WEBVTT - Thou Shalt Put Yourself In The Way of Magic 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:04.800 Hi, I'm Daniel Scheffler, and I have some strong feelings 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:11.960 about travel. This is everywhere today's travel commandment, thou shalt 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:22.840 put yourself in the way of magic. So it turns 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:26.040 out that tea is the number one consumed beverage on 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:31.880 the planet. Wudn't you? Apparently water just doesn't count well 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:34.920 t for me the brit Euros South African that I 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:39.160 am is the hunk essence of my multiculture, passed from 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:43.880 my European grandmother, who served a very formal tea every 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:48.440 day for her entire life less run. She nearly made 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:52.479 that century mark. Well Booby always serve tea with a 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.640 freshly baked set of tarts, cakes, or cookies, or with 0:00:55.760 --> 0:01:00.480 a sort of ever evolving theme over tea. Bibby and 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:04.040 I traveled to Sri Lanka for lyrical sweets and spices 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:06.959 I'd never heard of, or we were off to Brazil 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:11.479 for gooey cheesy bites called pooja the Caju, and then 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:15.360 sometimes we were traveling to Persia for chickpe cookies with pistachio. 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:19.959 She understood that spice and all things nice was just 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.440 the way to her grandson's heart. So it makes sense 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:26.440 that I had been teaching my very American husband all 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:30.880 about beauty and especially the ritual of tea. He came 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.200 from a home where tea was made in a microwave 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:36.720 with a very sad tea bag from the grocery store, 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.760 or it was served very ice and from a supermarket bottle. 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.600 In fact, I think I once overheard his Italian family 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:49.120 say that green tea was only drunk before a colonoscopy. 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:53.200 So now, at four o'clock every day without fail, our 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:57.400 body clocks flick a switch, ring ring, It's tea time, darling. 0:01:58.280 --> 0:01:59.760 And if you think about a team makes so much, 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:05.200 it's long after lunch, dinner feels very far away, and 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:08.480 Lena seems like a huge commitment. So tea it is. 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:11.680 When I came out to mother when I was at 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:15.920 high school, her response was not a problem, dear, let's 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:18.919 have some tea. And when I was doing too many 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.280 drugs and parting my head off any Betha and therefore 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:24.440 at some point I had to let mother know that 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:27.760 I had a substance abuse issue, her response was rather 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.200 the same, not worry, We'll turn the cattle on for 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:33.959 some tea. Even when I broke the news that I 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:38.400 would be moving to America. She ever, casually just rung 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:42.480 for some more tea. So many of my earliest travel 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.639 memories were made alongside tea, from special Island Black Tea 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:51.360 and Mauritius to fancy popotees in London. Take for instance 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:53.880 Cape Town, where I lived as an adult and holidayed 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:57.160 yearly for most of my life within without the family 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:03.520 picture it South Africa. Nelson Mandela is still in prison, 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:07.240 and my European parents are supporting the fall of apartheid 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:10.880 as Paris, as the Eiffel Tower and Rio de Janeiro 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:14.640 has Ipanema Beach. Cape Town has its own icon. That's 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.959 a mountain. It happens to be rather flat and looks 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:22.200 just like a table, hence the name table Mountain. And 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.960 it rises as this bonfire of the Southern world's tip, 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:30.600 where two opposing oceans hug each other, one warm, one cool. 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.480 You have the Winelands winking from a distance. But then 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:38.000 there is this man made birth of the Mother's city, 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:42.320 the ever faithful pink of the Mount Nelson Hotel. And 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:47.040 this is where afternoon tea was the occasion in view 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:51.760 from pretty much everywhere. The Hotel's pink hues are always adapting. 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.320 The Grand Old Building was first painted pink to signify 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.240 peace at the end of the First World War, and 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:03.040 now this ticular blush is formulated to fade to an 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:07.720 idyllic shade between its frequent coats. It is a pink 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:11.520 for your memories, one for the ages. You may say, 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:16.000 not quite as bright as a peony pink, almost that 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:20.320 Jackie Kennedy pink, but really much closer to my own 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:24.839 skin color. At age six, pink was just pink, and 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.360 just as soft as the motherly pink of my travel companion, 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.479 my stuffed pink panther. Also, I thought at the time, 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:38.719 because I was just a six year old fool. It 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:42.719 was one of those long, hot afternoon walks where everything 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:46.039 sticks to your body. The sun is no longer the 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:50.080 friendly sky queen, but the curse of the Saturday afternoon. 