Bubble Tea and The In/ Famous Plastic Fat Straw

Posted on 27 April 202221 June 2024 by Lizane Louw

08/12/2018. Taipei, Taiwan. Quan Chang Co. in Taipei manufactures eco-friendly stainless steel straws. These straws are natural alternatives to the multicoloured plastic fat straws traditionally used to drink the trendy bubble tea drink in Taiwan.

Bboba nai cha (Bubble Tea)

No tea story will be complete without writing about bubble tea.

Originally, bubble tea was an iced tea drink that contained a particular ingredient, tapioca pearls, at the bottom of the drink. Today, this bubble tea drink is not always served as iced tea; it can have fruity notes and real fruit as ingredients. This tea or fruit infusion tea today has many varieties and flavours. This trendy tea drink, wildly popular in Taiwan and, in fact, all over Asia, was traditionally made with tapioca pearls and iced tea, hence the name bubble tea. Bubble tea goes by many names, the most popular, Bboba tea, pearl tea or boba nai cha.

The name bubble tea comes from the tapioca bubbles or pearls at the bottom of the drink and the way this delicious milk tea beverage is prepared. The vigorous shaking of the milk in the preparation process also leaves bubbles and foam at the top of the tea drink. Hence the name, bubble tea.

The origin of bubble tea

There are many disputed origins of this trendy Taiwanese beverage. The most famous story is that Bboba nai cha originated in Taichung. However, the story goes that Liu Han Chie of the renowned Chun Shui Tang Teahouse claims that he invented this drink in the 80s. Whilst travelling in Japan, Chie was inspired by Japanese iced beverages. So, when he arrived back home, he experimented with cold milk tea by adding various fruit, sweeteners and tapioca pearls.

The rest, they say, is history. This trendy ice drink’s popularity spread worldwide, and you can find this delicious, refreshing ice tea or iced fruit drink with tapioca pearls in coffee shops and juice bars in most countries.

Apart from this tea drink traditionally served in a transparent plastic “glass” so that the consumer can see the tapioca pearls, it is served with a noticeably thicker and fatter, more colourful straw. This is so that you can slurp up the tapioca pearls and chew these as your drink your sweet iced tea. These pearls are chewy and soft jelly balls. They glide up the straw as you drink your tea.

These fat straws are also causing a big stir in Taiwan; this is reported in the media; the whole bubble tea tradition is being challenged by the Taiwan Government’s crackdown on plastic.

The best bubble tea in Taiwan

I searched for the best bubble tea in Taiwan and landed at Chun Shui Tang, the teashop famous for inventing bubble tea. I visited their most highly recommended teashop in Xinyi District, Taipei City. This famous shopping district is also home to Taipei 101. A landmark building with 101 floors that was once the world’s tallest skyscraper.

When I visited the shop in Taipei, I had to wait for about 25 minutes to have a seat. When I looked at the English Chinese Menu patrons get, the first line and item on the menu read, “The Creator of Pearl Milk Tea”. There was a tiny bubble tea symbol, two different sizes and “iced” or “hot drink” next to this menu item. Even though I wasn’t in the original shop in Taichung, a city more south, I realized that I was about to taste one of the most famous tea drinks on our tiny blue planet, made the way it was traditionally made in the 80s.

The menu looked appetizing, too; apart from the variety of tea drinks, like Sesame Milk Tea, Jasmine Milk Tea, and Pearl Jasmine Tea, something else caught this wannabe tea connoisseur’s eyes. Oolong Beancurd with Bonito Flakes. In short, Tofu and tea. My two favourite tastes combined. Heaven.

The famous bubble tea of Taiwan. A glass of bubble tea. — 08/12/2018. The world-famous “The Creator of the Pearl Milk Tea” as this tea is named on the menu of Chun Shui Tang. Pearl Milk Tea and a very fat straw. Photo Lizane Louw

The fat straw used with bubble tea

I had many varieties of bubble tea during my four years living in Taiwan. Back in 2002, when I visited for the first time, and now, I also enjoyed the more modern, trendy versions of this milky tea beverage. On visits to the street stalls and night markets, I noticed how much plastic gets used for packaging food.

When I go to a regular bubble tea shop, I will get the tea in a plastic “glass”, usually thin and see-through, and there would be a plastic top lid with the now infamous but much-beloved fat straw.

Aware of the waste I produce everyday after a documentary I shot on plastic pollution with TEIA (Taiwan Environmental Information Association). I am, as a result, consciously reducing my plastic consumption, limiting the harm I cause to the environment.

Environmental campaigns

The government of Taiwan also acknowledged the calls from so many environmental campaigns regarding plastic pollution and marine debris. Consequently, the government is taking a very firm stance on plastic.

EPA’s restrictions on plastic straws were introduced in June last year. A notice was posted on the EPA’s website, an excerpt from the Environmental Policy Monthly, dated June 2016.

According to the notice, the EPA has drafted restrictions on single-use plastic straws due to the growing urgency to address marine plastic pollution. The draft stipulates that the following four businesses will be prohibited from providing single-use straws for customers dining in-store: public sector entities, public and private schools, department stores, and shopping malls. This ban will affect 8,000 businesses.

Taiwan’s beloved sweet milky tapioca pearl drinks will be affected by this ban. Since this notice, the internet has ignited protests, and the debate continues. The main question is, “how will we drink bubble tea without a straw?”

Since the announcement of the EPA’s preannounced restriction on plastic straws, the milk tea industry and all lovers of the famous Bboba nai cha, or bubble tea, are discussing it. The conversation on the ban reached all street corners of Taiwan and all the tiny street alleys of all villages and cities.

A bubble tea frenzy

In the press over the past couple of months, various stories have been reported on this bubble tea frenzy online. According to many reports, the Taiwanese can’t imagine not having their favourite drink without a straw.

Plastic straws are single-use plastic items that are not recycled. As a result, these plastic utensils are one of the most harmful trash pieces in our oceans.

“After plastic straws are used, they are discarded in the environment where they break down into small plastic pieces or are ingested by animals. According to the EPA website, the ingested plastic can absorb toxins in the environment and then accumulate and be consumed by animals higher up in the food chain.”

“However, the EPA urges businesses to take early action by not providing plastic straws unless customers request them. The public is also encouraged to prepare their reusable straws to reduce plastic pollution and waste of resources.”

Marine waste cleanup statistics

Taiwan Environmental Information Organization (TEIA) released its 2017 Marine Waste Clean-up (International Coastal Cleanup) statistics earlier. The data presented reflected those straws were among the top three marine debris found by various marine waste monitoring organisations. The total number of straws found in monitored areas where 23,113. Monitoring operations are done in small square blocks on beaches and do not span the entire monitored coast. This proves again that there is a growing problem with plastic, specifically straws ending up as marine debris on the beaches of Taiwan.

Marine waste monitoring operations collected data from September 2017 - to October 2017. Source: TEIA. — Marine waste monitoring operations collected data from September 2017 – to October 2017. Source: TEIA.

