WEBVTT - From the Vault: Tea, Part 2 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.200 Hey, Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:08.840 is Robert. 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:11.479 Lamb and I am Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. We're 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:13.800 heading into the vault for an older episode of Stuff 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.440 to Blow Your Mind. This is part two of our 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:20.079 series on Tea. Part one ran last Saturday. This was 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:22.960 originally published February seventh, twenty twenty three. 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:30.120 Enjoy the Immortal Dan Chew abandoned eating jade elixirs, picking 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:35.400 tea instead. He drank and grew feathered wings. The world 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:39.440 is unaware of the mansion of imminent and hidden immortals. 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.159 People do not know of the palace of transmuting bone 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:47.040 into clouds. The lad of Cloudy Mountain blended it in 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.560 a gold cauldron. How hollow the fame of the Man 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:53.519 of Chew and his book of Tea. Late on a 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:58.640 frosty night, breaking cakes off fragrant tea brewed to overflowing 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:03.320 the pale yellow frog, I sip and am reborn. Bestowed 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:07.440 by the gentleman. This tea dispels my suffering, cleansing my 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:11.480 mind from worry and fear. Come morning, the emotions of 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.800 the fragrant brazier remain intoxicated. Still we walk across the 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:20.120 clouds reflected in Tiger Stream in high song I send 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.680 the gentleman off. 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:28.560 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:37.480 Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:41.520 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. That is from 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:45.320 a song of Drinking Tea on the departure of Zing 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:51.720 Wrong by jou Ran. This particular bit of Chinese poetry 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.120 I came across when I was reading a blog post 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:59.160 four ancient Chinese poems on tea in one Symphony. This 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:03.160 was on the website Tranquility Tuesdays, and I found this 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:07.240 one interesting because the author of this piece pointed out 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.880 that the piece that we opened the first episode off 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:13.919 with the seven bowls of Tea is just very well cited. 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.080 You'll find it referenced in just about any history of tea. 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:20.520 It frequently shows up on tea blogs and so forth. 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:23.520 The author here noted that, you know, given that it is, 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:27.799 you know, over sighted, that one should also include other 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.040 poems of note, and this is one such poem well so. 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:34.120 In the original poem, I'd say the major theme was 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:38.280 sort of the mounting levels of experience that come with 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:40.600 each successive cup of tea up until you hit the 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.959 danger zone, crossing the threshold from the sixth to the 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:48.160 dreaded seventh cup. In this case, what would you say 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:51.360 The main themes are I see here kind of a 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:56.440 community or a filial aspect to the tea talking about 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:58.799 you know, the lab bruise it, and then these two 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.680 drink it together. Sure exactly who these two people are 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:02.320 supposed to be? 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.200 Yeah, there's definitely more of an earth bound since here 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.960 I'm getting you know. It is, of course beautifully written 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:12.840 and has that kind of ethereal quality to it as well. 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:16.920 But the tea is not just taking you and transforming 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:21.280 you into an immortal and sending you to a mythical lands. 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.640 It's making you feel reborn, but also all of the 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.600 world as well, or at least that's my interpretation of it. 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.520 So anyway, Yeah, this is part two of our look 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.560 at Tea. We're already hearing from some folks regarding our 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.640 first episode, and in the second episode we're going to 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.640 continue the journey. So go back and listen to part 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:43.440 one if you haven't heard it yet, because in that 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:47.240 last episode we discussed the botanical facts concerning tea, as 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.680 well as some myths about its origin. But now that 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:53.880 we've established what tea is and where it's spring from, 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:56.760 and referenced some of the mythological ideas about tea and 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:00.360 read a couple of poems, this most recent was Tanged Honesty, 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:02.839 by the way, at this point, I think it's time 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.840 to discuss the history of tea in a little more detail, 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.600 especially as it concerns the ways that it can be 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:14.760 prepared and was prepared across time. So I think it 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:17.919 makes sense, first of all, to just look at some 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:23.479 of the steps that are frequently employed in preparing tea 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.960 after it's been harvest what happens between it growing on 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:32.440 the plant that we discussed in part one and somehow 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:37.039 making it into a cup or bowl of tea the beverage. 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.440 Right, and so one thing we talked about in the 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:42.920 previous episode is how different types of tea that you get, 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.080 say black tea versus green tea versus white or oolong, 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:50.240 they will usually be from the same plant or the 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.760 same of a couple of variants of this plant, Camellia senensus. 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:56.960 There's one tea plant, and so the differences you get 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:59.520 in the different teas are based on how it is 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.279 processed and prepared. 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.520 Right, right. So one of the books I've been looking 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.280 at here is Laura C. Martin's A History of Tea, 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.119 and I think the author does a fabulous job laying 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:15.200 out the history and also the different steps involved in 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:19.280 creating these beverages of tea. She points out that no 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.120 matter what sort of tea preparation you're talking about, certain 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.000 steps are common to many of them. Not all varieties 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:28.200 of tea involve all the steps, but it's worth going 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:29.880 over them all and then we can say, well, this 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:32.360 one doesn't involve this step, and this one does involve 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:32.800 this step. 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:35.960 Okay. So it starts, of course, with the gathering of 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:40.040 the leaves. Usually on tea farms, they will be collected 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:42.800 as flushes, these sort of top buds of a couple 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:45.600 leaves and a shoot coming off the top of the plant. 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:47.920 Those will be harvested and the rest of the plant 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:50.400 will be left there to produce new flushes in the future. 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:53.080 And so you gather a bunch of these flushes of leaves, 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:54.240 and then what do you do with them? 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.279 Yeah, you could, I guess, just stick them in your mouth. 