Holidays punctuate the calendar, and we thrill to them. What’s not to love, for example, about breaking up the fall with a night of ghosts and witches hunting for confectionary treasure?
In addition to the formal holidays, we also embrace celebrations tied more explicitly to things happening in nature. Both the summer and winter solstices warrant festive attention. And so, too, does a celestial event taking place this Tuesday — the autumn equinox, which marks the first day of fall.
The fall and spring seasons enjoy equinoxes, which are days when daylight and darkness are evenly divided. Three months after next week’s equinox we will celebrate the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. After that, the days begin growing longer again.
To us, the fall equinox touches on two things. For one, it generally coincides with harvesting and preserving food in the northern hemisphere. In China we celebrate the equinox with Qiu Fen (meaning Autumn Divide in Chinese), which revolves around the pleasures of the harvest season. During Qiu Fen, we feast!
Another aspect of the equinox that pleases us is how it reminds us about the importance of balance. After all, only on the equinoxes do we experience roughly equal amounts of day and evening.
To celebrate next week’s equinox, we discuss a tea that refers to elements of the harvest, and autumn teas that speak to balance.
Tea for harvest: Yunnan Gold
This gorgeous tea, called Dian Hong in Chinese, is one of the finest black teas in the world. Tea artisans pick only tender tips of leaves, which then receive quite a bit of oxidization. The oxidization creates black tea. But Yunnan Gold leaves are gold, rather than the color of coal.
Our tea comes from FengQing County, Yunnan Province. For centuries beginning around 206 BC, Yunnan artisans compressed teas into cakes, as is commonly done with pu-erh teas. The province, which is special to us because it is where tea was discovered, remains famous for its pu-erh teas.
But other tea styles in Yunnan, such as Yunnan Gold, veered away from fermented bricks of Camellia sinensis. Yunnan Gold is young, at least by the standards of tea in China, which stretches back at least until 2732 BC. People started crafting Dian Hong in the early 20th century.
What does Yunnan Gold have to do with the fall harvest? Taste! The tea evokes flavors of sweet potato and honey. Yunnan Gold also suggests cocoa and black pepper.
Yunnan Gold is a staff favorite. Try some this autumn. We predict you will return for more throughout the year.
Tea for balance: Balance Tea
Balance? There’s a tea for that! And by balance we of course do not refer to proficiency on tightropes. We are talking about balance in life.
We custom-blend our caffeine-free Balance Tea in accordance with Ayurvedic principles that promote harmony and balance in the mind and body.
Fortunately, the mental health benefits do not come at the cost of flavor. The combination of spices — cinnamon, cardamom, licorice root, coriander, fennel and ginger — offers bold and complex flavors. The addition of rose petal adds a lovely floral note. This tea is absolutely delicious.
But the active ingredients in these ingredients all contribute towards achieving balance. Instead of scattering thoughts in different directions thanks to too much caffeine, for example, this tea serves to collect thoughts. It promotes focus and calm. Balance.
We think sipping it on the equinox itself is a fine idea.
Tea for balance: Toasted Almond
As the mornings grow colder, many of us feel drawn to warm beverages. For us, that always means what we think of as autumn teas.
But some mornings, especially after we have had a cup with a little bit of caffeine, we turn to other teas. One of them is our Toasted Almond. This tea is made for sipping with a classic autumn snack, like apple crumble or even just toast with butter (and maybe a schmear of apple butter).
Our custom blend of apple pieces, almonds and cinnamon pieces captures the essence of fall, in a mug. It also contains beetroot pieces, not for flavor but for color. The tea brews pink.
Complement Toasted Almond with milk and honey, and you just made your morning.
Tea for Balance: FoCo Cocoa
We divide days into three broad categories. What sits between morning and evening? Afternoon. As the patch of time in the middle, it is the most balanced of them all, yes? It doesn’t enjoy the jolt of sunrise, nor the blanket of dark and stars. Instead, it dwells in the center.
Our custom FoCo Cocoa is wonderful anytime. Its bold flavor helps get us ready for the day ahead. Sipping it in the evening might remind us of mugs of cocoa around an evening campfire.
But we think it’s made for afternoon. The black tea and yerba mate help give us a lift, just when we are beginning to drag. And the chocolate, cocoa, vanilla and cinnamon put us in that special “hot cocoa” frame of mind. We top it off with black pepper, which enlivens our taste buds.
To paraphrase the great Frank Costanza: Balance now!
Tea for Balance: Sui Yue Liu Xiang
Sipping tea can be a contemplative exercise. We associate contemplation with balance. At the very least, our attempts at sustaining deep thought can deliver us into a kind of balance.
For example, it is easy to curse the fact that our Boulder home now is a school for two young boys (thanks, COVID-19!). However, much deep thought has the potential to transform the curses not only into feelings of dull acceptance, but into some sort of balanced embrace. We can turn lemons into lemonade through contemplation. Right? RIGHT?
Well, maybe not so much. At least not with the school situation during this challenging year. But with less extreme situations, contemplative moods can yield rich results.
Consider sipping our Sui Liu Xiang. In Chinese this means “as time goes by, the only thing left is the fragrance of tea.” This is beautiful.
Just as the name itself provokes contemplation, and thus balance, so does the tea. This spectacle of beauty is made of Imperial or Gong Ting Grade pu-erh from LinCang County, Yunnan Province. It brews strong, smooth and earthy, with notes of pipe tobacco and citrus. Like many pu-erhs, it stands as an excellent candidate for dry-aging in Colorado’s arid climate.
Enjoy these days of balanced days and nights. And celebrate the equinox on Tuesday with autumn teas!