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:54.240 In the Cape Town gardens, squirrels suffer the heat, so 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.960 they just stay in the trees and ignore my acorn 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:01.520 laden little hands. And then I see the iconic white 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:05.560 stone column gates where we're given our reprieve, and I 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:09.960 know tea time is near. Moments later, we met with 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:13.440 this meaty smell of freshly cut grass, and a picnic 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:17.279 blanket is shaken out. I watched as the exhibition of 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:20.279 delights unfold on these great lawns of the Mount Nelson. 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:25.000 Uniformed staff perform their ceremony, and a little piece of 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:29.400 England reveals itself. Mother's rosy hands hold her parson cup 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.800 and saucer quietly for a poor of tea milk. First, 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:37.200 she always reminds whomevers within ear shot. The burly silver 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.400 trays show me my own reflection, as many white gloves 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.920 zippili passed them around our silky white picnic blankets, surrounded 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.160 by all kinds of sweetness, A little cloud of paradise 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:53.200 that recalled right under these gigantic African skies, the heat 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.400 is all but forgotten. I am at a mad Hasse's 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.920 tea party, and I am Alice, ready to fall down 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:04.760 a rabbit hole and feast a wonderland of familiar surprises. 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:10.000 So this is what we ate, petite white sandwiches with 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:14.880 crusts evenly cut off, sickly sweet, wondrous cook sisters. And 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:18.359 I dare you to google that oversized milk tarts with 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.600 little rain flecks of cinnama on top, oversized pink fairy 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:25.960 cakes that are soft to the bite, and then oozy 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:29.919 white chocolate. Declares there was even a mini fat cook, 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:35.520 which a direct translation would wield fat cake. As I 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.520 lie on the grass with ants climbing on and over 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:42.640 my toes, I count nearby palm trees. My hands are 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.839 sticky from the clotted cream and strawberry jam I shmeared 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:49.560 on my scone, and I'm still nibbling on. I resorted 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:53.799 doing lazy, small somersaults on the picnic blanket. The Great 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:57.560 Pink Hotel is Topsy turns e and upside Downsy with me, 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:01.520 and I'm write down this sugary rabbit hole, and it's 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:07.800 all curious and curious. So the refilled shiny trays circle 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:12.600 and pirouett mother. She sits ladylike on a low cane chair, 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:17.960 her eyes smiling from under her dark glasses. Something about 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:20.200 the light, or the sun, or just the moment of 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:23.080 sugary beauty makes me notice my skin color against the 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.960 shade of the hotel. I am just as pink as 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:30.480 the hotel, almost one and the same. But we're in Africa, 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:32.920 where most people I've seen around me aren't the shade 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.960 of pink. And it's in this moment, the simple, silly 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.400 garden lawn moment, where I sat for the first time 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.560 in my daft, short life thinking about the color of 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.520 my skin. How a hotel's paint job and a semi 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:51.480 formal afternoon tea could make me aware of not only 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:56.840 my extreme privilege but also my very pinkness. But that's 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:00.200 exactly my elaborate relationship with the tea. It's some how 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:05.320 always with me through the heartache, some heartbreak, those joys 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:11.560 and the delights. It's a bringer of truths, like after 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.200 a particularly dire two years of living in Paris, falling 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.760 off a bicycle, nearly drowning in an Amsterdam canal and 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:22.480 then washing up on Cape Town shores to sober up, eat, pray, 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:26.800 Love came out and I was on a plane to India. 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.840 I know I wasn't even that original. Julia Roberts just 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:33.520 pushed me right over the edge. What can I say 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.240 but judge all you like. Sometimes it's the silliest things 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:40.320 that open up the world, maybe even save your life. 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:45.280 So a few flights later, an overnight train journey with 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:49.360 live chickens and delicious curries, going around for tastings in 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:54.640 my carriage, plus a squeezed rickshall ride. There I am. 