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:00.000 But here's the thing. If you do that in certainly 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:02.080 we have some of these tails of some of these 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.840 mythical origins of tea saying that's what happened, people stuck 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:06.880 it in their mouth, And you know that might well 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.599 be connected to some of the original ways that human 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:14.280 beings explore the natures of the tea plant leaves and 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:16.680 even gain some of the effects. But if you just 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:18.440 stick them in your mouth and start chewing, it's going 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:21.680 to be really bitter. So this is at this point 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:25.160 we have the first step of withering. So the fresh 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.120 green leaves and buds are dried out, either in a 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:31.320 heated room of some sort or they're left in the sun, 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.040 and this causes the starch in the leaves to begin 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:38.159 transforming into sugar and the moisture content drops by fifty 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:41.799 to eighty percent, and this allows the next possible step 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:44.200 to take place, which is the rolling of the tea 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:47.120 leaves and then be able to roll it without breaking 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:49.760 the leaves. This is something you might have to think 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:53.080 back to your childhood days of like playing with leaves 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:56.240 and sticks. But sometimes if a leaf is fresh and 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:58.520 you go to like roll it up, it's going to 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:02.480 it's going to break, all right. The rolling part here 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:06.720 is often done via machines today but was historically done 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.600 by hand, and the rolling without breaking here twists and 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.400 crushes the leaves in a way that releases SAP, exposes 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:19.000 it to oxygen, and stimulates fermentation. Additional rolling and or 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.680 sifting may take place here as well, so that's step two. Now. 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.960 One reason you might be rolling or sort of bruising 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.920 these leaves in some way essentially handling them roughly, is 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:36.920 in order to stimulate oxidation. Oxidation in general refers to 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.440 a broad class of chemical reactions that take place when 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:45.040 molecules are exposed to oxygen or another oxidizing agent, and 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.440 a core feature of an oxidation reaction is that the 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:51.600 molecules that are getting oxidized are losing electrons, but that 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:54.120 doesn't tell as much. It's usually it's some type of 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:59.200 chemical reaction. Now, it's interesting that the deliberate oxidation of 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.600 tea leaves is an important stage in their processing, especially 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:07.840 for producing darker teas, less so for greener teas, because 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.960 most often oxidation in foods is not something you want. 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:17.640 It's an undesirable outcome associated with spoilage and ransidity. So 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:21.040 some examples, and I guess these would be the closest analogies. 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.440 There are oxidation reactions of various types, like there's oxidation 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:29.000 of fats and so forth in oils. But for an 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:31.600 analogy in plants, think about when you cut an apple. 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:33.320 So you cut an apple in half and you leave 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:37.080 it out on the counter. What happens, Oh, it turns brown, right, 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:41.640 And this browning is not generally considered good. It's not 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:45.120 something that makes the apple harmful to eat, but most 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:47.720 of the time people don't find it very appetizing. It 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:52.040 changes the appearance and sometimes the flavor and texture as well, 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.920 and you know, tastes can vary, but most people would 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:56.840 not say that is a type of browning that they 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.760 seek out on purpose. And this is actually true of 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.400 many foods, especially fruits. So you can think of the 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:05.480 way avocados brown once they're cut or smashed and left 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:08.520 out on the counter, or potatoes or any number of 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:12.760 other plant based foods. The chemical reaction taking place here 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:17.600 is a form of oxidation called enzymatic browning and insomatic 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:22.360 browning is due to an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase. Fruits 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:26.839 and vegetables have compounds in them called phenolic compounds, and 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:31.080 when these compounds get exposed to both oxygen and to 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:35.600 that enzyme to polyphenol oxidase at the same time. They 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.720 react with the oxygen and go through a multi step 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:44.680 transformation process that ends with them turning into melanin. Melanin 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.760 is a natural brown pigment that you can find in 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:50.320 all forms of life. It's in plants, it's in fungi, 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.760 it's in animals including us. It's the brown pigment in 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:57.240 human hair and skin and inner irises. And so that 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:00.280 process naturally takes place once you cut an apple or 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:03.200 a banana or any of these foods. But how come 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:07.760 this chemical reaction turning phenolic compounds into melanin doesn't happen 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:10.640 once the when the apple is just like sitting there 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:13.240 on the counter uncut. How come it only happens once 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:15.920 you cut it. This is because in order for the 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.600 reaction to happen, we need three different substances to come 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:22.840 into contact with one another. So you need the phenolic 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:27.640 compounds the base molecules were transforming. You need the enzyme, 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:31.080 which in this case is polyphenol oxidase, and you need 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.040 the free oxygen in the air. And when all three 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.920 elements are present, there together, then you get this browning process. 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:42.520 So in plant tissue, the enzyme, the polyphenol oxidase, and 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:46.560 the phenolic compounds are usually kept separate from one another. 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:50.320 But damage to the plant, such as cutting it open 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:54.320 or bashing it and bruising it, will rupture cells and 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:58.199 cause these chemicals to blend together and unite, And then 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:01.600 you expose them to air and the oxidation happens. Now, 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.600 coming back to what I said earlier, ensomatic browning is 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:08.640 considered undesirable in lots of foods like you know you 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:13.040 do you, but most people would rather eat their apple slices, bananas, avocados, 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.160 and so forth before they sit out on the counter 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.000 for a few hours and turn brown. The browned versions 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:21.200 of these plants kind of look and taste degraded, not 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:26.800 exactly fresh. But in other plants, the browning process has 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.520 a desirable outcome. It is used on purpose to achieve 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:35.960 desirable improvements in appearance, texture, and flavor. One example would 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:39.520 be in certain dried fruits like raisins go through enzomatic 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:43.680 browning it deliberately in order to create new and interesting 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:46.760 flavors that people like. And another example might be in 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.680 seeds or leaves used to prove strongly flavored caffeinated beverages. 