According to the data collected in the 2017 Marine Waste Clean-up, the Top 5 marine debris:

Plastic bottles – 49,305 pieces
Plastic caps – 32,347 pieces
Straws – 23,113 pieces
Glass bottles – 17,321 pieces
Plastic bags – 16,436 pieces

Alternatives to plastic straws used in bubble tea

Quan Chang Co. in Taipei is an environmentally conscious company that has offered an alternative to plastic straws. Instead, the company manufactures eco-friendly stainless steel straws.

08/12/2018. Taipei, Taiwan. On display at the Quan Chang shop, there are a variety of eco-friendly stainless steel straws. Apart from the stainless steel straws, glass straws are also on display. Photo Lizane Louw

I visited the shop in Taipei to learn more about these eco-products and buy some of their products that came highly recommended as alternatives to the straws that would be banned in June/ July 2019.

“I made a bunch of straws. They are going back to America, “says Ocean Chang, owner of Quan Chang.

As it is known, QC is a Taiwanese brand that cares for the environment and our health, and a handout of the products is proclaimed. “In fact, for the health of the people, for the health of the environment,” answers Chang to the question of the company’s vision.

On this handout, neatly illustrated and explained are examples of 19 straws. Then, in extensive, bold letters, “ARE YOU STILL USING TOXIC STRAWS?”

“It is a straightforward idea. It is to be good to oneself, be good to others and the environment, and do a kind thing simultaneously,” he said.

A green shop in Taipei

The whole shop is “green”. I scan the shop again as we speak. I look at the tiny GongFu tea set neatly arranged in the middle of the heavy wooden table. I am seated on a big wooden stump, balancing myself in the middle of the rings of the chopped tree. Everything smells like earth. There is soft Buddhist chanting playing in the background. We drink honey water from see-through recycled glasses with yellow rims, and I had my first experience with a glass straw. We eat fruit out of wooden bowls with stainless steel utensils, and we drink more tea as we exchange ideas, him not speaking any English and me with my 200 words Chinese vocabulary. We communicate with the assistance of a translation device.

“Some people will change and buy these alternatives, but the others will probably still use the public straw, says Ocean’s wife, Nancy Chen.

“People are upset because they don’t want to make this change; it is seen as an “inconvenience.”

“It is difficult to change people’s habits,” Ocean adds, “But this is a product of environmental protection that can change people’s habits. Then we need more people to be green to spread the word and educate people,” he said with passion.

Ocean is sitting across from me, speaking Chinese into this small translation device. I have never seen anything like this, and I am rather impressed at how we manage to communicate, me speaking into this tiny little machine in English and my words immediately translated into Chinese. Ocean listens with attention to my questions and answers again in Chinese.

“Plastic straws are toxic. So people need to buy alternative options like stainless steel. Habits that are focused on environmental protection are needed.”

Green straws

“But how do you get people to choose green straws,” he asked. “We must continue to create these kinds of green products, products that are good for the environment.”

Three people enter through the door. Our conversation is cut short. They are welcomed like family.

The lady close to me starts a conversation in perfect English.

“We came here, especially for the straws. I work in the environmental administration department with this idea or policy to ban plastic straws. It is challenging, as the Taiwanese love bubble tea. The problem is that the policy did not introduce a replacement for the straws. Instead, one official saying we can eat with spoons, “said Jeanne Wei, Environmental Protection Administration System Analyst, Department of Environmental Monitoring and Information Management.

Department of Waste Management specialist Lee Yi-Hua said, “people could use a spoon instead of a straw” these words have caused a massive outlash by netizens and the public alike. This is also now the topic in the shop.

Wei was visiting QC with family members, and all of them were making investments for the environment. Her brother Charlie bought a couple of straws to take back to the US.

“In Taiwan, drinking bubble tea is a cultural tradition. So people are not happy about the straws ban,” affirmed Wei.

From the ongoing debates, it is clear that public opinion is against the ban on straws.

There is a lot of waste on the beaches, and as the data of environmental efforts have shown, many straws are found as marine debris. So the problem is shown in the data, the beaches, and the trash bags collected.

“The proposal was disapproved by many people”, according to Wei, “it is a difficult situation to implement this ban.”

Recycling in Taiwan

Taiwan is currently nr 3 in the world in recycling; a country is a well-oiled machine for reducing, reusing and recycling. “The global ban for using plastic bags, Taiwan was very early to implement that. We did pretty well. When I went to New York, I realized that our plastic bags are thicker than those used in the west. I know that people in the west use a lot of plastic bags, with no restraints, but in Taiwan, we have to pay to use them; this helps people be more conscious about using plastic bags; I think this is a good thing “Wei said.

On banning plastic straws, she said it depends on education too. “If we can teach children, it can help. We have to start from the young; this year, I also heard stories about how young people influenced their parents to vote in the referendums.” According to Wei, banning straws is a new idea. “We need to educate children on the uses of plastic and other options to take care of the environment. This is a very new thing; people need to be educated.”

Jeanne and her family left after discussing plastic pollution, environmental protection and tea. Ocean cut more fruit, and we drink more tea.

Investing in eco products

“Every country has environmental groups. We must be united to be strong. This “green” straw is very durable and of good quality. You will save a lot on buying and paying for plastic straws. In the end, this will also help the environment. This is much better for your health too.

But the quality has to be good for it to have this value. So if the quality is not good, then it is not a good product and utensil, “he continues.

According to Chang, many people out there are willing to invest in good quality utensils that are eco products; these straws are good quality and good for the environment.

“Environmental education and education about these Eco eating utensils are critical if we want to protect our environment for the next generation,” says Chang. He looks over at his daughter sitting in his wife’s lap.

I noticed a tear running down his cheek, and he sniffed and wiped his nose. At that moment, I realize that I am speaking to a very passionate man about his work with the environment and that he is speaking into this small translating device with his whole heart.

I saw his heart, and I felt his concern in his expression and words.

“Plastic cause a lot of environmental problems”, he said with a heavy heart.

Alternatives to plastic straws and utensils that can be used in the famous bubble tea in Taiwan. Photo of metal straws and wooden spoons. — 08/12/2018. Taoyuan. I invested in a whole set of environmentally friendly eco products, wooden chopsticks, spoons, and two groups of stainless steel straws. One special straw from their collections was a gift. This small gift, Ocean said, was a thank you for what I also contributed to protecting our environment. Photo Lizane Louw

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The Tao of Tea

Posted on 16 August 202117 October 2023 by Lizane Louw

A Story About a Taiwanese Tea Master and Gongfu Cha

By Lizane Louw

Taipei, Taiwan. Mrs Chang Wen-Hsin, owner and tea master at Ten Shang’s Tea Co in Taipei, serving High Mountain Oolong Tea in a traditional GongFu tea ceremony. Photo Lizane Louw

Taiwanese tea master, Chang Wen-Hshin, was born in Nantou county in a small rural village Mingjian. This area is the most beautiful mountainous area in Taiwan. It is an area that is humid and dense with rainforest trees. The luscious green trees and plants line the mountains. Nantou is also home to Sun Moon Lake. This tea master, Mrs Chang, grew up in a tea village and shares her Gongfu with those who visit Ten Shang Tea shop in Jilin Road, Taipei.