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:57.559 I'd found myself at the foothills of the Himalayas, walking 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:02.280 over a giant swing bridge cautiously as I follow signs 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:08.080 that read Parmenikitan Ashram, founded in nineteen forty two by 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:12.679 Puya Shwami. Shook Davinanji Maharaji said that five times past, 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:17.840 the Ashram attracts anyone and everyone. Every country imaginable is 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:21.760 represented here, plus locals wanting to take stock of their 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:25.640 lives also show up. And so I went, with many 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.400 years in between, from one pink palace to another. The 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.600 world here was different to Africa, but in the end, 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:36.040 some things are just the same, like the gentle cycle 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:40.480 of familiarity and that happy routine that happens all too fast. 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:44.920 Mornings started in a very basic room, and I shower 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.880 in this darkness, washing away all kinds of bullshit. And 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.480 then long before dawn, I'm in a yoga class with 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:54.440 a man who's older than a century and a whole 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:58.160 lot more flexible than I am. After yoga, in a 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.480 sort of semi darkness, I would prance around these icy 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.559 floors on the Ashram's great halls. Setting up my meditation 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:08.320 mat for class, I would light some candles, and that's 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.400 when I would think about losing my religion, as if 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:14.840 I ever had one. But first the boy must concentrate 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.120 on eating, and so I do my other savor, which 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:20.800 is an act of service that's not about you. Just 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:24.880 imagine that it involves me serving breakfast in the pink palace. 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:30.040 I eat only once everyone's been fed and smiling food 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.560 at the Ushram. Besides, for the beige breakfast porridge tends 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:37.800 to be yellow from all the termineric. Eventually you forget 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:41.760 that food isn't always sunshine colored, right about the same 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.839 time as your hands start to turn yellow too. After food, 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:48.559 it's time for class, and first up other readings from 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.960 the Bakaba Ghita, a Hindu scripture where there is Prince 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.280 Arjina and his guide, Lord Krishna, and they are chatting 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.720 heavily on the battlefield. I said carefully on a tiny 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:01.360 cushion and peeled over these old books with drawings of 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:05.200 this very theater of war, and I think about chivalry 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:09.560 and how to obtain liberation, not dissimilar to our Prince Argana. 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:14.280 And then some meditation, enchanting. All in Hindi are practiced 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:16.800 to learn to shut off the senses and go straight 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:21.480 to the heart. The head conveniently absent. The hardest part 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:26.000 of my day is here. Afternoons are for sleeping, and 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:29.000 the mountains all around rise into the blue sky with 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:32.800 a way of holding you close. The days don't very much, 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.680 and that is the point. Your day, without your phone 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:41.959 or even a book, becomes the simple wave of a rhythm. 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.960 Your body carries you. Nothing is done with the tricks 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.400 to mind. Eventually my heart starts to open like a 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:50.840 flower waiting for a bee to come to its work. 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:56.640 My mind is clear. Thoughts deviating into any insecurity just 0:11:56.760 --> 0:12:01.240 washes away into this great river, never to be seen again. 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:06.360 I spent several weeks of finding my pleasures in small, 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:11.440 almost menial things. My daily work of washing yoga mats 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:15.640 and sweeping the floors offered me a deep sense of peace. 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:19.760 I run into the Ashrams director one morning. I call 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.640 her Guru almost g as she would be the one 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:25.920 taking over from the current Guru, and I beam as 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:28.480 I tell her how content I feel and just how 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:33.720 happy I am. She smiles quietly at me. Well, she says, 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:37.240 it's easy here at the Ashram. What else are you 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:42.120 going to do? At first I was stunned easy this, 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:47.160 And then she says, when you leave next week and 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:50.600 go into the real world, that's when the work starts 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:57.880 off with my ego's head. So in between all this activity, 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.760 the hours of meditation and not thinking just of myself, 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:05.880 I did find one tiny, rebellious act of hedonism, a 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:10.160 massala chai. Just outside the gates of the Ashram was 