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:54.480 Oxidative browning is specifically sought out as part of the 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.600 preparation process for tea leaves. So you can think about 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.520 the process of say, rolling tea leaves around, like smashing 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:06.400 them or rolling them in a tumbler of some kind 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:10.920 in order to kind of like bruise and just rough 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.840 up the leaves to these get these different compounds coming together, 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:19.079 and expose them to oxygen to trigger the sprowning process. Yeah. 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:20.840 I like to come back to the apple example, the 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:24.160 apple that's spilt, it falls out of the bowl and 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.520 falls off the counter and rolls across the floor. You know, 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:29.400 that's the one that gets all bruised up, and those 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.000 bruises are brown. That's the oxidation taking place. 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:34.800 Yeah, exactly. And again you know you don't usually want 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:36.560 that in an apple, but it turns out you do 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:38.760 it to a tea leaf, and oh it's producing all 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.320 these nice, interesting new aromas and flavors. It's making the 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:45.360 tea taste. I think a lot of tea producers would 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:47.320 say it makes it. It sort of takes away some 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:51.080 of the fresh, grassy flavor of green tea and introduces 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:55.400 these complex sweet flavors that taste more like a floral 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:56.920 aromas or like fruits. 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:01.400 Yeah, it creates this whole additional dimension of flavor. Now, 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:05.840 this this stage of oxidation here, Martin stresses that it 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:09.240 is it's super important for determining the flavor destination of 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:13.000 the tea. It typically takes about three hours if it 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.520 is done. The leaves are left on trays and a cool, 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:19.240 damp place often and the oxidation causes them to turn 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:22.280 from green to kind of a copper color. They also 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:25.000 heat up during this phase, and you also and you 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.800 have to depending on exactly what you're doing with the 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:29.959 tea leaves, you may have to halt it as well, 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.280 because you don't want the oxidation to go too far, 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:35.600 because then you'll end up with what's described as kind 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.959 of a burnt taste. It's also really important to note 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:42.599 here that not all teas go through this phase, and 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.200 this should seem pretty obvious that black tea does go 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:50.200 through the oxidation phase and is therefore fully oxidized. Yeah, 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:52.520 that is why it is this black or red color. 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:54.840 Yeah. And to and to pick up on and clarify 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:57.520 something you said a minute ago, heating, I think is 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:01.480 usually specifically used to stop the oxidation process. So if 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.160 you want a green tea that has a nice fresh, 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:08.360 sort of grassy vegetable flavor and keeps its green color, 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.440 those are usually going to be heated earlier to stop 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:15.280 the oxidation from progressing any further, whereas a black tea 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:18.600 you would let go through way more oxidation before heating 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:20.120 it in a little oven. 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:23.080 Now, just this is a cultivation note, but I ended 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:24.440 up throwing it into my notes here, so I'm going 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.680 to read it before I forget about it. Originally, tea 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:31.160 trees were, of course wild, and they would grow in 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:34.120 the wild, and they grew quite tall. The higher leaves 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:37.560 were obtained by simply cutting down the tree. This wouldn't 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.960 work long term, of course, and so with cultivation comes 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:44.480 the pruning and the non lethal harvesting of the leaves. 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:46.200 So I just found that interesting. 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:48.560 Okay, So that's why you get this process of like 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:51.120 taking the flushes off of the top instead of fully 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:52.240 culing the plant. 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:55.080 Yeah, but back to the process. Okay, so we've had 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.400 we've had the first step here of withering, then rolling, 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:03.760 then oxidation, and then we get into the step of drying. 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.640 This is a quick drying to stop the oxidation at 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.000 desired levels, So we've kind of alluded to this already 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:12.760 as well as to remove enough moisture to prevent mold 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.360 from forming. But you also can't dry it out too 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:17.680 much or the tea could again taste burnt or on 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:19.680 the other end of the spectrum, it could lose its flavor. 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:21.920 All right, And then with the fourth step done, we're 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:25.880 under the fifth and this is grating and sorting. Basically, 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:27.840 what you're left with. You got to figure out what 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.400 you've got, and generally what you have is you have 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:34.000 whole leaves, you have broken leaves, you have the dinnings, 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.880 and you have dust. Whole is the best, that's the 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:41.120 highest quality, while and then broken leaves and then fannings 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:43.880 and dust that tends to go into cheaper things like 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.080 you know, tea bags and so forth. Again, not all 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.640 teas go through all of these phases. Black tea goes 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:55.080 through all five. Oolong tea is partially oxidized. Green teas 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.480 are dried after rolling to prevent oxidation at all. White 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:02.120 tea doesn't go through withering, fermentation or rolling. Now, this 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.960 doesn't cover anywhere near all the teas out there. In 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:06.800 the different types of teas, there are plenty of sub 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:09.960 varieties of each, and then there are blends as well, 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:12.920 Like one common example is English Breakfast Tea, which is 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.640 a blend of black teas. 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.520 Now there's a whole other class of complex chemical reactions 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.560 that teas undergo, separate from the baseline oxidation process we've 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:35.000 been talking about, which is fermentation, a whole other thing 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:39.520 where you are deliberately introducing microbial growth to further create 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:41.600 complex flavors and aromas. 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:43.840 That's right, And at this point I want to mention 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:48.200 the poorer teas. These are a special case. These are 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:51.000 again one of my favorite tea varieties, and actually our 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:54.120 producer jj I was chatting with him he also really 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:56.600 likes these, and I imagine we have a number of 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:58.120 listeners who are fond of these as well. 