Tea Appreciation Society – We love tea
Tracing Tea
Feb 17th
Tracing Tea is the international collaboration of four students and a film crew who have a love of tea strong enough to survive 15,000 km in three-wheeled auto-rickshaws.
Celebrating the 350th anniversary of tea’s introduction to Britain, the expedition will trace stories of espionage, and warfare, philosophy and medicine entwined with tea along the ancient trading routes from Darjeeling, India to London.
Chart the progress of the team as they collect information in the field travelling across Europe and Asia in a London cab before embarking on the ultimate adventure: a record-breaking journey in the humble Rickshaw.
Through the Tracing Tea documentary the Maximum Exposure Team intends to reveal the true nature of Europe, Iran, Central Asia, China and the Indian Sub-Continent to a global audience through original written material, photography and film footage.
Many of the countries along our route appear frequently in the media but the picture painted is rarely a positive one – countries and peoples are reduced merely to location of human and natural disasters, perpetrators of wars, human rights abuses and sectarian violence. It is very rare for the traditional media to look at the people beyond the headlines.
Tracing Tea aims to produce a different kind of material. Travelling without a political, religious or social agenda, the Tracing Tea team will take time to discover record and ultimately present the stories of ordinary people and extraordinary places. In doing so we hope to showcase the rich cultural heritages, varying religious traditions and fascinating social practices lived each day by people along the route, enriching the global understanding of their audience and challenging the dominant stereotypes that so often impact upon our relations with other people, other religions and other nations.
Check out their progress @ http://www.tracingtea.com/
Pimp my Monkey
Feb 16th
Tea Monkey and the almost as popular Cornish artist Caroline Pedler, famous for her photographic study of her own feet and for designing the artwork for Angus and Julia Stone’s new album and single, as well as animating their latest video, think that’s about it, she’s done some nice pictures of bears too, anyway they are both off on a top secret covert operation for the Tea Appreciation Society to Sri Lankakaka.
Maybe not so covert after all.
Caroline has decided to hop on one leg for the entire journey to raise money for charity*
We at the society wish Monkey and Caroline every success with their hazardous journey to the other side of the world!
*actually the bit about the charity is a bare faced lie, but if you’d still like to donate any money please email it to: mail@teaappreciationsociety.org
See Caroline’s beautiful art by clicking on the link below.
Check out the amazingly talented Angus and Julia Stone:
Jennifer Bass of the Rainforest Alliance writes:
Feb 15th
In response to Lucy Siegle’s February 3rd commentary in The Observer, “How Ethical is My Daily Cuppa?” I would like to clear up a few inaccuracies. While Unilever is indeed a member of the Ethical Tea Partnership, its recent announcement regarding certification of its tea relates to its work with the Rainforest Alliance, an independent international conservation and rural development organization. In 2007 Unilever pledged to source all its tea in a sustainable manner. As a first step, the company announced that all PG Tips and Lipton Yellow Label tea bags in Western Europe would be certified by the Rainforest Alliance by 2010.Unilever has chosen to work with us after looking into all possible certification options. In the end the company decided that our program was the best suited to handle the ecological and social challenges of tea grown on both large estates and small independent farms. To obtain Rainforest Alliance certification, farms must meet a comprehensive set of standards (http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/agriculture/certified-crops/standards_2005.html), including worker safety and healthcare, education for farm children, ecosystem conservation, agrochemical reduction and wildlife protection. On certified farms, farmers often save money through reduced agrochemical use, increased productivity, recycling, more efficient management practices and less worker turnover. They also often get a premium price for their crops because they are selling a certified sustainable product. Workers are ensured the right to organize, the right to safe working conditions, the right to earn at least the national minimum wage, dignified housing and clean water, access to medical care for themselves and their families and access to education for their children. Lipton’s own estate in Kericho, Kenya, was the first tea farm to earn our certification, and the farm’s 18,000 employees enjoy these benefits. The farm has also set strict guidelines for areas such as pest management, tree planting, and use of renewable sources. In the coming years we will assess the thousands of independent small-holders in Kenya that supply Lipton, along with plantations and small farms in India and Indonesia. Unilever has made a commitment to pay a price premium that it estimates to reach €2 million by 2010.For more information on Rainforest Alliance certification, please visit www.rainforest-alliance.org.
Jennifer Bass
Rainforest Alliance
15 February 2008
Worth the wait
Feb 15th
Had a parcel to collect from the post office this morning, and oh what joy as I opened it, the long awaited and much anticipated September book.
The September Project is a series of books made by a global community of writers, artists, photographers, film makers and friends that happen to surf.
Each year they explore a corner of the surfing planet, write some words, take some photos, draw some pictures and then publish them in a beautiful little book.
All the best things in life are worth waiting for.
Check out the September Project blog for loads of other ineresting surf related info @ http://septembersurf.blogspot.com/
Be my Valentine
Feb 14th
Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is the name of several martyred saints of ancient Rome.
Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on February 14, nothing is known except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome on February 14.
It is even uncertain whether the feast of that day celebrates only one saint or two or more saints of the same name.
Valentine’s Day is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine’s cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery.
The day became associated with romantic love when Geoffrey Chaucer, writer, poet and philosopher wrote of it in the 14th century.
There is no mention of the tradition before Chaucer invented it in the 14th Century.
If at all possible i would recommend you show your love and appreciation to that special person at any available opportunity, if you give it a little consideration I think you’ll agree, once a year is a bit shit and predictable.