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:13.439 this tiniest little store where a lovely man behind a 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.960 stove with cats sleeping all around him, was brewing some 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:21.320 spicy tea. He loved, making it strong and throaty, with 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:25.000 black tea as the base, extra cardamon and cinnamon. He'd 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.560 say it was good for my soul. He'd add in 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:29.480 some fresh milk and honey, and I'm sure there were 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:33.240 secret family recipe spices in there too. It was here 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.800 I would sneak to every afternoon to come have the 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:42.000 smallest shot glass of tea. So simple, so nothing, but 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:49.200 so everything. Let's pause here and we'll be right back 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:51.800 with my friend Holly Fry to give us a little 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:56.440 historical context. Right after the break you've just been somewhere. 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:02.160 What say we go everywhere? Now I'd like to tea 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:06.640 up my friend Holly to talk with me about tea. Hi, Holly, 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:08.880 I feel like I should issue you demerits for that 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.320 dad joke, but I love you, so I won't. I 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.400 don't have a dad bond, so I can dad joke. 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.280 It's one or the other, but not both. No, I'm 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:21.080 Ella's dad, Ella my dog, so I'm a dad. No 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:24.440 dad bond. Ellasie had today and studio with us always, 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:26.640 She's the best co host on the planet. So let 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.160 me tell you a little something about Ella and tea. Yes, 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:33.280 Ella has learned to drink good tea, and I think 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:35.520 the antioxidants so good for her. So I'll make her 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:39.320 a green tea and she'll lap it up. Interesting. Now, 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.520 do you research what tea leaves are appropriate not for dogs? 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:45.040 I would presume. Well, my friend Sarah, who you met 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:48.640 in Nashville, who knows every single thing you could possibly 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.880 imagine about tea, she told me what tea's good for doggies? Perfect. Yeah. 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.800 In fact, I make an iced tea for Ella with 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.520 ice cube, so you put it the hot tea in 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:04.200 ice cube trade and oh, refreshing. Yeah, and green tea 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:08.800 ice cube for ella. So you have spent significant amounts 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:12.840 of time drinking tea, drinking tea and also in one 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:16.640 of the country's most famed for drinking tea, right Britain. 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:19.440 You know te do? Do you know that it's estimated 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:22.080 that a hundred and sixty five million cups of tea 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:24.280 are consuming Great Britain every day. I think it's like 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:27.800 pg tips, which we call build His Tea in England. 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:31.320 I think that's what they consuming. Probably it's not always 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:34.840 the good stuff, but it's a big part of I mean, 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:38.280 if you go to Epcots, which takes bits and pieces 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.800 of each country and puts them together in a little world, 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:44.400 there is a tea shop in Epcot because that's like 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:48.680 the representative of Great Britain. There's an interesting story about 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:53.000 how Great Britain became so tea obsessed and moreover, how 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.480 they started producing their own tea. And it's not super 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:01.920 great because it involves some theft com Yes, so as 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:04.680 a quick run down. So, Catherine of Braganza, who was 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.920 the Portuguese wife of King Charles the Second, is often 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.680 credited with bringing tea to England in the sixteen hundreds. 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:14.080 There is actually a reference in the diary of Samuel 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.240 Peeps from two years before she got there of tea, 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.480 so it's actually a little unclear when he really hit 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.880 the British Isles. But the East India Company figures into 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.160 this story that was established in sixteen hundred and as 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:30.200 tea became more popular in England, that company was like, 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:36.080 we should be monetizing this, and so eventually the East 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:40.320 India's monopoly on tea trade, particularly to the colonies, also 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:43.680 shaped Britain's history. The passing of the Tea Act in 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:46.960 seventeen seventies three shaped American history because it led to 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:50.760 the Boston Tea Party. But during this time all tea 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.880 was still coming exclusively from China, and the East India 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.480 Company was not cool with this because they felt like 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.520 they were forced into a business relations ship that they 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:04.040 did not want. They did some dicey things, including