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:00.880 But these are fermented teas, right, Yeah. 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:04.320 It's so these teas are generally made from larger, older 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:07.360 leaves that I believe Martin described as almost being kind 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.880 of like hairy, you know, they're they're they're they're really 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:16.520 big old leaves. And also there's an enough moisture is 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:19.120 allowed to remain in them, so that they can continue 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:22.479 to ferment for years. Uh. This is this is the 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.600 only variety of tea that improves with age. The teas 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:31.040 stored away in bricks or cakes. Also, they're often various wrappings, 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:34.080 like sometimes it's like a like a bamboo type situation 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.919 or some sort of fabric wrapping and and ends up 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:41.439 with just a wide beret of flavors that are at 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.840 least in my experience, unlike any other teas I've tried, 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.240 h they often have the ones I've I keep coming 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:50.760 back to have kind of a often kind of like 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:53.720 a barnyard flavor, kind of straw or hay to them. 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:57.359 One of them that I really love is just especially dark. 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:01.040 It's like it's like a bowl or a cup of midnight. 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:04.160 And like I say, they're often you often you'll find 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:05.919 these in kind of like a loose leaf situation, but 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.560 you also find them in little pucks, little bricks, big 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:10.720 cakes that you have to chip away with a special 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:14.280 little ornate knife. I mean you could use a normal 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:16.439 butter knife or your car keys, I guess, but you know, 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:21.560 get into it. This is tea we're talking about. But 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:25.120 these have a fascinating history not only as just being 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:29.040 t bricks, but being used as money as well, with 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:34.160 the prime example being taking place in Tibet. As Wolfgang 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:36.840 Birch points out in the use of tea bricks as 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:40.560 currency among the Tibetans in the Tibet Journal, the Chinese 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:43.879 introduced tea to Tibet sometime prior to seven eighty c. 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:47.879 And while it was first used as more of a 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:51.440 pure bartering commodity, you know, I'll trade you a brick 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:53.960 of tea for this, that or the other, it eventually 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.040 took on a form that we might reasonably refer to 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:01.080 as currency, a regimented system of tea e bricks based 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:05.040 on the tea's quality and pureeness, and eventually imprinted with 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.520 trademarks and seals. So you might think of it almost like, 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:10.560 you know, you think of like a bar of gold 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:15.080 that has been imprinted with governmental information, Like here's the 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:18.000 seal of the of the governing body saying this is 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:21.840 an approved grade of gold, the amount of gold, et cetera. 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.480 It's the exact same thing with these t bricks. The 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:28.880 governing authority has said this is such and such tea 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:31.439 of such and such quality, and it is a certain 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:34.960 amount of it. It's usable as currency in this scenario. 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:37.960 That's interesting. It makes me think, I don't know this, 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.439 but I'm wondering. So in this case, would this have 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.720 been a fermented type of tea since it's in yet form. 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:46.160 That makes me think about how, you know, if you're 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.879 going to try to use a commonly consumed, say food 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:54.000 or drink item as a currency, it would be difficult 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.359 to use one that quickly degrades in quality, for like 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:01.280 its use value. So if it's something we're freshness really matters, 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:04.000 you would not want the use value of your currency 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:06.679 to degrade fast over the course of a few months. 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:09.239 But if it's like a fermented tea, you mentioned that 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.639 these get better with age rather than declining, so you 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:16.240 can at least hope your currency there keeps its value. 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:17.520 Does that make sense? 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:20.320 Yeah, yeah, it would keep its value. Of anything, it 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:23.639 would increase in value, though I don't remember reading anything 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:27.640 about how that would be decided upon, but I guess 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:31.440 it would be subject to like the going rate for 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:36.639 te's of a particular harvest and maturity level, you know, 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:38.920 like you all the information would be there on the seal. 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.239 This is a side note. I wonder how economies are 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:46.840 different when they have a currency that does have in 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:50.399 some cases a use value of its own, like you know, 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:52.199 if you're not going to use it for trade, you 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:54.359 would use it for something else, like you would literally 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:57.760 eat it or drink it, versus economies that just have 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.800 a currency that is purely useless on its own, it's 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:03.760 only for facilitating trade, like US dollars. 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:07.080 Yeah, I mean for gold, I guess is not quite 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:10.280 an example of that, because even historically gold was still 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:15.359 desired as something that could be used for ornamentation, whereas 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:19.439 today it also has technology electronics uses as well. 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:20.960 I think. 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:24.240 The other really good example of this is the use 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:30.240 of chocolate in some Mesoamerican cultures, where that the chocolate 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.840 was such a highly regarded commodity and one that I 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:38.399 guess had kind of generalized sizes and measurements that it 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:40.520 could be used as currency as well. Yeah. 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:42.680 Interesting question. Maybe we'll come back to that one day. 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:45.439 Yeah, So at this point that we might get more 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:48.600 into the timeline of tea with the primary interest in 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:51.120 sort of the evolution of the way that it is 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:56.280 prepared and ultimately consumed. As we explored in the last episode, 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:59.560 the origin of tea drinking is more mythology than historical fact. 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:01.800 It's one of the those things where if you try 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:04.680 and answer the question of, like, well, who invented tea? 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:09.600 Who came up with this? It's basically lost to prehistory. 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:12.560 These are things where we have some interesting myths that 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.760 kind of sum up some of the general ideas and 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:18.880 ultimately some of the general realities of how human beings 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:23.920 experimented with and chronicled the nature of their botanical world. 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:27.960 But in general we can't answer it. There's no one person. 