Taiwanese tea master, Mrs Chang was born in the mountains. Mingjian is a village where they now grow high mountain tea. This method of tea, High Mountain Oolong tea, was only developed 30 years 40 years ago. So when she was a child, the tea was not that high in the mountains. Minjiang is a place where they grow tea, make tea, bake tea, and sell tea. They sell their tea, not in shops, but in a local way; it is a local area. This Taiwanese tea master grew up in an area that is famous not only for tea but for agriculture, fresh air and tea.

Tea Dairies, a series of tea stories written by journalist Lizane Louw

The first cup of tea for a Taiwanese tea master

“I had my first cup when I was in my mom’s belly,” Mrs Chang says. Her mother also loved tea, and that is how she got introduced to tea. Before she was even born. Mrs Chang is the 4th generation of family tea farmers that grow and sell tea.

Mrs Chang brews our first cup of tea while talking, and I take the aroma cup to my nose. I smell peaches, jasmine, an infusion of mixed fruit, and a bouquet. I looked up at her, and she smiles and says “You can smell things that you are familiar with. Everything is connected to things that you are familiar with. When she smells the tea, she says she smells her hometown, fresh fruits and flowers.”

For Mrs Chang, tea is about the tea ritual, the brewing steps and what effort she puts in the tea; it is a complete experience, how to do it, the entire ceremony.

Taipei, Taiwan. Mrs Chang Wen-Hsin, owner and tea master at Ten Shang's Tea Co in Taipei, serving High Mountain Oolong Tea in a traditional GongFu tea ceremony. Photo Lizane Louw

Knowledge in a cup

“First, people know about tea from what they smell and taste; as time goes, they will learn about different levels in the tea.”

“The body reacts, but so does the mind: the smelling and tasting release stress. The way you brew tea is how your mind and body calms down. But, there is something deeper in tea. These are old traditions; it is an ancient tradition.”

Life in a tea village in Taiwan

“When she was a village child, people knew tea was good for health. But, back in those days, it wasn’t easy to get an education,” she recounts. “Everyone knew and understood the benefits of drinking tea, but they did not know why. They did not know why it was good. But they knew it was good.”

“Today, there is a lot of research being done,” Megan, Mrs Chang’s daughter that is translating her mom’s words, continues. “And there is more knowledge available, so they are also learning now.” Mrs Chang smiles, and I notice her excellent posture as she sits behind the tea table, brewing tea. “She is learning how important tea is, and she is thrilled to share the knowledge passed on from generation to generation from her home village,” Megan says.

Mrs Chang recalls her upbringing in the mountains and says long before her mother’s generation, they had this traditional way of making tea. The whole family was growing tea. Her father and the older generations sold tea to the big cities. And as people became more educated, they shared their products and knowledge.

She grew up in a big family, one of eight children.

Organic tea

During the 1970s and1980s, Taiwan’s economy got better. During that time, the family was thinking about doing their own tea business, selling tea, and teaching people their unique tea concepts.

People are drawn to scented teas, tea with rose, tea with jasmine, tea with fruits, some people prefer natural teas. “Natural teas, you can taste and smell and feel,” Mrs Chang says. “They sell pure tea, it is from a certain altitude, and they don’t combine different teas or balanced tea like other countries, for example, black teas, they will mix black teas.”

Meagan explains the story of tea with teas that I know, “like Early grey; they balance the Indian and black tea. This is mass production; they want to balance the flavours continually. But our tea has a special character; maybe next season the tea will be different. This is because of the climate, weather, the temperature, the amount is limited.”

“That is our organic tea; that is natural. So you never get the same tea twice,” Mrs Chang continues.

The tea business

In the background, Mr Chang is helping customers buy tea and talking on his phone. He also measures tea from giant ceramic teapots, moving through the shop with a big smile, now and then adding a Chinese expression to our lively conversations around tiny glass teapots and a PinMing tea set.

Mrs Chang’s parents didn’t share their knowledge of tea in an academic way with books. “They transferred their knowledge through experience and practice, not the knowledge from the textbook, but by their experience and traditions. “They were too young to understand everything; most knowledge was gained with trial and error. So they learned from experience and experimented.”

All the teas in the shop come from plantations in the region where she grew up, a wide variety of exotic teas. The tea comes not only from the land they own but also from other family members. From the Alishan Mountain region and Shanming Shi. “We grow our tea in our lands but also co-operate with local farmers and sometimes with relatives,” Mrs Chang explains. “We go back to the tea fields to check the quality; Mr Shang usually does the quality control. He is very knowledgeable on the topic and is susceptible to the quality of tea.”

“It was in Ten Shang’s teashop where they met. My father was the salesman; my mother was the top saleslady. There were different branches called flash shops in these department stores. Every season these shops were re-arranged, and she, my mom, could choose where she wanted to work.”

A love story in a tea shop

Her daughter, translating for her, tells the story of how her parents met. The Taiwanese tea master sits behind the big wooden table and smiles at her daughter. Megan is an art teacher and shares the story of how her parents met. “My mother used to work in her uncle’s teashop; it had the same name, Ten Shang’s Tea. She was 16 when she came to Taipei to work in the teahouse or teashop. She started to run this teashop when she was 20. My father was from Kaohsiung, working with my uncle, and working as a salesman.”

A family tradition

Mrs Chang smiles knowingly as she listens to her daughter’s perfect English. “She is very proud of this history. Ten Shang’s was started by my uncle, my uncle’s wife, her family, and another uncle; they all had teashops. So we were five or six families working together.”

Mrs Chang pulled out an old tea book on the history of tea in a bookshelf next to the tea table and showed me a page. “There was an old advertisement placed by a family member in this decades-old tea book. The advertisement stands out from the others on the page look. The full advertisement illustrates a tea leaf, with the renowned red teapot logo at the top.”

This family has been making tea for decades, and Mr Chang says that their traditions were established long before High Mountain Oolong tea was grown. High Mountain Oolong tea is fermented, and it is a stronger tea.

Another round of tea is served. She watched me closely, and with her friendly smile, she pointed and encouraged me to smell the empty aroma cup again. She also points her nose into her tiny ceramic teacup and smiles knowingly as she looks up.

Ten Shang Tea Stories

I look down into my PinMing teacup, the light yellow tea in strong contrast to the clean white of the tiny ceramic teacup. I put my nose to the aroma cup again. More peach, more jasmine, more pears. The smell is like a summer perfume, with warm summer days, with fruity and floral notes.

The teas we are drinking are High Mountain Oolong tea, one of these tea masters’ favourites. I know this from the first visit. I have tasted High Mountain Oolong tea before, but this is the first time I have had an excellent English explanation and guidance on how to enjoy every note in the tea. The taste is flavourful, light and full.

