Tea and mystery

More than a drink, tea is linked to mythology, adventure, tradition and divination. Three connoisseurs share what draws them to the unfurling of a tea leaf. By Selina Altomonte.

Ursula Mills
creator, The Alchemist tea

At 24, Ursula Mills has tried her hand as a tattoo artist, worked in Japan as a blackjack dealer, studied Shakespeare at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.  For a self-confessed juggler who finds it “exhilarating to always be on the go”, it’s almost hard to imagine one of Ursula’s great loves is settling down with a pot of tea, or that she finds meditation at her kitchen table, carefully mixing herbs for her own tea range, The Alchemist.

“I love that you can spend half an hour and ponder over a pot of tea; taking time to indulge in your own company and time – to reflect, to write, to read,” she explains. With a Chinese mother and British father, she quips that tea drinking is “in her blood”, and growing up, herbal and natural remedies were part of daily life – “my Chinese grandmother would pop goji berries in my soup,” she recalls.

As a teenager she’d read about herbs for pleasure, but it was at 17, when she decided to give up coffee after realising she was drinking four cups a day, that she discovered “the comfort of having tea”. Beyond weaning herself from caffeine, she started using herbs and making tisanes to help beat stress or treat a cold.

“I’d always have people over for a pot of tea after acting class,” she says. The idea for taking her home brews to the next level came during her daily walk to campus, and after graduating in November 2006 and moving home to Sydney, everything fell into place. By May this year, she was selling her teas at markets and has a growing list of stockists.

Stored in delicate glass vials, her colourful blends are more than exotic brews designed to excite the tastebuds or soothe the senses. Ursula’s teas seem more akin to magic potions, created to cure ailments such as insomnia, release writer’s block or bring fast luck. Drawing from herbal medicine and folk remedies, and using organic ingredients, each brew is developed to work on a spiritual and emotional level. Rosehip, for example, used in her Ease a Broken Heart blend, is known to assist circulation. “I put it in to encourage a constant flow of emotions through the body, so you don’t bottle anything up,” Ursula explains. 

She has also created kits so tea lovers can concoct personalised brews. “A lot of love has gone into the teas,” she says. “I want people to have a product that has had some thought go into it.”  Ursula hopes her teas will inspire others to reclaim time for themselves – to self indulge and simply enjoy the moment. “My grandma in England told me she remembers her mother changing into an afternoon dress and making herself up just to have afternoon tea at home. I love that idea.”

For more information, write to email@thealchemist-tea.com.au or visit www.thealchemist-tea.com.au.

 

Tjok Gde Kerthyasa
tea master

From the day he took shelter from a rainstorm in an old tea shop in Hong Kong and ended up lingering for hours, Tjok Gde Kerthyasa has felt a pull towards tea that’s taken him to beautiful and remote places, allowed him to learn from afficionados around the world, and led to a unique position as the tea master at Sydney’s grand Observatory hotel. “It’s taken me on an amazing journey,” says Tjok. “But tea has a way of leading you places.”

At 28, Tjok does surprise those who expect tea masters to come with a white beard. “I can’t say that growing up I always wanted to be a tea master,” jokes Tjok, who plays the saxophone and studied music before pursuing homeopathy, which he also practises. While gaining his credentials, he developed a pivotal role for himself as tea master of the popular emporium, T2, and joined the Observatory earlier this year. He learned his craft, he says, in the only way possible: immersing himself in tea culture by constantly tasting teas, researching, and exploring tea houses everywhere he goes.

It is with his input that the Observatory’s Globe Bar has evolved into a ‘tea centre’ like nothing the country has seen. Here, tea lovers can share some of Tjok’s knowledge in a tea appreciation class, access brews of the finest calibre from all over the world, and enjoy them in the context of a traditional afternoon tea. 

While Australia’s tea culture is growing, Tjok feels the appreciation and understanding of tea drinking is still in its infancy. “It’s so much more than a tea bag in a cup,” he says. “There’s an extraordinary amount of work that goes into tea, and I want people to be able to understand and taste that in the finished product.” he says.

One of his goals is to show others how to gain a deeper connection to the teas they drink every day, and to explore different facets. “You can start with something comfortable and close to home, but instead of purchasing it in tea bag form, go to an emporium and try a great single-estate black tea or a nice Assam tea to compare the difference,” he suggests. “You can experiment with teas from a different culture, such as the Japanese green teas and senchas, or explore the Chinese styles of serving tea.”