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:31.960 Though again, some of these accounts do have a sort 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:34.800 of an interesting shred of truth to them, like one 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:36.560 of the ones that, in addition to the ones we 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.159 discussed in the last episode, there's one that Michael d. 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:41.679 Co brings up in seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:46.200 World in a chapter about I Believe Chocolate and Tea. 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:49.800 There's another myth where a past Chinese emperor was boiling 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:52.520 some water and some wild leaves just kind of blew 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:55.920 into his water, boiling in the pot, thus creating tea. 0:22:56.520 --> 0:22:59.720 That of course sounds like pure myth and is not 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:02.879 like a real story, but it reminds me of our 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:05.600 episode on the invention of the cauldron, and about how 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:08.399 like a cauldron or any kind of container even like 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:13.320 a skin of boiling water, Like what an essential laboratory 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:17.640 that is for humans in ancient times? Figuring out what 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:20.520 things are and what they can be used for. Now, 0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:22.280 the question that may come up for some of you 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:24.600 might think, well, there's a great deal of Chinese literature 0:23:24.600 --> 0:23:27.159 out there going back quiet a way. Can't we just 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:30.760 see when people first started writing about tea? And I 0:23:30.760 --> 0:23:33.680 think this is a reasonable question to ask. But as 0:23:33.720 --> 0:23:36.080 Martin explains in the book, it's not quite that simple. 0:23:36.119 --> 0:23:38.960 And part of the problem is that the Chinese character 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:45.600 associated with t was previously used again in literature, in 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:49.440 writing to refer to other shrubs and plants. For example, 0:23:49.440 --> 0:23:53.080 there are mentions of tea dating back to the fifth 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:56.000 century BCE, but it's thought that the character in question 0:23:56.080 --> 0:23:59.560 here is just referring to south thistle, a plant sometimes 0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:03.040 used in Chinese cuisine and native to Europe and Western Asia. 0:24:03.640 --> 0:24:07.800 Oh okay, so yeah, frustrating trying to understand the history. 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:12.040 Yeah yeah, So we have to think about the fact 0:24:12.040 --> 0:24:14.760 that anytime something like this comes along, like it's not 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:16.560 just oh, we have this new thing, let's get a 0:24:16.600 --> 0:24:19.560 new word for it, but that's in any language. That's 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:23.280 not necessarily how it works. I'm reminded of all the 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:27.439 different apples that Europeans began to discover in the world 0:24:27.600 --> 0:24:32.199 and report back, Yeah, palm de tear. So again, we 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:35.439 can't pinpoint a time when tea drinking began in China, 0:24:35.880 --> 0:24:38.560 but we can likely say it was certainly a thing 0:24:38.600 --> 0:24:42.080 by the Han dynasty two o six PC through twenty 0:24:42.240 --> 0:24:46.480 twenty CE. Granted that's a large period of time, but 0:24:46.640 --> 0:24:50.560 by that period people were drinking tea. It most likely 0:24:50.600 --> 0:24:55.240 began in Sichuan Province in southwestern China and spread gradually 0:24:55.280 --> 0:24:57.320 to the rest of China, and would have reached northern 0:24:57.400 --> 0:25:00.880 China by the Tang dynasty that period six eighteen through 0:25:00.960 --> 0:25:04.520 nine o seven by the third century, though, according to Martin, 0:25:05.160 --> 0:25:08.280 we do have mentions in the literature of tea that 0:25:08.320 --> 0:25:11.440 we can more firmly connect to actual tea drinking, which 0:25:11.440 --> 0:25:14.879 points out that Hatwo, a noted physician who may have 0:25:14.960 --> 0:25:18.080 also developed one of the earliest forms of anesthesia, also 0:25:18.119 --> 0:25:21.760 wrote about tea quote, to drink tea constantly makes one 0:25:21.840 --> 0:25:22.440 think better. 0:25:22.800 --> 0:25:26.720 That checks out, well, it depends on what you mean 0:25:26.760 --> 0:25:32.160 by constantly. Yeah, I'm not sure about the particulars of 0:25:31.359 --> 0:25:34.960 the translation. There By the way, the anesthesia that he 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:37.880 supposedly invented, I think they was reading that the name 0:25:38.000 --> 0:25:42.000 literally transplates to cannabis boiling powder, but we still don't 0:25:42.000 --> 0:25:47.240 know exactly what this supposed anesthesia contained. Also, a general 0:25:47.280 --> 0:25:50.960 from the third century, lou Kuhn, wrote that he felt old, 0:25:51.240 --> 0:25:54.600 depressed and needed some real tea when just the impression 0:25:54.600 --> 0:25:58.639 he that he's out doing the military thing and he 0:25:58.760 --> 0:26:02.080 just realizes, Man, I'm just I'm old, I'm sad, and 0:26:02.119 --> 0:26:04.320 I would just kill for an actual cup of tea 0:26:04.400 --> 0:26:07.159 instead of I guess boiling various other things that we're 0:26:07.200 --> 0:26:11.960 finding in in nature around us M. So you could 0:26:12.160 --> 0:26:14.120 you could have fake teas. There's like, if you can't 0:26:14.160 --> 0:26:17.800 get real tea from Camellia sinensis, you might just try 0:26:17.840 --> 0:26:19.240 boiling other plant matter. 0:26:20.119 --> 0:26:23.080 Yeah, I mean, the history of tea is kind of 0:26:23.080 --> 0:26:25.800 full of these examples, and not only the history of tea, 0:26:25.800 --> 0:26:29.159 but I guess the history of of like pharmacology, and 0:26:29.200 --> 0:26:31.480 that's no pharmacology in general. I think we've touched a 0:26:31.480 --> 0:26:35.040 little bit on this before talking about psychedelics, where you'll 0:26:35.040 --> 0:26:40.560 have some historians think you'll have one particular custom of 0:26:40.800 --> 0:26:45.399 using a particular herb or plant that is growing in 0:26:45.400 --> 0:26:48.040 the natural environment. But what happens when people move? What 0:26:48.119 --> 0:26:51.439 happens when there's a migration. Yes, in many cases you 0:26:51.440 --> 0:26:55.120 can bring your plants with you. Sometimes those plants don't 0:26:55.160 --> 0:26:58.040 survive though, Sometimes they can't be brought anyway, or you 0:26:58.119 --> 0:26:59.880 just that the people that bring them are not able 0:26:59.920 --> 0:27:02.960 to keep those plants going in these new places they 0:27:02.960 --> 0:27:05.679 move to. And in those cases you might try to 0:27:05.680 --> 0:27:09.000 find some sort of reasonable facsimile, like what's something else 0:27:09.080 --> 0:27:12.880 that does something that changes me a little bit when 0:27:12.880 --> 0:27:15.480 I boil it in water and drink it. So we 0:27:15.520 --> 0:27:17.200 may come back to some of that in a pit. 0:27:17.480 --> 0:27:20.160 And then Martin also points that by let's say, around 0:27:20.160 --> 0:27:23.159 three point fifty CE, there's a more detailed description of 0:27:23.200 --> 0:27:26.240 the tea plant that we seem pretty sure is an 0:27:26.240 --> 0:27:29.639 actual description of tea. And this is provided by go 0:27:29.840 --> 0:27:32.159 Poo again around three fifty C. 0:27:42.560 --> 0:27:46.160 Now, I guess one thing I wonder is it's one 0:27:46.200 --> 0:27:49.240 thing to talk about. Okay, we're taking leaves of this 0:27:49.359 --> 0:27:53.680 specific plant and boiling them to make tea, But it's 0:27:53.720 --> 0:27:56.199 another thing to think about, like all of the complex 0:27:56.400 --> 0:28:00.600 preparation process steps and the different varieties of tea pretty today. 0:28:00.760 --> 0:28:02.760 Do you have any idea when that sort of thing 0:28:02.840 --> 0:28:04.720 started to come online, or at least when we have 0:28:04.760 --> 0:28:06.000 the earliest evidence of that. 0:28:06.280 --> 0:28:08.639 Yeah, this is this is interesting because one thing that 0:28:08.920 --> 0:28:12.600 Martin points out is that early on tea was probably 0:28:12.840 --> 0:28:16.240 not good. It would have been nothing like what we're 0:28:16.240 --> 0:28:18.760 having today. It would have been we could almost think 0:28:18.800 --> 0:28:21.760 of it more as kind of this herbal soup, and 0:28:21.920 --> 0:28:25.040 you'd have various things added to it in an attempt 0:28:25.040 --> 0:28:28.320 to improve the flavor profile. And you might be thinking, oh, 0:28:28.359 --> 0:28:32.560 like delightful flowers and stuff. No, things like onions might 0:28:32.640 --> 0:28:35.560 be added. It is just a way to improve the flavor. 0:28:35.680 --> 0:28:39.400 And I believe Martin, I believe mentioned that this probably 0:28:39.440 --> 0:28:41.800 also didn't work. It was just so strong a flavor 0:28:41.800 --> 0:28:44.440 you couldn't really improve on it all that much. But 0:28:44.680 --> 0:28:47.600 you drank it because you know it was there were 0:28:47.640 --> 0:28:51.560 already some healthful associations with it, and you know, maybe 0:28:51.600 --> 0:28:53.560 it wasn't making it was sick because it was boiled, 0:28:53.600 --> 0:28:57.240 et cetera. But during the time of the Northern Way 0:28:57.360 --> 0:29:01.360 Dynasty three eighty six through five thirty five, apparently the 0:29:01.880 --> 0:29:04.440 tea processing had improved, at least to what we might 0:29:04.480 --> 0:29:06.760 think of as a basic level. There are mentions of 0:29:06.800 --> 0:29:10.720 cakes made of tea leaves that have been roasted. It 0:29:10.760 --> 0:29:14.720 was probably still a lot cruder compared to things that 0:29:14.720 --> 0:29:17.040 were gonna come, or certainly cruder than things that you 0:29:17.080 --> 0:29:21.360 would think of today as desirable teas. But the journey 0:29:21.360 --> 0:29:25.800 toward more complex flavors was underway, and I'm assuming you 0:29:25.880 --> 0:29:28.160 were maybe not having to put onions in your tea 0:29:28.200 --> 0:29:35.640 anymore now. During the fifth century CE, there's also examples 0:29:35.680 --> 0:29:38.640 of tea tributes being made to the imperial court and 0:29:38.680 --> 0:29:42.920 to the emperor himself, and also the emperor was said 0:29:42.960 --> 0:29:45.080 to have his own tea reserves as well, like these 0:29:45.080 --> 0:29:47.680 were places where just the emperor's tea was grown. So 0:29:47.720 --> 0:29:53.840 already it was presumably flavors are improving, and also the 0:29:53.920 --> 0:29:57.720 ruling class, the elites of society are really getting attached 0:29:57.760 --> 0:30:01.200 to the idea of tea. But then the Tang dynasty 0:30:01.360 --> 0:30:03.640 six eighteen through nine oh seven, this is the period 0:30:03.720 --> 0:30:06.120 in which we see Chinese tea in the form of 0:30:06.160 --> 0:30:09.800 baked bricks of green tea, which are ideal for travel, 0:30:10.160 --> 0:30:13.480 spreading to new parts of the Empire and beyond. Martin 0:30:13.520 --> 0:30:17.720 also writes that this widespread technique also greatly improved the flavor. 