Mother and daughter page through the book and speak in Chinese. I try to listen for words that I might know. They page through the old tea books on the table and continue sharing stories about family traditions whilst Megan translates. Megan talks about the advertisement again and her surprise when she discovered these old advertisements, the design of the red teapot and how talented her uncle was with design. She is an art teacher, but as our conversation continues around the table with these tiny little teapots, I realized that she is also a tea master in her own right. Like her mom, she also had her first tea taste when she was in her mom’s belly.

“Tea leaves, what a good idea for a design,” Megan says.

Mrs Chang says there were six Ten Shang Tea branches in Taipei. All family-owned businesses. Each shop had its traditions and way of harvesting, making and presenting tea. The family concept was always natural tea and traditional tea ceremonies.

A Taiwanese tea master’s favourite

“Tea takes us back to the original setting of our bodies. Your body tells you what you need and what you should have.”

I asked about Mrs Chang’s favourite tea. She talks about her love for High Mountain Oolong tea. She said that it is concrete all around us in life; the tea area, where it is grown, is very pure; these teas are grown very high in the mountains. “Every season, the altitude and all the different conditions change the teas, so I think this is the most interesting about tea.”

In the earlier times, according to Mrs Chang, Li Shan, Li means pear in Chinese, the fruit, “earlier these teas were grown with pears and peach. They used to grow a lot of peaches and pears. But on Li Shan Mountain, they grew pears; this has influenced the teas from Li Shan Mountain.”

You can smell the fruits in the tea, I say. And she laughs as they reference my name, Lizane, which sounds like Li Shan. Li Shan area was where they first developed teas.

A sensory experience

“When you are smelling the tea, you are in the forest. You smell flowers, and you smell fruit. It is like summer in your cup. This is a natural way,” she continued

I bring the aroma cup to my nose, and the fruity fragrance of peach and pear takes me to the middle of a forest in Nanou. With my eyes closed, I realised that this master of tea was right. The tea this time is more robust; it is bitter when you take sips; it becomes so sweet when you swallow. It is a complete sensory experience, smells, and tastes that transport you to Taiwan’s most beautiful mountainous areas, where they grow the finest teas.

The making of good quality tea

Megan says she was always curious and asked her parents when they visited the tea masters, “what are you doing, what are you making? How long will you wait for the tea.” “And always I got the same answer: ‘it depends’, she laughs. I asked to depend on what?”

“Then I realized it depends on the climate, the humidity, the weather and the temperatures of this year, and today’s sunlight and the temperature of the sunlight. Is it extreme, is it very mild? Is it soft, is it hard? It changes all the time. So this influences the products that you make.”

“Good quality tea depends on many things,” said Mrs Chang.

“Mr Chang put a lot of effort into learning about tea, he studied electronic engineering, but after he received a cup of tea from a family member, he realized the value of tea. He had a sensitive stomach and was told that he couldn’t drink jasmine tea or green tea; it was too strong for his stomach, so he had to drink stronger fermented tea. And he realized that this was a good thing, and instead of taking medicine, he drank tea,” Mrs Chang recalls as she tells the story of their tea history and how her husband fell in love with tea.

Mrs Chang smiled broadly, and we laugh, her face warm and friendly. There are hardly any wrinkles on her face or storylines that I would associate with a woman her age. Megan points at her mom, sitting attentively and listening to her daughter translating the stories. “The real reason my dad fell in love with tea is my mom.” We all laugh. “That was just an excuse.” Mr Chang realised early in his life that there were more tea benefits. He wanted to create a business but also take care of his health.

“I am happy my dad is not selling wine or something like that. I can’t have wine every day,” Megan says as they laugh. “When I get home, I can have a cup of tea with my family, with my mom and dad.”

A family of Taiwanese tea masters

When I walked into Ten Shang’s teashop for the first time about two weeks ago, I was met with the most radiant smile. A warm, friendly face greeted me and pointed me to a table. The warmth of that first meeting is accentuated with this tea experience today. Mrs Chang’s eyes were sparkling white, and I noticed a perfect posture, and her movements were graceful. She was so welcoming that first day. Today she feels like family.

For my western mind, this experience is another universe, I thought. I know so little.

“Even though I was drinking tea in my mother’s belly 30 years ago and still drink tea, I still feel I know so little about tea.” I am amazed at Megan’s knowledge about tea, and I know that I am sitting at a table with traditional tea masters. Mrs Chang has imparted her knowledge to her daughter, who translates all the family stories about tea into perfect English.

Who Megan is today is a product of how she was brought up, having a mom and dad that loves nature and tea so much that they build their lives on the tastes and smells in tiny teapots and teacups.

I share stories of Red Bush tea (Rooibos tea) and tea in South Africa.

Mrs Chang did not study tea. She had primary education in School. She said that you could not research tea back in the old days, but her other daughter, Megan’s sister, Pi Yuan Shieh, studied to be a tea master. “After her bachelor’s degree, she decided to go the academic route. Yuan Shieh was raised in the tea tradition, but she wanted to know more” she went from traditional education to books. As a student, she went to a tea organisation, a government organization for tea planting and growing. She studied, and she got her license as a tea master. She is a tea-tasting master. And according to Mrs Chang, Taiwan wants to spread the knowledge and magic of tea internationally.

Tea for days

Mrs Chang brewed a new tea in her tiny orange ceramic teapot. I stopped counting how many cups I had. Instead, I put the aroma cup to my nose. The tea is darker, a deeper gold and more fruity, more earthy.

The Taiwanese drink so many different kinds of tea. I asked Mrs Chang what she thought about bubble tea. Megan laughs as she translates the questions, “she thinks it is an interesting creation, but it is not the roots of tea. It is not tea. It can be a snack or dessert. She said that putting milk in the tea is not good for your health.” We all laugh and take sips of tea.

I was curious; this is my second visit to the teashop. I was wondering how many cups of tea Mrs Chang drinks a day. Megan answers for her mom: “Countless.”

They laugh as Mrs Chang declares that just after she opens her eyes in the mornings, she will have her first cup of tea, and then she will have tea till ten in the evening. So her days are long, tea days.

I looked over at Mrs Chang and noticed her youthful complexion. I can’t think how old she is. Megan’s said her mom was 56. For 56, she sure looks good. I take a sip of my tea and thought her youthfulness and radiant complexion must be because of the countless cups of tea she drinks every day.

“She says that she is drinking over a hundred cups a day. She drinks tea for almost 12 hours every day. Welcoming people into the teashop and sharing her knowledge,” Megan translates with a smile.

I looked at Mrs Chang and declared that I know the secret of her youthful looks; it is tea. She laughs, and the thin brown frame of her glasses on her nose moves up. Her teeth are white and shines when she smiles.

Tea and health

Mrs Chang says that tea is perfect for your health. In tea there is a little tea oil, that is very good for your body, it protects. Sometimes sensitive skin too can be healed with tea. “If your feet are smelling bad, you can put tea dust, hot water and salt on your feet, which will help eliminate the bad smell. It will heal your feet.”

“If you have allergies, it can help too, by rubbing the tea on your skin.”

