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The Quality of Small
By Winnie, tea buyer and co-founder
Why does Teance use thimble-size tasting cups, wonder many of our
customers? Perhaps Teance doesn't want to dole out too much tea, they
might think, serving its customers in cups barely large enough for a
thumb and forefinger to cradle. In a culture where 'supersize me' is
prevalent, how can such a small serving be justified?
A story my artist father told me came to mind. In the 1300s, a painter called Ni Zan lived in China as one of the foremost eccentrics of his time. Not only was he - to this day - considered one of the finest painters in Chinese history, he was known for his obsession with exploring the extremes of an aesthetic lifestyle.
One day, observing that his favorite water for tea came from a stream that dripped off of limestone rocks into a fountain, he moved next door to these rocks so he could have that water for his tea every day. Later, he made a walnut and pine nut paste that mimicked these rocks and placed it into his teacups, furthering an already very poetic imagery. Each cup of tea became a replica of his rock and fountain garden.
One day a member of the royal family, a scholar and patron of the arts named Zhao, paid Ni Zan a visit. Hearing of his reputation, Ni Zan served his rock fountain tea. Zhao took no notice of such elegance and drank the tea in large gulps, as if to quench his thirst. Ni Zan was so offended by such lack of appreciation that he showed his guest to the door.
I was brought up on such stories - ones in which the value system is quaint, but the spirit of appreciating quality in all its subtlety impresses. Tasting tea in small quantities forces us to pay attention to its preciousness. We have to handle our tiny cups with care, giving us time to appreciate the smooth, jade-like feel of the fine porcelain. Treasuring the small quantity held in these cups, we may pause to appreciate every facet - the intoxicating aroma, the complexity of each note and texture - each cup a reminder that the leaves were hand-harvested one bud at a time and journeyed thousands of miles from their high mountains to us. The flavor of the tea unfolds gently through each infusion as the tea leaves unfurl. Each small tasting cup allows one to savor each of those worlds.
For the connoisseurship of tea rivals the best of wine, and no more would we drink our wine in supersized paper cups. Not only do we not serve our teas in large cups, we also do not serve them in to-go paper cups. Perhaps such obsession with quality seems excessive, but in today's harried and impersonal world, it's not often we encounter an everyday luxury, an antidote to the generically manufactured, infinitely available quantities of goods we are accustomed to. Its smallness accentuates its high quality. That is the paradigm shift we present.
The mission of Teance is not just to provide the best quality teas, or to simply construct a beautiful environment in which to enjoy them. Our vision is also to introduce an aesthetic lifestyle through tea, an uplifting, elegant, meaningful experience, something no amount of money can buy without appreciation, something one can not do without once its significance is understood.
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