starting 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:06.840 to export a lot of opium to China. This eventually 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:08.520 led to the first opium more which could be its 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:12.080 own whole discussion. But what they eventually started doing is 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:16.320 they found a man who was a scientist who studied 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:20.679 plants named Robert Fortune. He had gone to China in 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:24.920 eighty two on a plant finding expedition, and he spent 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:26.880 a lot of time there. He kind of pushed into 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.840 the edges of where foreigners were allowed to go. And 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:32.680 then he went back to London and then a few 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.440 years later the East India Company said you have to 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:39.800 go back, and this time you have to steal tea, 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:44.440 and so he went for several several years he hired 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:47.119 locals that were experts in the tea trade and that 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:51.000 new people. At one point he allegedly disguised himself as 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.440 a local, which seems weird because he was very tall 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:55.720 and very British looking, so I can't imagine how he 0:17:55.800 --> 0:18:00.320 blended in. But he ended up stealing a variety of 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:05.560 seedling seeds, etcetera, shipping them to India where they started production. 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:09.320 There's a cool glass case that was invented just for 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.200 this purpose, called a Wardian case. It was invented by 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:16.119 doctor Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward and it was like, essentially like 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:18.960 a little seedling terrarium where like a seed could be 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:21.239 planted and it could live out its life cycle in 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:23.240 that little box, and they could ship them that way 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.239 so that when the plants got to where they were 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:27.080 going could open it up and they would be ready 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:30.359 to transplant into soil after a hardening off period for 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.640 all of my gardeners out in the herd. But fortune 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:37.120 in the end, when he died, which was in eighteen eighty, 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:40.680 he had introduced about two hundred and eighty different plants 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.560 species to the Western world from China. That is how 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.440 many plants he yanked out of that country and put elsewhere. 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:52.520 But moreover, India's production became so massive that it took 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:56.280 market share away from China, where he had originated, and 0:18:56.520 --> 0:18:59.160 China spent the next hundred years trying to catch back 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:01.880 up and become the able leader, which it finally became 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:04.600 the largest exporter of tea again in the nineteen fifties. 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:10.040 It's an interesting story about how this beautiful plant that we, 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:13.800 you know, have come to associate with so many daily rituals. 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:16.639 But there is also this underbelly to the story that 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:20.199 China literally was robbed of its tea culture so that 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:22.439 the rest of us could have whatever we wanted whenever 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:24.800 we wanted it. But that's the beauty of tea, right. 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:30.919 So Sarah and I went to Thailand Vietnam, and we 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:35.400 discovered these ancient tea trees that they say a thousands 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:39.440 of years old and carry the wisdom of thousands of years. 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:41.320 And you know from the tea party you and I 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.560 went to with Sarah in Nashville. She talked about the 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:46.679 wisdom of tea and the beauty of tea and the 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:51.639 togetherness of tea, and how the Moroccan culture has spread 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.359 it in the way that it's all day that you 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:57.040 can drink this beautiful tea. I mean, I'm a big 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:59.560 fan of beverages all day long. So I've seen you 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:01.680 with a bridge. Do you ever see me without some 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.960 sort of beverage in my hand? Never coffee tea. I've 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:07.800 seen you take a beverage to the restaurant, cocktail Like 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:10.280 I'm not going to leave my cocktail here at the bar. 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:14.679 I'm just gonna take it with me. I do usually 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.119 have a beverage with me even when I shower that 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.720 I know, I'll put coffee in a travel mug first 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:20.919 thing in the morning so I can take it in 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:23.000 the shower. So I'm a big fan of this idea 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:25.400 of drinking tea all day. So the other thing that 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:27.840 I would love to talk about when it comes to 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:33.439 tea is Americans call rent tea black tea. So what 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:37.359 do you know, Lipton tea is actually red tea because 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.920 black tea is fermented tea called puer and it's from 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:44.240 an area in China called Lijng, which is in fact 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:49.320 where the tea trade and where the tea caravan started. 