Tea & Philosophy
Feb 13th
Man does not become man, nor does he achieve awareness or realization of his humanity, other than in society and in the collective movement of the whole society; he only shakes off the yoke of internal nature through collective or social labour… and without his material emancipation there can be no intellectual or moral emancipation for anyone… man in isolation can have no awareness of his liberty. Being free for man means being acknowledged, considered and treated as such by another man, and by all the men around him. Liberty is therefore a feature not of isolation but of interaction, not of exclusion but rather of connection…I myself am human and free only to the extent that I acknowledge the humanity and liberty of all my fellows… I am properly free when all the men and women about me are equally free. Far from being a limitation or a denial of my liberty, the liberty of another is its necessary condition and confirmation. So pop the kettle on you work shy idle fop.
–Mikhail BakuninHe might not have said that last bit.
Lyndon Turner Come On Down!!
Feb 11th
Congratulations to Lyndon Turner of Swansea for being nominated a member of the Tea Appreciation Society.
He is member number 100! Obviously an honour in itself, but if you see him in the street, the workplace, or hiding from too much media attention, give the chap a good celebratory pat on the back. Well done Lyndon. To your good health. The Tea Appreciation Society.
Who is Margaret Thornby?
Feb 10th
Margaret Thornby began researching tea rooms the length and breadth of Britain in 1993, following a chance discussion whilst visiting a tea room with friends.
She wanted to create a Guide to Tea Rooms that was comprehensive, thorough in the research and useful to people, who wanted to know where to find a good tea room on their travels. Thus, Margaret Thornby’s Guide to Tea Rooms of Britain was born.
How does she do the research?
In conducting the research, there are some guiding principles that distinguish Margaret Thornby’s Tea Room Guides from others:
All the research is carried out by Margaret Thornby alone. There is no team of researchers, thereby ensuring consistency in approach and criteria.
No tea room can pay to be included in the Guide. All selection is by Margaret’s decision and no one can influence that decision by offering money or other reward.
All visits to tea rooms are carried out anonymously; Margaret does not announce her visit to the proprietor or any of the tea room staff, thereby ensuring that she is treated the same as any customer.
Margaret’s visits, like anyone else’s, are a snapshot view of the tea room on that day.
Due to the need to carry out anonymous visits, Margaret does not have her photograph taken for any media or other publications. She feels as soon as she is recognisable, her cover is blown!
The 4th Edition of Margaret Thornby’s Guide to Tea Rooms had 215 entries. In the process of researching Margaret visited nearly 1000 tea rooms in every county of England, as well as visiting Scotland and Wales.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Margaret-Thornbys-Guide-Rooms-Britain/dp/095258381X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202662308&sr=1-1 If you know the true identity of Margaret Thornby, or you have any information that may lead to identifying the real Margaret Thornby please email: mail@teaappreciationsociety.org
Digital Vs Analog
Feb 9th
I’m no Luddite, honest I’m not.
I don’t advocate the sole use of film, digital photography has its place, In my quiver I have a few digital cameras, they’re easy to use and the result is immediate, as far as digital imagery goes, I’m quite fond of it.
Therein however lays the problem for me with digital photography, a mere fondness.
There’s no passion, there’s no soul.
What I love is ‘Technologically challenged’ cameras, a crappy brick of a camera.
You can’t see what you’ve just shot on a tiny screen on the rear of the camera, the chances are the finished result will be nothing like what you saw in the tiny viewfinder and certainly nothing like what you imagined, and that is the pleasure of it.
Do you remember the anticipation of waiting for that film to be processed? The joy, and sometimes disappointment at the result, it makes you savour the moment you took the image and the time you spend viewing the photo even more.
Like Kipper says ‘do you like Christmas day or Christmas Eve’ The anticipation is part of the joy.
Rather than the quick, disposable digital image that remains tucked away on your hard drive, rarely viewed and very much unloved, you now have a print to hold, to cherish, to unavoidably spill wine over and to show anyone, anywhere.
Of course you can print out any number of your digital images, but if you do, you will only print what you consider to be the ‘best’ of the bunch.
Is this what we mean when we say quality over quantity?
I doubt it, when you take 100 digital photographs of your subject and then just pick the one you like.
I like quantity and quality, the rough with the smooth, adopting the concept of Wabi Sabi I urge you to value imperfection.
You will create beauty.
Girl in the sand – lomo LCA – 100 slide film, cross processed.
A morning spent writing
Feb 8th
Quite a productive morning, I managed a few thousand words on the origin of tea, for the book we’re working on.
I’ve drunk almost as many cups of tea in the process…
8am English Breakfast Tea with a dash of milk and 1 sugar.
8.45 Organic Green Tea
9.30 Earl Grey with a splash of milk
10.40 Assam lightly brewed with Marmite on Toast As I sat and eat my Marmite on toast, I was reminded of EDWARD DE BONO, the guru of creative thinking, who was called in by the Foreign Office in 1999 to help sort out the Arab-Israeli conflict. The celebrated master of lateral thinking promoted supplies of Marmite the yeast extract spread as the means to resolving the region’s seemingly intractable problems. The logic, briefly, is this. A lack of zinc makes men irritable and belligerent. You get zinc in yeast, which is fine for your average lover of Mother’s Pride. But in the Middle East, the bread is unleavened. Ergo, the great man says, Marmite is the answer to easing the way to peace.
Dr de Bono said that the classic approach to problem- solving was to identify the problem and then try to remove it. In world affairs, however, many of the problems were not eradicable. Diplomacy meant working round them. “That’s the kind of thinking I try to encourage,” he said.
He was confident his zinc theory would be proved if only hospitals in the Middle East would co-operate in tests. But he conceded they probably would not.
A foreign Office spokeswoman said “The idea came from thinking about how to make the Foreign Office more creative and introducing the idea that creativity can be taught. Edward de Bono is the guru of creative thinking,” she said.
http://www.edwdebono.com/
