-Erh.

“I don’t think I’ve ever really had a lesson in tea. Not in the sense of being instructed,” I answered. With my teacher, much was done through observation and long exposure. There were no step-by-step guides, no theory, no procedures. One’s ability to tune into the moment made the difference in what could be taken from a session — or a season of sessions.

Much as ripe Pu-Erh attempts to replicate the flavour of old tea in a hurried way, it never quite captures the intricacy — subtlety — of aged raw. The threshold of experience may be pointed to, but cannot be crossed by proxy. In the end, the difference may appear to be “nothing much at all.” Exactly. That not very much at all makes all the difference.

Flavour may be a gateway, but it is also the departure point.

Whether we approach tea through flavour, through rhythm, or through something like the music of the spheres, we judge the tree by its fruit — not by mathematics, but by the aftermath.

How a tea leaves you — its echo — the subtle shift in one’s gaze or gait — says all that can be said about our proximity to the infinite.

Cloudwalker —

— write from Tea, not about it.