0:30:18.880 --> 0:30:21.480 The popularity of tea spread so much during this time 0:30:21.520 --> 0:30:23.840 that it was no longer just a drink of the 0:30:23.880 --> 0:30:26.440 elite of the emperor and his court. It was a 0:30:26.520 --> 0:30:30.760 drink for everybody, even peasants by this point were we're 0:30:30.760 --> 0:30:33.520 getting in on tea culture. That doesn't mean everybody would 0:30:33.600 --> 0:30:36.840 have access to the same tea. Of course, with the 0:30:36.920 --> 0:30:41.160 type of tea you drank would be intrinsically linked to 0:30:41.440 --> 0:30:45.440 your place in society, as would the various paraphernalia that 0:30:45.480 --> 0:30:49.880 were used in tea preparation and tea consumption, but it 0:30:50.440 --> 0:30:54.320 was essentially something that could be found throughout society. Also, 0:30:54.520 --> 0:30:57.400 this would again have been exclusively green tea, as red 0:30:57.440 --> 0:30:59.960 black tea would not be developed for centuries to come. 0:31:00.800 --> 0:31:03.440 And this is the time of an individual by the 0:31:03.520 --> 0:31:06.040 name of lou U. This would have been in the 0:31:06.080 --> 0:31:09.120 eighth century. He was known as the Immortal of T 0:31:09.760 --> 0:31:12.800 the Sage of T, and he was author of the 0:31:12.800 --> 0:31:13.520 Classic of. 0:31:13.520 --> 0:31:17.080 T The Classic of T. I see a similarity in 0:31:17.160 --> 0:31:19.880 the English naming convention of some of these great old 0:31:19.960 --> 0:31:23.000 Chinese texts similar to like the Classic of Mountains and 0:31:23.040 --> 0:31:29.080 Seas exactly, Yes, I forget exactly what that is translated from, though, 0:31:29.160 --> 0:31:33.720 Like what are all the range of meanings in the original? 0:31:34.560 --> 0:31:38.160 Yeah, yeah, but certainly this is a common translation of 0:31:38.200 --> 0:31:40.840 some of these important books. I would think you could. 0:31:41.040 --> 0:31:42.800 You might roughly think of it the same way that 0:31:43.400 --> 0:31:46.400 important books might in the Western traditions might be preferred 0:31:46.400 --> 0:31:48.880 to as like the book of such and such or 0:31:48.920 --> 0:31:50.400 a chronicle of such and such. 0:31:50.760 --> 0:31:51.160 Yeah. 0:31:51.240 --> 0:31:54.160 Now, this is an interesting figure Louu though, because there 0:31:54.160 --> 0:31:56.760 are a number of legends about him as well. You know, 0:31:57.080 --> 0:32:00.320 he's definitely a historic individual and author. It seems that 0:32:00.680 --> 0:32:03.560 folks agree on that. But there are all these additional stories, 0:32:04.920 --> 0:32:08.720 such as that he was abandoned and subsequently adopted by 0:32:08.760 --> 0:32:12.680 Buddhist monks. Also, there's this other story that he and 0:32:12.800 --> 0:32:14.800 I think these all kind of work together, or at 0:32:14.840 --> 0:32:18.120 least were eventually stitched together into one narrative that he 0:32:18.160 --> 0:32:20.240 was then trained. He then trained to be a clown 0:32:20.280 --> 0:32:23.600 in the opera, and this was his lifelong ambition, but 0:32:23.720 --> 0:32:28.080 then he ended up becoming a scholar instead. He started 0:32:28.120 --> 0:32:30.400 spending a lot of time in tea houses, which was 0:32:30.400 --> 0:32:33.160 a popular hangout at the time. And this reminds me 0:32:33.200 --> 0:32:35.640 a bit of accounts of tea and coffee houses in 0:32:35.720 --> 0:32:38.720 later European history as a kind of like cultural incubator. 0:32:39.040 --> 0:32:41.520 Yeah, a place where like the poet resides. 0:32:42.240 --> 0:32:47.120 Yeah. Yeah. And so he has this supposed trajectory that's 0:32:47.160 --> 0:32:50.800 pretty interesting, Like he starts off as as an abandoned child, 0:32:51.000 --> 0:32:54.600 becomes a monk, then becomes a clown, then becomes a scholar, 0:32:54.760 --> 0:32:57.840 and then essentially becomes the immortal of tea. 0:32:58.320 --> 0:33:01.680 It implies tea being kind of like the highest level achievable. 0:33:02.240 --> 0:33:04.920 Yeah, it does. And I think that matches up with 0:33:04.960 --> 0:33:08.640 the way that he was received and regarded. But it 0:33:08.680 --> 0:33:10.600 goes beyond like you might think, Okay, he wrote this 0:33:10.640 --> 0:33:14.360 scholarly work about tea, and I bet the scholarly class 0:33:14.400 --> 0:33:17.480 really loved it. But as Martin points out, this work 0:33:17.520 --> 0:33:20.480 had a huge impact on tea and society, as it 0:33:20.520 --> 0:33:25.200 gave agriculturists and farmers the first real written account of 0:33:25.240 --> 0:33:29.120 how to cultivate and process tea. Everything before the Classic 0:33:29.160 --> 0:33:33.080 of Tea was just orally transmitted or was unknown to 0:33:33.560 --> 0:33:37.560 individuals who might want to partake of it and cultivate 0:33:37.600 --> 0:33:42.040 their own tea. His work made tea cultivation accessible, and 0:33:42.200 --> 0:33:45.600 it included everything that was known at the time about tea, 0:33:46.120 --> 0:33:48.640 where you could grow it, how to grow it, how 0:33:48.640 --> 0:33:51.960 to harvest it and prepare it, the culture of drinking it, 0:33:52.480 --> 0:33:56.160 the twenty four implements required to prepare tea in the home, 0:33:56.320 --> 0:33:57.040 that sort of thing. 0:33:57.400 --> 0:34:01.200 Whoa, that's a lot of implements, Yeah, and a lot 0:34:01.240 --> 0:34:04.480 of just sort of advice on what is proper. 0:34:04.680 --> 0:34:06.360 Like. For instance, I was reading in Martin that he 0:34:07.200 --> 0:34:09.920 was a big fan of using blue glazed cups to 0:34:10.120 --> 0:34:13.759 enhance the green color of the tea, while he thought 0:34:13.800 --> 0:34:17.839 that white cups or bowls would give it a distasteful 0:34:17.960 --> 0:34:18.840 pink color. 0:34:20.360 --> 0:34:23.080 This is interesting in part because it reminds me of 0:34:24.640 --> 0:34:28.000 the passages in Plenty of the Elder where he's like, Hey, 0:34:28.080 --> 0:34:30.399 if you're gonna boil like some sweet sapa to drink, 0:34:30.400 --> 0:34:32.080 you better do it in a lead pot instead of 0:34:32.080 --> 0:34:34.560 a copper one, because the copper makes it bitter, the 0:34:34.640 --> 0:34:38.080 lead makes it sweet. I assume he's not talking about 0:34:38.120 --> 0:34:41.920 actual changes in flavor here, but truly just appearance. But 0:34:42.000 --> 0:34:45.160 this is also quite observant because I think, as like 0:34:45.520 --> 0:34:48.640 chefs and people who work in restaurants will tell you 0:34:49.160 --> 0:34:53.120 the appearance and color of your plates really does affect 0:34:53.120 --> 0:34:54.360 how people perceive the food. 0:34:55.080 --> 0:34:57.239 Oh yeah, absolutely. And then of course there's so much 0:34:57.320 --> 0:35:01.160 ritual on top of all of this, you know. Martin 0:35:01.520 --> 0:35:04.080 stresses that while some of this might seem just you know, 0:35:04.200 --> 0:35:07.279 over the top and perhaps too fancy, we have to 0:35:07.360 --> 0:35:11.440 remind ourselves that this is a world where individuals like 0:35:11.600 --> 0:35:17.360 lou U are striving for universal perfection. So that's and 0:35:17.600 --> 0:35:22.120 we have to think about it too in light of Confucianism, Taoism, 0:35:22.160 --> 0:35:25.239 and Buddhism as well, which are all important energies in 0:35:25.280 --> 0:35:30.399 the world surrounding this growing tea culture. Now, the popularity 0:35:30.440 --> 0:35:33.160 of the Classic of Teas not only spread the word 0:35:33.160 --> 0:35:36.960 of tea, it also further enhanced its popularity and pushed 0:35:36.960 --> 0:35:40.400 both greater tea trade and greater advancements in how it 0:35:40.480 --> 0:35:45.080 was cultivated and prepared. Tea also spread throughout China during 0:35:45.120 --> 0:35:48.120 this time because it had become just so embraced by 0:35:48.120 --> 0:35:52.000 Buddhist practice and culture. But it's also meant that when 0:35:52.040 --> 0:35:55.160 Buddhism fell out of favor during the decline of the 0:35:55.239 --> 0:35:58.239 Tang dynasty, tea culture did as well. And this would 0:35:58.360 --> 0:36:01.160 this was a trend that would recur when foreign invaders 0:36:01.160 --> 0:36:05.040 would control parts of China, Tea culture would suffer in 0:36:05.080 --> 0:36:05.920 that area. 0:36:05.960 --> 0:36:10.960 Interesting, does that mean it was replaced by something or 0:36:11.120 --> 0:36:12.920 I wonder what caused that correlation. 0:36:14.200 --> 0:36:17.160 It's based on what I was reading, and there may 0:36:17.160 --> 0:36:19.120 be more nuanced to this, and more and more to this, 0:36:19.239 --> 0:36:22.120 but it would just be a situation where it was 0:36:22.239 --> 0:36:26.520 linked with the with the ruling party. You know, it's 0:36:26.600 --> 0:36:32.400 kind of like a top down cultural practice and without 0:36:33.280 --> 0:36:36.759 without Tea culture emanating from sort of a you know, 0:36:36.800 --> 0:36:40.160 in radiating waves from the ruling body, it kind of 0:36:40.160 --> 0:36:42.640 falls out of favor and you have people maybe following, 0:36:42.840 --> 0:36:45.520 and you're going to have cultural trans transmission taking place 0:36:45.560 --> 0:36:47.760 there too. Of course, because you also see in the 0:36:47.840 --> 0:36:50.799 in the histories where you know, some some groups, say 0:36:50.840 --> 0:36:55.360 the Mongols becomes the ruling body in a part of China, 0:36:55.680 --> 0:37:00.719 they also become more Chinese as they rule, So you know, 0:37:00.920 --> 0:37:04.880 the cultural transmission goes both ways. But it seems like 0:37:04.960 --> 0:37:08.560 you would have these situations where a foreign power would 0:37:08.719 --> 0:37:11.759 take control for a while and yet just Tea popularity 0:37:11.800 --> 0:37:17.760 would wane, but then when inevitably Chinese rule was restored 0:37:17.800 --> 0:37:20.160 to these areas you would see the reverse and one 0:37:20.160 --> 0:37:22.200 of the examples of this would be nine sixty. See 0:37:24.040 --> 0:37:26.640 the rule of the Song dynasty brought tea back to 0:37:26.920 --> 0:37:30.200 the forefront. Its trade during this period became so important 0:37:30.200 --> 0:37:33.480 that the Imperial court found that they could just restrict 0:37:33.560 --> 0:37:38.399 or manipulate the