In the old day, when they got hurt, she recalls, they did not have alcohol, ointments and stuff, so they used tea when it cooled and rubbed it on their skins. “It wasn’t easy to get doctors back in those days. So to clean the wounds, we used tea; even if we didn’t have any medicine, tea healed the wounds.”

Taipei, Taiwan. Mrs Chang Wen-Hsin, owner and tea master at Ten Shang’s Tea Co in Taipei, serving High Mountain Oolong Tea in a traditional GongFu tea ceremony. Photo Lizane Louw

“Tea can be used as medicine, ointments and medication.”
“The elders did not teach them much, but, when she thinks back now, they taught them all about life.”

This is actual tea knowledge, practical application, storytelling, memory, and cultural experience.

“The utilization of tea is countless; the tannins in the tea help a lot to renew the cells in the body, it is not medicine, but it helps with healing.”

The Gongfu Cha ritual with a traditional Taiwanese tea master

The ritual she performs as we sit and share our stories is the Gongfu tea ceremony. And she explains the brewing ritual in detail and the utensils placed meticulously in front of her. She starts by explaining how to brew tea in the tiny teapot; she speaks about balancing the tea in the balance and sharing cup, the importance of the aroma cup, and then your cup for drinking. The whole set is called PingMing. It is such fine ceramics and straightforward and earthy designs; it’s minimalist. I thought the tea utensils did not take away from the entire experience. On the contrary, it complements it; the focus is on the tea, not the utensils.

“Ming is another word for tea; you use this word if you elegantly speak of tea,” she explains.

Gongfu is like Chinese style Kung Fu, the martial arts. This is an old tradition. She points at the tea table and explains that this is the tea table, and in earlier times, they used a tea ship. She points to a brown ceramic bowl. And there was no smell or aroma cup. The ritualistic ceremony she had been doing the whole morning, whilst sharing stories and sipping tea out of tiny teacups, is an adaptation of Taiwanese style GongFu. The aroma cup is a traditional Taiwanese way of drinking tea.

“They call this ceremony the Gongfu tea way. It is the ritual that creates the right atmosphere for drinking tea.” There are traditional ways connected to conventional stories. “Brewing tea means experience; this is the Gongfu.” Mrs Chang explains.

Show me your Gongfu

“Sometimes in the old days, a customer would walk in, sit down and say to the tea master, “show me your Gongfu” show me your way of brewing tea”, the tea master continues. Every tea master has a different way of making tea, and every tea ritual is other, which is the art of the Gongfu ritual.” This struck me. This tea master is showing me her Gongfu.

The practice of making tea, the secret steps, the balanced way is your Gongfu as a tea master.

You have to be familiar with a tea master to walk into the shop and say, “show me your Gongfu”, Mrs Chang says and laughs aloud.

The Gongfu ceremony is storytelling Mrs Chang says. Stories about generals and war and how the general serves tea to his soldiers. “It is based on storytelling whilst drinking tea; there is also a special way of serving it whilst telling stories.”

This is Gongfu style. True Gongfu. Proper tea, proper ceramics, exciting stories.

What tea to drink?

The Gongfu tradition, according to a Taiwanese tea master

“People ask why we use tiny pots and cups; they are for tasting, not drinking. This is tasting. Like wine tasting, you are not drinking wine; you taste,” Megan translates.

“Your body is more sensitive to taste if you do it like this. This is the traditional way.”

“Tasting tea is like telling stories; while you are researching tea and writing about tea, in the end, you will find that you are writing your own story; that is what attracts people to drinking tea,” her mom says.

Mrs Chang suggests that I start from the middle, drink middle-quality, lower quality, and higher quality tea, and not just focus on one type of tea. “Remember to trust your tongue and your body; your body will tell you what you need and what is good for you. Your body has a preference. This will come from your body. Your body will be sensitive.”

The first tea we had was the 35-per cent fermented tea. That is the High Mountain Oolong tea. Mrs Chang’s favourite. I decided to buy some of this tea. It comes with a hefty price tag.

My introduction to High Mountain Oolong tea

I am a special guest, the master of teas says, and because this is not my first time drinking tea with her, she decided to introduce me to this tea. “This kind of tea, we don’t introduce this kind of tea to people who visit for the first time. This is a new style. We will introduce you to more advanced teas if you want to know more about tea and learn more about tea.”

“When you are young, you drink light fermentation; then, you can drink higher fermentation when you are older.”

“And then you can know the differences in tea, practice to have your style, find your best taste, find your way of presentation and own way of brewing.”

“Tea is my life; for me, it is just like breathing,” she says as I take my last sip.

“Tea connects her to her life, when she was born, when she was a child, when she got married and when she had her children. So she is very proud that this shop, such a small little tea shop, is so popular and that so many people around the world would come to visit such a tiny little teashop,” Megan summarised her mom’s words as the tea master, Mrs Chang, looks at both of us and smiled.

“Every time we share knowledge and our passion for tea, people have unique experiences. In Chinese, we say, use the tea to make friends and meet again.”

“People feel home here; whenever they don’t know where to go, they can visit our teashop,” Mrs Chang says.

Taipei, Taiwan. Mrs Chang Wen-Hsin, owner and tea master at Ten Shang’s Tea Co in Taipei, serving High Mountain Oolong Tea in a traditional GongFu tea ceremony. Photo Lizane Louw

On an A3 calligraphy artwork against the back wall, behind the small orange and black ceramic teapot exhibit, is some Chinese writing next to a big orange stone Buddha. I asked Mrs Chang about this, and she says it is the Tao of Tea. At that moment, I realised that I am in the presence of a real master. A master that is not only teaching me about tea and a whole universe in my teacup, but she is also teaching me a way of living, a way of breathing and existing—my new tool of discovery, tea.

The Tao of Tea, Taiwanese Tea Master

How you drink tea shows how you treat people. Serving tea also shows how you treat people. The tea philosophy is based on how you treat people and, in the end, yourself. Always leave space for yourself. A full cup of tea is not good. Serve 70 per cent and leave a 30 per cent space. “

“He who knows where to stop…. It is a measurement of life. While you are working, your relationships this is balanced. The word and philosophy explained in Chinese means the unit of measurement.”

Today, again, at the bottom of this tiny ceramic teacup, I learned so many things. I was sitting in the presence of a true tea master. I learned a cup is life, a cup is full of stories, and a cup is a universe of knowledge. This philosophy of tea is connected to this ancient Chinese Tao philosophy.

This is the teaching, the Tao of Tea.

Want to know more?

You can read more about my tea adventures and how I got into writing about tea, The Tea Diaries.

For those curious about this ancient tea ritual, here is a video by Slice. A Traditional Gōng Fu Chá 功夫茶 ceremony Led by Master Wing Chi Ip | SLICE

The Tea Diaries and Adventures with Tea

Posted on 16 August 202117 October 2023 by Lizane Louw

Finger Tea Story House Tea Plantation. Mingjing Township, Nantou. A woman handpicking Oolong Tea in the plantation, 480 m above sea level in Mingjing, the tea village. Photo Lizane Louw

I have always had love affairs with coffee and tea. The light, fruity, floral scents of tea suited my summers and springs and the thick, nutty, dark and rich chocolate aromas of coffee for my autumns and winters; I kept tea diaries about my adventures with tea

I travelled the world searching for spices and textile prints, flavours and tastes and decided to put together this series of tea stories in a collection, The Tea Diaries and other tea stories.