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:56.400 So tea moved first east into China, south into Thailand, 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:00.600 main mar Vietnam and Cambodia, and event actually made its 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:04.800 way to Taiwan where it was totally changed. And then 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:09.600 the Japanese took tea and refined it into the most beautiful, incredible, 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:13.560 artful thing. Whereas the rest of tea became much more commercial, 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:18.240 the Japanese took tea into a high art of tea. 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:21.679 So there's all these incredible misnomers. And when you travel 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:23.960 and you drink tea and you ordity and you start 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:26.919 learning this stuff, it's such a beautiful way into a 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:30.440 local culture. Like South Africans drink Roybal's tea, which is 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:35.359 actually a herb. South America has no tea. Marte is 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:37.880 not a tea. It's a herb, right, and a delicious 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:42.080 one at that, and a delicious exactly um Europe has 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:46.360 very little tea. It's mostly tisan except for Portugal. They 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.359 have the Azores, which is the only coffee growing area 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:53.359 and tea growing area in all of Europe. But now 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:56.840 with global warming, the real thing, global warming, all these 0:21:56.880 --> 0:21:59.080 regions are changing. So they used to be like the 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:03.200 coffee and tea be all that is changing because you coffee, 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:06.680 for instance, needs higher and higher elevation to grow promptly, 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:09.399 so all these coffee plantations are going up and up 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:14.840 the mountains like in Colombia. And tea needs proper drainage, 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:17.720 and because of global warming and all this stuff changing, 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:20.879 there isn't enough drainage now for these tea regions, so 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:24.840 they're changing. And for instance, China now has like a 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:28.159 completely new region of tea in the north as the 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:31.440 one that lives in Georgia. Peaches don't grow there very 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:36.960 well anymore. Too hot. Yeah, they've shifted up north into 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:40.800 the Carolina's peaches do much better now. Similarly, we have 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:43.280 picked up some of the citrus trade from Florida. So 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:46.800 should I call you the Georgia orange now a post 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:51.280 to Georgia peach If that feels correct to you, go crazy? No, wait, 0:22:51.320 --> 0:22:55.239 what about the Georgia tangerine. All right, all right, all right, 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:58.919 uh yeah, it fascinates me to think about. There was 0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:03.160 also in in Robert Fortune's travels through China. He did 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:08.040 discover that early on the Chinese realized that English people 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:11.600 were not all that bright, and they were actually coloring 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:15.399 some of their teas to make them a more uniform color. 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:18.600 As a consequence, they were adding an awful lot of 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:21.280 toxicity to it. But it was one of those things 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:23.359 where they were like, English people don't really understand this. 0:23:23.400 --> 0:23:25.520 We'll just make it pretty for them and they'll keep 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:28.960 drinking it. Um. So again, it's one of those things 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:32.880 where the nomenclature is not universal because it's been shifted 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:36.199 in all of these export and then people adopting it 0:23:36.200 --> 0:23:38.720 in their own way. But also from the beginning, China 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:41.240 kind of realized other people don't get this, but it 0:23:41.359 --> 0:23:43.840 is our main export, so we will cater to them 0:23:43.840 --> 0:23:46.920 in whatever way seems to work. I love talking about 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:49.720 tea with pretty much everyone because he's such a beautiful 0:23:49.760 --> 0:23:52.359 pot of my life and it always has been. But 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:55.439 I love the idea that you can travel and find 0:23:56.119 --> 0:23:59.679 small ways of connecting with people on the road with tea. 0:24:00.240 --> 0:24:03.240 And something about travel, and it's hard to get tea 0:24:03.359 --> 0:24:06.520 and coffee done in the right way. I always travel 0:24:06.800 --> 0:24:09.760 with a bag of tea and a bag of coffee 0:24:09.760 --> 0:24:12.480 with a grind and a whole set up so that 0:24:12.760 --> 0:24:15.679 wherever I'm traveling in the world, I can make a 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:19.000 cup of tea that's real and amazing. Your bag is 0:24:19.040 --> 0:24:21.320 filled with Star Wars things like, I know that you're 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:25.439 not traveling with I'm not traveling a tea paraphernalia, but 0:24:25.520 --> 0:24:27.679 you could. I think I'm too lazy. Also, when it 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:29.960 comes to coffee at the end of the day, I've 0:24:29.960 --> 0:24:32.880 seen I'm a junkie, not a connoisseur, right Like, I'll 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:34.760 take it anyway I can get it, and I'm just 0:24:35.920 --> 0:24:38.560 pick put it in my anus. I like it. No, 0:24:38.920 --> 0:24:40.720 I mean, I love a good cup of coffee, but 0:24:40.760 --> 0:24:42.600 if it's not so good, I'll still drink it because 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:45.240