flow of tea to outlying regions if 0:37:38.440 --> 0:37:41.239 deemed necessary. So it would be a way to control 0:37:41.960 --> 0:37:46.279 and manipulate other groups, such as determining how much tea 0:37:46.320 --> 0:37:48.560 goes to, say, to bat or to the Mongols, or 0:37:48.560 --> 0:37:52.080 to the Turks and others. Almost kind of like a 0:37:52.120 --> 0:37:55.239 spice trade of Dune sort of scenario, you know. And 0:37:55.280 --> 0:37:58.200 certainly that's the sort of thing that Frank Herbert was 0:37:58.520 --> 0:38:02.279 thinking of when he was right. Maybe not tea specifically, 0:38:02.280 --> 0:38:07.600 but obviously this control of a desired or vital resource 0:38:07.640 --> 0:38:08.920 by one particular body. 0:38:09.280 --> 0:38:09.800 Yeah. 0:38:10.040 --> 0:38:13.680 It's also during this time period, Martin rights, that we 0:38:13.920 --> 0:38:17.960 enter the second school or phase of tea. So this 0:38:18.200 --> 0:38:20.879 first phase had been the brick era. Again, we're talking 0:38:20.880 --> 0:38:23.320 about those bricks of tea, you know, how it's dried 0:38:23.400 --> 0:38:27.160 and then often stored, et cetera. But then we're entering 0:38:27.400 --> 0:38:30.120 at this point the whipped school and It's called the 0:38:30.160 --> 0:38:33.560 whipped school due to the creation and popularity of dried 0:38:33.719 --> 0:38:37.520 and powdered green tea that was then whipped in boiling 0:38:37.560 --> 0:38:40.799 water till it's foamy. This is what we typically call 0:38:40.920 --> 0:38:43.600 macha tea today, and it was a huge hit during 0:38:43.600 --> 0:38:45.600 this time period. Of course, has remained whip us. 0:38:45.760 --> 0:38:50.120 Oh that's interesting, Okay, I guess I do associate macha 0:38:50.160 --> 0:38:52.760 tea with looking kind of foamy, but I didn't realize 0:38:52.760 --> 0:38:55.960 why that was. So it's like typically more of a 0:38:56.000 --> 0:38:59.160 powder form that is whipped into the water vigorously. 0:39:00.080 --> 0:39:03.480 Yeah. Yeah, like generally you'll have and we'll probably come 0:39:03.520 --> 0:39:05.239 back around them to macha here in a bit and 0:39:05.560 --> 0:39:08.240 talk about it in especially in relation to Japanese tea culture. 0:39:08.520 --> 0:39:10.720 But yeah, even if you get it today, you're probably 0:39:10.719 --> 0:39:14.680 gonna get some sort of one variety or another of macha, 0:39:14.719 --> 0:39:18.400 perhaps like a ceremonial grade tea. You're gonna put that 0:39:18.920 --> 0:39:21.560 in your in your bowl or cup, and once you 0:39:21.600 --> 0:39:23.040 have the hot water, you're gonna you're gonna want to 0:39:23.040 --> 0:39:25.080 whip it up. There's gonna be a special implement to 0:39:25.120 --> 0:39:28.440 do that, and this of course can also be quite exceptional. 0:39:28.760 --> 0:39:32.440 Okay, So we go from brick to the whipped powder, 0:39:32.600 --> 0:39:34.720 and then does it does it change after that, because 0:39:34.760 --> 0:39:37.840 that still doesn't resemble the most of the tea preparation 0:39:37.920 --> 0:39:40.560 I can think of today, which is based on steeping. 0:39:40.680 --> 0:39:43.440 Right right, Well, that is gonna eventually be the third school, 0:39:43.560 --> 0:39:46.840 the school of steeping, as in like loose leaf tea especially, 0:39:47.080 --> 0:39:50.080 and we are still in this school today, Martin Wright. 0:39:50.160 --> 0:39:53.000 So of course all three of these are still used. 0:39:53.400 --> 0:39:55.000 I don't know if there's gonna be a fourth phase 0:39:55.040 --> 0:39:55.359 of tea. 0:39:55.360 --> 0:40:07.359 I don't know the laser school of tea. 0:40:09.440 --> 0:40:11.320 All right, there's more to the history of tea, and 0:40:11.360 --> 0:40:13.960 we'll keep going with the history of tea in a 0:40:14.000 --> 0:40:17.080 future episode here, but I thought it might be fun 0:40:17.120 --> 0:40:19.720 at this point to discuss tea and health. 0:40:20.040 --> 0:40:20.200 Now. 0:40:20.200 --> 0:40:23.640 I mentioned earlier how Martin pointed out that by the 0:40:23.680 --> 0:40:26.720 fourth century CE, T consumption was probably part of daily 0:40:26.760 --> 0:40:29.600 life for many in China, but it wasn't good. You 0:40:29.640 --> 0:40:31.560 were having to mask it with things like you know, 0:40:31.560 --> 0:40:34.680 sometimes things like citrus or ginger, which doesn't sound that bad, 0:40:34.760 --> 0:40:36.880 but other times you're putting salt and onions in it, 0:40:37.360 --> 0:40:39.480 all to try and make it more palpable. But you 0:40:39.520 --> 0:40:43.239 were consuming it because it had perceived health benefits. You 0:40:43.280 --> 0:40:45.440 also might just eat your tea leaves straight like a 0:40:45.520 --> 0:40:47.840 vegetable in this time. Still, though again it would have 0:40:47.840 --> 0:40:50.600 been bitter. It would not have been a pleasant experience. 0:40:50.960 --> 0:40:53.279 You Also, I was surprised by this. You also might 0:40:53.320 --> 0:40:57.560 have sniffed it like snuff, So that would be a 0:40:57.560 --> 0:41:00.319 sort of a you know, an approach to powdered tea 0:41:00.400 --> 0:41:03.160 that I didn't think about. Also, not what I'm saying 0:41:03.160 --> 0:41:07.200 anyone needs to try, but it was one method that 0:41:07.320 --> 0:41:11.040 was used, as was sometimes using it externally, like you know, 0:41:11.080 --> 0:41:14.640 applying it just to the skin, or perhaps to some 0:41:14.680 --> 0:41:19.440 sort of skin irritation like a poultice. Yeah, so it 0:41:19.520 --> 0:41:21.440 was widely used during this time. Again not because it 0:41:21.480 --> 0:41:24.840 was necessarily pleasant to have. But first of all, it 0:41:24.920 --> 0:41:28.600 was associated with wakefulness and digestion, which I think these 0:41:28.600 --> 0:41:32.360 are both agreed upon effects of caffeine. If you've had caffeine, 0:41:32.440 --> 0:41:36.720 or explored caffeine, or even been around people that use caffeine, 0:41:37.239 --> 0:41:40.080 you probably know that this is the case. Like caffeine 0:41:40.120 --> 0:41:42.960 can can wake you up, it can make you more alert, 0:41:43.320 --> 0:41:46.640 it can also speed up digestion. And yeah, and that's 0:41:46.640 --> 0:41:48.000 why if you go to a coffee house or a 0:41:48.000 --> 0:41:49.680 tea house these days, there may be a weight at 0:41:49.719 --> 0:41:51.600 the bathroom, and there may be a lot of people 0:41:51.640 --> 0:41:53.640 with you know, a lot of crackling energy. 0:41:53.800 --> 0:41:56.560 But it's worth it because, as Lou Tong said, it 0:41:56.640 --> 0:41:59.319 searches the dry rivulets of the soul, helps you find 0:41:59.360 --> 0:42:02.520 the stories of five thousand scrolls. Yeah, I'd say that 0:42:02.680 --> 0:42:04.920 still checks out caffeine effects on cognition. 0:42:06.000 --> 0:42:08.120 At the same time, though it was also used during 0:42:08.120 --> 0:42:10.680 this time as of treatment for everything from poor eyesight 0:42:10.800 --> 0:42:14.160 to skin and organ issues. It was also considered a 0:42:14.200 --> 0:42:18.520 strong preventative medicine and something that positively impacted one's chi. 0:42:18.800 --> 0:42:22.840 So we again, so we're seeing like the full spectrum 0:42:22.880 --> 0:42:28.000 here of possible and perceived uses for tea that benefited 0:42:28.080 --> 0:42:32.320 your current ailments, prevented other ailments, and maybe even affected 0:42:32.320 --> 0:42:37.800 sort of spiritual energy concepts regarding the functionality of the 0:42:37.880 --> 0:42:38.520 human body. 0:42:38.920 --> 0:42:43.920 Yes, now, because we've raised the question in the historical 0:42:43.960 --> 0:42:47.400 context here of beliefs about t and its positive impacts 0:42:47.480 --> 0:42:51.120 on health, I think it's worth looking at what's some 0:42:51.239 --> 0:42:54.480 of the modern major nutrition science findings on the health 0:42:54.480 --> 0:42:57.640 effects of tr But strong caveat I'm not going to 0:42:57.719 --> 0:43:00.799 go deep on this because I just feel personally, like, 0:43:01.239 --> 0:43:03.279 you know, we look at a lot of different domains 0:43:03.280 --> 0:43:06.200 of science, and I feel like there is no quicker 0:43:06.239 --> 0:43:09.440 way to lose your mind than looking for scientific papers 0:43:09.480 --> 0:43:13.200 on a question of is this common food or drink 0:43:13.239 --> 0:43:18.080 item good or bad for your health? Coffee, tea, chocolate, wine, 0:43:18.120 --> 0:43:20.719 a million other things. It always seems like there are 0:43:20.920 --> 0:43:24.160 just reams of conflicting results, some of which sound prima 0:43:24.200 --> 0:43:26.880 faci absurd and probably are, you know, like a study 0:43:26.960 --> 0:43:31.040 show wine cures heart disease or something like that. And 0:43:31.520 --> 0:43:35.840 I detect the presence of persistent methodological problems with attempts 0:43:35.840 --> 0:43:38.640 to look at this kind of thing specifically, like does 0:43:38.680 --> 0:43:41.880 a common food or drink item that people consume for 0:43:42.000 --> 0:43:46.520 pleasure or for other reasons have you know, X broad 0:43:46.520 --> 0:43:49.680 health effect. But with that caveat, I'm going to cite 0:43:49.719 --> 0:43:54.000 the findings of a major meta analysis that I looked 0:43:54.040 --> 0:43:57.600 at from twenty nineteen. So this was by Mengshi Yi 0:43:58.080 --> 0:44:01.760 called Tea Consumption and Health Outcome Umbrella Review of Meta 0:44:01.800 --> 0:44:05.560 Analysis of Observational Studies in Humans. This was published in 0:44:05.640 --> 0:44:09.280 the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research and twenty nineteen. 0:44:10.200 --> 0:44:12.719 So this study is an umbrella review, also known as 0:44:12.719 --> 0:44:15.239 a review of reviews, which kind of gives you an 0:44:15.280 --> 0:44:18.040 idea how much research there is on the topic, so 0:44:18.200 --> 0:44:22.080 to picture where this rests in the research hierarchy. Of course, 0:44:22.080 --> 0:44:26.240 you can have individual studies or experiments on the effect 0:44:26.320 --> 0:44:29.520 of tea on some particular outcome, and then you can 0:44:29.600 --> 0:44:31.920 have a paper a level above that, which is a 0:44:32.000 --> 0:44:35.480 review or a meta analysis, which compares and analyzes and 0:44:35.560 --> 0:44:39.440 usually averages the results of many different individual studies of 0:44:39.440 --> 0:44:41.799 a bunch. You know, it collects everything it can find 0:44:41.800 --> 0:44:44.439 in the literature and says, when you compare all these 0:44:44.480 --> 0:44:47.040 what results poke out. And then if you have enough 0:44:47.080 --> 0:44:49.520 of those reviews within a subject area, you can have 0:44:49.560 --> 0:44:53.640 an umbrella review, which is a review of reviews. And 0:44:53.760 --> 0:44:57.000 sometimes umbrella reviews are going to have like a broader question. So, 0:44:57.040 --> 0:45:00.440 for example, you can have a meta analysis of studies 0:45:00.440 --> 0:45:04.840 on the relationship between T and cardiovascular disease, and another 0:45:04.880 --> 0:45:08.480 one comparing studies on TA and various cancers, and then 0:45:08.520 --> 0:45:10.920 you could maybe have an umbrella review looking at all 0:45:10.960 --> 0:45:14.160 those meta analyzes to understand the relationship between T and 0:45:14.239 --> 0:45:17.640 health outcomes. More generally, Okay, so sorry about all that preamble. 