Growing up with tea

My tea stories and sensory journeys with tea started early. My first memory is from my kindergarten class in Cape Town. We used to sit lined up against a wall on the cold cement floors of the school, our little hands folded in our laps, waiting for a sterile metal cup of Rooibos Tea. The teas in these metal cups were milky white and sweet and had a strong earthy herbal smell.

Growing up in South Africa, we lived very “British”. There were always delicate white porcelain teacups with flowers and saucers and a beautiful teapot served on trays with cookies. Grandma and mom served tea the British way with sugar and milk. I have often wondered why we drink tea with milk and sugar, but it took many journeys to far-off places and living in Asia for eight years to figure out why South Africans in South Africa would drink tea the British way. South Africa has a long history with the Brits, which is also reflected in one of our favourite pastimes, drinking tea.

I remember my grandma’s heavy Imboya table, with white knitted doilies. The multi-pattern doilies were hand-stitched with white cotton yarn; they looked like crocheted lace. The whole set up so delicate. I was always scared to bump over a teapot or teacup accidentally. I never wanted to stain these soft hand-woven table and tray decorations. It was also Ouma who introduced me to this magical plant from the Cederburg mountains.

Tea, the British way

The Brits, of course, built their tea drinking traditions in Hong Kong, which was a British colony. As they say in Chinese, Nǎichá or milk tea, was the British tradition of drinking Chinese black tea with milk and sugar. This tradition spread over to all British colonies because, as we know, the Brits love their cucumber sandwiches and afternoon tea.

So black tea, the Lipton brand, with sugar and milk was my first real introduction to tea. Lipton, and Rooibos are made from the red bush, a fynbos species in Southern Africa. As I figured out years later, Rooibos tea was a robust and healthy herbal tea. Grandma introduced Rooibos and their medicinal value as herbal tea to me as I grew up visiting them on the farm in Clanwilliam. I was so impressed with her words and the healing properties of this red bush tea that I used to collect bags of Rooibos and infused this in my bathwater. Bathing in tea is still a tradition in my house today.

Mingjing Township, Nantou. Oolong Tea in the plantation, 480 m above sea level in Mingjing, the tea village. Photo Lizane Louw

Tea legends and tea stories

I have often wondered where tea comes from. There are a lot of myths about the first cup of tea. Legends in India tell stories of Buddha, the first man to drink tea. The legends declare that during his seven years of sleepless contemplation, Buddha harvested a few young leaves from a nearby bush where he was meditating. The tea myths retell that Buddha plucked a few leaves from a nearby bush, clipped them and added the leaves to boiled water to infuse them. The story goes that this helped the Buddha fight fatigue when he began to feel sleepy. The legends refer to this bush as a wild tea plant.

The Chinese also have their legends and many stories in ancient manuscripts and historical texts.

Lu Yu’s book the “The Classic of Tea,” tells the story of Shen Nong, also described as the “Divine Farmer” or “God of Agriculture” in this classic book, translated from the Chinese, the “Cha Jing.”

Shen Nong

According to legend Shen Nong was sitting beneath a tree while his servant boiled the drinking water for dinner. Some of the leaves from a tree nearby fell into the water he was boiling, which coloured it brown. Sheng Nong was interested in this brown-coloured liquid, and he drank it. “The divine farmer” found the drink refreshing, and the myth goes that this is how tea was created. And of course, because tea is so delicious and refreshing, the word spread, and tea culture developed.

No one knows the actual origin of tea; as my interest in tea, coffee, herbs, and spices grew, I searched for the best teas and coffees on my travel journeys that took me to over 60+ countries.

Love affairs with coffee

My love affairs with coffee were winter affairs. From dark, black, thick instant coffee in the mornings on the farm, when we helped to milk the cows, to mud coffee in Tel Aviv on a hitchhiking trip with a friend, south, from Tel Aviv to Eilat in Israel.
The coffee in Spain was memorable, served in tiny cups, café con Leche, coffee with milk, in the morning market when I went to buy fresh bread, olives, tomatoes and smoked ham. The coffee was sweet and complimented the new smells of freshly baked bread and Mediterranean delicatessen in the morning markets in Santa Catalina, on the island of Mallorca.

I discovered Blue Mountain Coffee on visits to Jamaica. These coffees, of course, in my opinion, are the best in the world. The fascination comes from my love for reggae music and, of course, the Blue Mountains in Jamaica. Unfortunately, I only drove on the coast from Montego Bay, via Ochos Rios to Port Antonio; I saw the Blue Mountains in the distance. I saw enough to be drawn to the island and the heavy, nutty-chocolate, thick Blue Mountain Coffee. It has been over 20 years since I have been to Jamaica, but I still drink my Blue Mountain Coffee in winter. I got a syphon coffee maker and hand-ground coffee grinder for Christmas two years ago, so my journey of discovery of coffee continues.

Tea journeys and the tea diaries

The tea journeys and memories are the most memorable and were also the most intense learning experiences. I spend months travelling India, crossing the Indian continent in 3^rd class train compartments cramped with other pilgrims, wallas and travellers. The chai wallah was announcing freshly brewed masala chai between stations: Chai, the Hindi word for tea.

Masala Chai and samosas. A hot milk tea drink and spicy vegetable snack combine the flavours of India. The smells are sweet, aromatic and spicy. Masala Chai, the aroma of herbs and spices, sweet and spicy and the milky taste combined with the vegetable dough triangles. These Indian traditions of food and tea were enough reasons for me to stay for months. The backstreets of Delhi, Jaipur and Varanasi still have the best Masala Chai; there are chai wallahs on every street corner, from Uttar Pradesh to Kerala.

Each region, of course, has their masala flavours and spices that spice up its peppery milk tea. India is sewage, incense, curry and masala chai.

Taiwan tea stories

My journeys with tea and coffee and my curiosity about herbs, spices and culture took me over the world for 20 years. I think I have visited over 60 countries; I stopped counting. These experiences have inspired some of my most enjoyable journeys, The Tea Diaries and other tea stories.

After arriving in Taiwan for the second time in 2016 after my extensive samosa, curry and masala chai trip through India, I discovered a more profound passion for tea.

It was in Taiwan, in a small village, one train stop from where I lived in Taoyuan, that I discovered the Chinese way of drinking tea.

The Chinese, and of course the Taiwanese way of drinking tea, challenged my whole perception and understanding of what it is to drink tea and why we drink tea. A real new world of discovery awaited at the bottom of a Pinming teacup.
The Indian way of drinking tea awoke my senses, and the tea was just a complimentary addition to my journey. Still, in Taiwan, the word tea established its meaning in my travel vocabulary.

Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water –– and from sugary Turkish Rize tea to salty Tibetan butter tea, there are almost as many ways of preparing the beverage as there are cultures around the globe. Where did this beverage originate, and how did it become so popular? Shunan Teng details tea’s long history.