While Tjok is strongly drawn to the artistry and philosophies behind tea, it’s also a sense of adventure that drives him to pursue a deeper knowledge of the intricacies of tea cultivation, selection and preparation around the world. Among his travels, he counts his time in India under the tutelage of master tea taster Sanjay Kapur as particularly inspiring, and has spent time exploring the tea gardens of Assam, India, and Indonesia – a second home since childhood. “Some of the adventures I’ve had have been pretty swashbuckling,” he says.

But despite all he’s seen and learned, he remains in awe of the mystique of tea. “The world of tea is vast and never ending; there’s so much I still need to learn,” says Tjok. “For me, China is my tea Mecca. One of my dreams is to travel to the forests of Yunnan, where tea is said to have originated. There’s a wild tea tree that grows there which is about 1,700 years old – I’d love to see it.”

“There’s an old Japanese proverb: ‘tea grows in sacred places’,” he adds. “No-one can dispute that. I’ve never been to a tea-growing area that didn’t have a magical feeling; it’s peace.”

 

Lindel Baker-Revell
tea-leaf reader

After the last drops of tea have been enjoyed, Lindel Baker-Revell peers into the teacup. “If you just wait, gradually your eyes become attracted to something,” she explains, and what initially appears to be a simple scattering of leaves turns into a series of vivid images: an open book, a woman’s profile…  and a story begins.

An accomplished tea-leaf reader, astrologer and author, who co-invented a board game based on astrology along the way, Lindel has spent more than 25 years practising her art and using it to help others gain insight into their lives. Growing up in Tasmania, tea, she says, “was the family drink – and a cure for everything. But I never knew you could read the leaves.”

Coming from a religious family, there was a time when she wouldn’t even participate in the seances that took place in the country house she shared with a young group of fellow teachers. But in her early twenties, Lindel discovered her own interest in the psychic world – and a gift – the first time she picked up someone’s hand, and without any training, read their palm. After realising she wasn’t suited to teaching and in fact wanted to be a writer, Lindel left Tasmania in 1974 for Sydney, where she took up the study of astrology – “mainly to disprove it”, she adds.

However, she was captivated by the theory behind it, and it became a great love. ”Every chart leaves me astounded at how wonderful people are,” she says. “It’s the same with tea-leaf reading – there are so many tiny meanings to be found in a cup, and every time I look into one, I feel as if I’m looking at the stars.”

While pursuing her newfound passion, she returned to university, earned a masters degree in applied science and taught communications at TAFE. “But I was always a bit on the edge – I never quite fitted in,” says Lindel. Deciding to take a break from academia, she found herself working at a store called The Crystal Ball as a tarot reader. Here, she befriended a colleague, Nina, who taught her to interpret the symbols formed by tea leaves. “She was a natural psychic – she learned how to use her gifts from her aunty, and she passed her knowledge on to me. I still feel her with me,” says Lindel.

Traditionally practised by women who shared readings during gatherings of family and friends, and passed on from one generation to the next, the age-old art of reading tea leaves, says Lindel, has forever been women’s business. “In Western society, women have always presided over the teapot, and learning to read the leaves gives us more faith in our instincts. Anyone can do it; you don’t need to be psychic.”

The act of storytelling is an important element in giving a reading, which can even be shared with children. “It’s a way for their imagination to be stimulated, and for them to form a story. It helps them to see in ways beyond the rational – or to balance the rational. I think we need both,” she says.

Lindel has recently taken on the role of resident tea-leaf reader at Sydney’s Observatory Hotel, and leads a gifted team dedicated to sharing this craft with the growing number of patrons. “Each part of the ritual of tea drinking has its joys, from dressing the table to brewing the tea. Peeping into the cup to read the symbols is the icing on the cake,” she says. “I see it as the tea leaves’ last gift.”

Perhaps most importantly, tea-leaf reading captures a sense of ritual and wonder that has almost vanished. “There are now two generations of women who haven’t learned about the leaves. I feel as if it’s my duty to pass this on,” she adds. “It brings a great deal of delight, but most of all it’s a devotion to time with yourself, and time with your friends. There’s an exchange of giving and a sharing of stories that’s so important.