0:45:17.680 --> 0:45:21.000 But anyway, what did this umbrella review find in the 0:45:21.080 --> 0:45:24.200 existing literature as of twenty nineteen. Well, it looked at 0:45:24.320 --> 0:45:28.600 ninety six meta analyzes addressing forty different health outcomes and 0:45:28.680 --> 0:45:32.600 it concluded that overall, studies showed greater evidence for health 0:45:32.640 --> 0:45:36.319 benefits than for harm to health from T consumption. So 0:45:37.239 --> 0:45:40.960 they say, quote dose response analysis of T consumption indicates 0:45:41.040 --> 0:45:46.560 reduced risks of total mortality, cardiac death, coronary artery disease, stroke, 0:45:46.719 --> 0:45:50.360 and type two diabetes melitis with increment of two to 0:45:50.440 --> 0:45:53.880 three cups per day. Beneficial associations are also found for 0:45:53.920 --> 0:45:59.200 several cancers, skeletal, cognitive, and maternal outcomes. Harmful associations are 0:45:59.200 --> 0:46:02.359 found for a soft geal cancer and gastric cancer when 0:46:02.480 --> 0:46:05.719 the temperature of intake is more than fifty five to 0:46:05.760 --> 0:46:10.480 sixty degrees celsius. So this leads them to the conclusion 0:46:10.480 --> 0:46:14.000 that except for the upper digestive cancer risk that may 0:46:14.000 --> 0:46:17.160 be associated with drinking very hot tea and again greater 0:46:17.239 --> 0:46:19.880 than fifty five to sixty degrees c is about one 0:46:20.040 --> 0:46:23.440 thirty one to one forty degrees fahrenheit. Unless you're drinking 0:46:23.480 --> 0:46:27.000 tea that hot or hotter, normal levels of tea consumption, 0:46:27.200 --> 0:46:29.920 such as two to three cups per day, appear safe, 0:46:30.040 --> 0:46:34.000 and those levels of tea intake are even associated with 0:46:34.160 --> 0:46:38.239 a broad range of apparently positive health effects, the ones 0:46:38.280 --> 0:46:40.759 I mentioned in a minute ago. However, this is a 0:46:40.840 --> 0:46:45.080 very important thing to stress. They acknowledge the difficulty in 0:46:45.160 --> 0:46:51.120 disentangling regular dietary TA consumption from possible confounding variables, and 0:46:51.160 --> 0:46:54.759 so they argue that to really conclude that the observed 0:46:54.760 --> 0:46:57.920 associations are causal, So you know, for example, finding that 0:46:59.040 --> 0:47:02.000 t consumption two to three cups per day might be 0:47:02.040 --> 0:47:05.600 associated with like reduced risk of cardiac death or something 0:47:05.680 --> 0:47:08.719 like that. In order to really be sure that the 0:47:08.800 --> 0:47:11.239 tea is the cause of that and not just some 0:47:11.400 --> 0:47:15.320 random association, you would need to do randomized controlled trials. 0:47:15.840 --> 0:47:17.719 And this is often true. I think when you're looking 0:47:17.760 --> 0:47:21.160 at connections between like common food or drink items and 0:47:21.200 --> 0:47:25.120 health outcomes, you might find that any random thing. People 0:47:25.120 --> 0:47:27.920 who eat kelp on a regular basis have a lower 0:47:28.000 --> 0:47:31.799 risk of pancreatic cancer, but that doesn't actually show that 0:47:31.840 --> 0:47:34.040 it's the kelp that makes the difference. It could be 0:47:34.120 --> 0:47:38.200 that people who have a lower risk of that cancer. Also, 0:47:38.400 --> 0:47:40.719 for some reason, just happen to eat more kelp, And 0:47:40.760 --> 0:47:43.080 the best way to establish the kelp is the cause 0:47:43.360 --> 0:47:46.080 would again be to do a randomized controlled trial, which 0:47:46.120 --> 0:47:48.759 is the gold standard use for testing new drugs and 0:47:48.800 --> 0:47:52.239 so forth, but not always used to examine the health 0:47:52.280 --> 0:47:56.480 effects of common food and drink items such as coffee, chocolate, tea, 0:47:56.560 --> 0:47:58.840 all these things that you see a million conflicting study 0:47:58.920 --> 0:48:02.760 results on tea helps this health effect, and then another 0:48:02.800 --> 0:48:04.880 study says on maybe it doesn't. So in the end, 0:48:04.920 --> 0:48:09.040 I think it's hard to get very solid results on 0:48:09.360 --> 0:48:11.879 these kind of food and drink items. But at least 0:48:11.880 --> 0:48:15.440 the existing research today makes it look like broadly tea 0:48:15.640 --> 0:48:17.800 is pretty safe to drink as long as you're drinking 0:48:17.800 --> 0:48:21.839 it within moderation and not super hot, and may in 0:48:21.880 --> 0:48:25.200 fact have some positive health benefits associated with it, but 0:48:25.360 --> 0:48:27.000 don't bank on those too much. 0:48:28.400 --> 0:48:30.440 Well, these are all great points, Like depending on the study, 0:48:30.440 --> 0:48:31.920 you might be it might be a situation where it's 0:48:31.920 --> 0:48:34.400 the tea cakes that are causing all of the positive 0:48:34.440 --> 0:48:35.040 health effects. 0:48:35.120 --> 0:48:37.360 Right, Yeah, it may not be causal about drinking the 0:48:37.400 --> 0:48:39.160 tea at all. Maybe it's that people who have lower 0:48:39.239 --> 0:48:42.680 risk of whatever are also just for some reason cultural 0:48:42.800 --> 0:48:45.399 or otherwise more likely to drink tea. Or it could 0:48:45.480 --> 0:48:47.800 be that the act of sitting down and drinking something 0:48:47.880 --> 0:48:49.560 warm from a cup. I mean, I don't know what 0:48:49.640 --> 0:48:51.759 all they compared it to, what controls they used on 0:48:52.040 --> 0:48:54.359 all these different experiments, because there have been a lot 0:48:54.360 --> 0:48:56.799 of them. But that's where the research show looks like 0:48:56.840 --> 0:48:59.920 it lands today. But I did want to note that 0:49:00.440 --> 0:49:04.640 positive health effects of tea could exist and might also 0:49:04.680 --> 0:49:07.920 be construed, not in an absolute sense, but in the 0:49:07.960 --> 0:49:12.000 sense of comparing tea to alternatives, to other things you 0:49:12.040 --> 0:49:13.640 could consume instead of tea. 0:49:14.120 --> 0:49:16.239 Yeah, And in this I want to turn to a 0:49:16.360 --> 0:49:20.680 quote from the herbal classic that I think we reference 0:49:20.760 --> 0:49:23.759 this work in the last episode. It is attributed to 0:49:23.960 --> 0:49:29.920 Shinnong again, the divine farmer with the crystal stomach that 0:49:30.120 --> 0:49:33.839 is in some of the myths, is attributed as discovering tea, 0:49:34.320 --> 0:49:37.960 and the quote resis follows in translation, quote Tea is 0:49:38.000 --> 0:49:42.320 better than wine, for it leadeth not to intoxication, neither 0:49:42.360 --> 0:49:44.839 does it cause a man to say foolish things and 0:49:44.920 --> 0:49:48.919 repent thereof in his sober moments. It is better than water, 0:49:49.080 --> 0:49:51.680 for it does not carry disease. Neither does it act 0:49:51.800 --> 0:49:54.600 like poison as water does when it contains foul and 0:49:54.760 --> 0:49:55.520 rotten matter. 0:49:55.960 --> 0:49:59.880 Hey, that's the couple of I would say, quite solid observations. 0:50:00.560 --> 0:50:03.839 Yeah, I mean, I think it's fair to agree that 0:50:03.880 --> 0:50:06.680 the over indulgence of tea is less of a public 0:50:06.880 --> 0:50:10.560 or health or safety issue compared to the consumption of alcohol. 0:50:11.000 --> 0:50:11.200 Yeah. 0:50:11.680 --> 0:50:14.960 Yeah. And then, as Martin points out in her book, 0:50:15.239 --> 0:50:18.239 this last bit is also certainly true. Tea prepared with 0:50:18.320 --> 0:50:21.279 boiling water would rid the water of many of the 0:50:21.320 --> 0:50:24.560 inherent pathogens. So if you're just looking at the difference 0:50:24.600 --> 0:50:29.040 between having a hot cup of tea and drinking or 0:50:29.160 --> 0:50:33.160 rain water or something or any kind of water that 0:50:33.239 --> 0:50:36.120 might be on hand for pure drinking purposes, the tea 0:50:36.640 --> 0:50:40.640 is a healthier choice historically speaking, that seems quite true 0:50:40.920 --> 0:50:42.960 as long as people are, of course not consuming that 0:50:43.040 --> 0:50:47.160 seventh cup of tea and you know, rapturing themselves to 0:50:47.280 --> 0:50:48.400 the Holy Mountain. 0:50:48.800 --> 0:50:51.560 Right, Yeah, you don't want to accidentally fly to pung 0:50:51.680 --> 0:50:53.320 Lie before you get to work in the morning. 0:50:53.840 --> 0:50:57.440 Right. And yet, to your point, just the idea of 0:50:57.480 --> 0:51:00.200 your drinking tea, then what are you not drinking? You're 0:51:00.239 --> 0:51:03.480 not drinking alcohol. You're not drinking wine, you're not drinking 0:51:04.560 --> 0:51:08.680 water that may, given the circumstances, might not be the 0:51:08.719 --> 0:51:12.839 purest or the healthiest choice at that time. Yeah, this 0:51:12.880 --> 0:51:13.680 is all fascinating. 0:51:13.960 --> 0:51:17.040 I think that's going to do it for part two, right, Yeah. 0:51:16.880 --> 0:51:18.440 I think this is all we have time for in 0:51:18.480 --> 0:51:20.479 this episode, but we'll come back for a part three. 0:51:20.640 --> 0:51:22.680 We're gonna look a little more at the history and 0:51:22.719 --> 0:51:26.040 evolution of tea and possibly get into some other tea 0:51:26.080 --> 0:51:28.640 cultures as well, and we'll see what else comes up. 0:51:29.160 --> 0:51:31.239 In the meantime. We'd love to hear from everyone out there, 0:51:31.239 --> 0:51:32.920 because I know we have a lot of tea drinkers 0:51:32.960 --> 0:51:35.360 out there, tea drinkers from different parts of the world, 0:51:36.000 --> 0:51:41.360 different tastes, different experiences. We'd love to hear everything you 0:51:41.400 --> 0:51:44.600 have to say about the matter, So write in let 0:51:44.640 --> 0:51:47.040 us know. I'd love to hear from you. A reminder 0:51:47.080 --> 0:51:49.160 that core episodes of Just to Blow Your Mind published 0:51:49.160 --> 0:51:52.880 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Monday is listener Mail. Wednesday is 0:51:52.920 --> 0:51:55.200 a short form artifact or monster fact, and on Fridays 0:51:55.200 --> 0:51:57.239 we set aside most serious concerns to talk about a 0:51:57.239 --> 0:51:59.600 weird film on Weird House Cinema. 0:51:59.280 --> 0:52:02.480 Huge thanks to our our audio producer, JJ Posway. If 0:52:02.520 --> 0:52:03.920 you would like to get in touch with us with 0:52:04.040 --> 0:52:06.560 feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a 0:52:06.600 --> 0:52:08.680 topic for the future, or just to say hello, you 0:52:08.719 --> 0:52:11.600 can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your 0:52:11.640 --> 0:52:20.440 Mind dot com. 0:52:20.600 --> 0:52:23.560 Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 0:52:23.640 --> 0:52:27.480 more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:52:27.560 --> 0:52:43.560 or wherever you're listening to your favorite shows.