Discovering a tea and ceramic village

The word tea is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as a hot drink made by infusing the dried crushed leaves of the tea plant in boiling water, so Chinese. It also defines “tea” as a light afternoon meal consisting of tea to drink, sandwiches and cakes, so British.

Living alone in a country where you don’t speak the language can sometimes be challenging, but these challenges frequently take you to unexpected places and on incredible journeys.

One such journey of discovery took me to Yingge. When I first heard the name of this renowned ceramic art village, I thought about the children’s story Heidi by Johanna Spyri. This story is about this small girl living in the Alps with her granddad and all her adventures. I thought that the name Yingge sounded like one of Heidi’s friends. She might have been the girl that milks the cows. I had no idea how a Swiss-German name ended up being a village name on a small Island south of China. I am still trying to figure that out.

Yingge then is where my love for tea developed, and my serious research into tea culture and teas began.

Yingge, a sensory tea experience

Yingge is a short train ride from Taipei. It is located on the Dahan River in southwestern New Taipei City. The most famous street, Old Street, is a walk away from the Yingge train station. Tourists are welcomed to Yingge with English street signs and directions, so it is hard to get lost, but it is easy to lose yourself.

Upon arrival in the village for the first time, I was utterly taken with the mosaic work on walls, artworks depicting teapots and mythical figures in all colours and shapes. The Japanese Colonial architecture is eye candy.

I have often jumped on the train to Yingge to stroll through the cobbled old street. The smell of freshly baked baguettes and bread hangs thick in the air on Sunday afternoons. An old lady sits and plays a round ceramic flute in a small Buddhist temple down the street. This is the soundtrack of Yingge. Yingge is an art and culture experience that awakens all senses.

I would stroll down these cobbled streets often and imagine myself being somewhere in Europe. The village seems quite out of place here in the Far East.

The tea culture in Yingge

I fell in love with Yingge and its tea culture for many reasons. First, the village’s name reminded me of my European descent, and then the ceramics and the application of ceramics to religion, daily life and architecture make this art village stand out. Everything is functional and decorative. A certain kind of Zen to the place is tough to put into words. It is a peaceful and creative place. Little did I know that my visits to this village would inspire many tea stories.

On one such adventure to Yingge, I met Nichol, a tea master. Nicole runs a teashop at the bottom of Old Street called AllForTea. I discovered this tiny little teashop by chance on a stroll one Sunday.

Drinking 50-year-old tea

That Sunday afternoon, I sat with Nichole for three hours, taking part in a traditional tea ceremony, not knowing what I was experiencing. I had my first taste of 50-year-old tea. I can imagine how clean the earth must have been when this tea was harvested. It tastes like clean dirt: earthy, heavy and woody.

After I left the teashop that day, I felt somewhat lightheaded, the colours around me were very vivid, and I felt my nose and chest opening in a way I can’t describe. I think I was tea drunk and “tea high” the feeling was euphoric, but I wasn’t sure if it was the tea or if it was just me being swept away with the tea experience.

Visiting the teashop regularly and observing what Nicol did during the tea ceremonies made me more curious, I asked her numerous questions that she explained in her broken English. Upon one of these visits, I decided it was time to invest in my tea utensils. I bought a tiny black ceramic teapot with red cotton string tying the lid to the tiny handle. I also bought a brick of 12-year-old tea. This brick is a round, compressed tea block; it looks like a flat cake. You chisel the brick with a special tea knife and tea needle. This silver tea needle I got as a gift from Nicol, and I set out and bought all these unique utensils I needed after that because I felt that I needed that tea Zen feeling in my own life.

I started reading up more about Yingge, ceramics, Buddhism, Zen and art of tea. I found a place where all these natural elements of Buddhism, the minimalist aesthetic portrayed in art and household utensils, comes together. All around the village, there are masters, masters in art, masters in cooking and of course, the tea masters.

The Gongfu way of making tea

I decided that this is the aesthetic that I wanted for my life. The tea experiences and stories from this tiny village with the name of a Swiss-German girl profoundly impacted me.

Time stops when you are drinking tea the right way. Or at least this feels like this is the right way because of the ritual involved. Drinking Gongfu tea is a complex process.

One Thursday in late November 2018, whilst battling with my master’s degree, I had a chance to revisit Yingge, this time with someone that also wanted to have a real tea experience. The village was a must-visit destination at least once a month, just for inspiration for my art and, of course, to spoil myself with ceramics for my house.

So, during some serious writing for said master’s thesis in journalism, I had this visitor from South Africa. I took her on a walk through Yingge and needles to say we ended up in the teashop with the tea master. After about an hour, Nicol showed me the way to a table set up for Gongfu, with a Gongfu tea set. I finally learned how to set this up for a ceremony. It was an extraordinary moment in a tiny little teashop, drinking teas I had never tasted before. I finally shared the ancient ritual this friend had only heard of in my stories. I was doing my first Gongfu tea ceremony under the eyes of my first tea master.

Gongfu, if translated, means “making tea with skill.” I decided I want to master the art of tea making.

Until that moment, even though I was performing the ritual with precision from observation, I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing. It was still just an everyday ritual for me. My Chinese is poor, and I am left to discover much meaning from observation.

Becoming a student of the tea leaf

I kept burning my fingers with the tiny little teapot, the Gawain. This is a handleless little pot used to infuse the tea. As my learning continued as a student of the tea leaf, I learned later, just like in martial arts, there were various ways to hold this tiny little pot so that you don’t burn your fingers. I instinctively used a yin position in my hand not to burn my fingers. I realised that this little teapot or teacup would be a teacher. With the Gawain, my education in Gongfu and tea started.

There is something about time that stands still when you focus on making a proper cup of tea. It also helps if you have High Mountain Oolong tea. Probably the most fragrant tea I have ever smelled.

In a tea-tasting ceremony, you will also come across this tiny little fragrance cup. The tea ritual is quite complex, but one part of the ritual is just smelling the tea. High Mountain Oolong tea smells like a mix of jasmine, mango, grapes, peach and fresh grass. With every pour, the tea becomes lighter. You can infuse the tea leaves ten times. It is a magical experience to watch a tea master wash tea leaves and the tiny ceramic teapot that goes with this special ceremony.

Teapot adventures

On that visit to the teashop, when I did my first ceremony, we decided we wanted to go in search of the perfect little teapot. I shared my love and passion for tea with the visitor, and we decided to set out to Yingge a week later on a teapot adventure, searching for the perfect little tea ceramic tea infuser.

We were rummaging through a variety of shops lining the cobbled street. I created pictures as we walked through the shops to visually document the teapot search.

The first Gawain’s we found were meticulously designed. I have never seen such good lines and functionality on a piece of ceramic art. These tiny teapots were Zen masterpieces, tea instruments that can stand on their sides, balancing against gravity. They were green, the colour of fresh olives. I was mesmerized. It had a hefty price tag, and I walked away from this set with a heavy heart.

In search of the perfect tiny teapot

I kept searching the whole day, having the perfect little minimalist Buddhist tea in mind. I walked into each shop, touched and “oohed” and “aahed” at all the tiny teapots I saw. Before heading home, I finally found a little shop stocked with the white ceramics I was looking for. I bought the Gawain, the filter, the tea pitcher and pinming cups. The tiny little teapot arrived in my life in the form of white ceramics, simple lines, with a lip that curved at the top. The pingmin cups echo the design of the Gawain. It is so simple but so profound. When you drink the tea, it feels as if your lips curl around the edge of these tiny teacups. Perfection.

We headed to the Buddhist shop on the corner of Old Street. Monks from the nearby temples buy their wooden eating utensils and wooden bowls, trays and wooden tea utensils in this shop.

I am stoked up on everything I needed. I am ready for my adventures with Gongfu Cha.

The impact this experience has had on me is rather difficult to put in words. I suggest that anyone who loves tea and art should visit Yingge. Anyone open to discovery, not only of art and visual aesthetics but how the Buddhist lifestyle and a simple tea ceremony can teach one to be present, mindful, and in the now.

All of this, a world of discovery, in a tiny cup of tea made from the best loose-leaf tea from the high mountains of Taiwan.

If you want to read more, read the Tea Diaries and other tea stories.

A masterpiece of ceramic art, the teaware art of Ten Ting-Sou. This is the most beautiful teapot I have ever seen. Photo Lizane Louw

Autumn News ’22

Posted on 25 July 20212 March 2023 by Lizane Louw

Location

:📍BERLIN

AUTUMN NEWS/LETTER

Finally, I had some time to sit down and share the latest news on projects I am working on and what is happening behind the scenes.

To say that I love Berlin would be an understatement; the past three months were busy, and we attended many exhibitions, events and workshops. Daniel and I also tried to spend as much time as possible exploring the city and the green spaces around Berlin, winter is slowly moving in, and our days here in Germany are colder and noticeably shorter.

I have much to write about and will spend the winter behind the writing desk in the studio. Winter will be more practice in slow living as we find balance in this incredible arty and vibey city, Berlin.

We love exploring the forests and lakes around Brandenburg and Berlin, and we spend a lot of time in nature; our Shinrin-yoku practice keeps us balanced. I am inspired to write and will share more stories and travel features in the coming colder months.

Whilst working on the new art photography print shop, I came to the realisation that I have an extensive body of work and archive I built up over 16 years, a lot of documentary and portrait work that has not been shared, work from trips in India, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and more. I am spending time brainstorming and applying my newfound information architecture and design knowledge to my work and will share more photographs from the archive once I have mapped out the visual journey of the projects.

Whilst I am pausing between the notes and brainstorming what to do with all the work, you can follow a new Instagram account I created for this visual retrospective.

Caught in the moment. Grunewald Forest and Teufelsberg, west Berlin. Photo Daniel Windel

The latest news on current projects and new visual work

: Studio Lizane Louw

I am busy editing and organising the selected work that will go into the online art photography gallery. Working through an archive that spans over 16 years is quite a challenge, but am enjoying the process, and so many new ideas and projects have transpired from this. I am finding myself in a creative flow state; I am so inspired.

Land of Fire and Ice, created in 2021, will go live in the coming weeks on my website. This project was a challenge, and the process of putting together a body of work like this takes time; I am happy that I gave myself the space to think about this work and to place the work in the context of the larger theme I am working within, the documentation of our photography expeditions to remote places and working on a curation called “Elements of Nature”.

The art photography gallery studiolizanelouw.com will launch soon. Keep your eyes on my social media pages. Behind the scenes, the new site is taking shape, everything is being set up, and we will be ready to go online soon.

Latest news: Studio Lizane Louw Website — studiolizanelouw.com

NEW PROJECT

: Unnamed (for now)

I have been learning more about using text with images over the past month and started working on another creative project inspired by some brainstorming sessions in workshops with other photographers and writers. The idea is to develop this theme into an exhibition and a book. The project is developing slowly, and I will share more as I refine the idea and put this body of work together. I am inspired to also put my thoughts on paper and to offer word and image workshops in the new year. More about that soon.

You teach me to pause and live each moment. You activate all my senses with each of our interactions. I seek to be in harmony with the rhythm of the universe. I often stumble and fall. I have much to learn as a student of the tea leaf.

#chadao #thewayoftea #teastories #photographer #fineart #fineartphotography #textandimage

Fire and Ice: Elements of Nature

I am attending an image and text workshop by Shirley Read and Christina Dunhill. These weekly workshop sessions are running until the end of November. I am finally getting inspiration and guidance on how to put this series I am working on together. We have been experimenting with images and text and text in the exhibition space, and I am working on refining the text that will go with the body of work.

I am in a creative flow state and looking forward to my next photo expedition and to continue working on this project. I hope to get to Greenland, Svalbard, the Himalayas, India and beyond to continue my long-term work on the human impact on the environment. Documenting climate change and global warming is challenging; working on environmental issues is a lifelong commitment I am dedicating myself to. I have always been interested in nature and how nature works, and am now interested in the changing environment and our human relationship with nature.

New visual work to be published on my website soon

: Land of Fire and Ice, Iceland 2021.

Land of Fire and Ice, Image from Iceland. Glacier landscaspe. — Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, Iceland.

We spend 18 days exploring Iceland on a Ring Road Road Trip. It was an epic adventure.

This collection will be a selection of images available as Giclée Fine Art Prints on Hahnemühle Fine Art Paper and prints on brushed aluminium. Land of Ice and Fire, Series I, coming soon.

Photography research

I am writing more about photography, doing more photography and multimedia research and also started studying UX Design this September.

I am officially working on a UX/UI design qualification. What is UX/ UI design, and why study it?

I was introduced to interactive and immersive storytelling in 2014 when I studied multimedia journalism at the Asian Centre for Journalism at Ateneo. Even in my master’s thesis in 2019, I explored visual communication and how visual messages are constructed and can impact how we receive information.

A visual message is a powerful communication tool; it can persuade, educate, entertain, and inform, whether the message is in texts, infographics, videos or photographs.

The work of interactive designers and visual journalists at the New York Times at the time inspired me. I wanted to learn how to tell stories in an immersive way. So, at the time, I did a diploma in graphic design to learn more about design.

As my passion for visual storytelling developed and the way we consume information changed, I was inspired to research and learn more. I am interested in creating interactive and immersive stories. Moving forward, I will be focused on creating meaningful visual experiences through which an audience can discover and consume stories and information on digital platforms. Finally, I will explore visual design a bit more.

I will continue my storytelling and photography adventures but will streamline my content to align with my ambitions for my multimedia studio. More on that soon!

To think about it, how can I not pursue design studies at this point in my life? I live in Berlin, a very arty and vibey city, in a country that gave us Bauhaus, the avant-garde movement that transformed modern art.

I am inspired. One day I hope to follow this path with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Communications, so this is the groundwork I am doing.

I am such a nerd! And my first love is photography!

If you have any questions? Get in touch!