Author: Mei Lan Hsiao Page 14 of 31

Even though her family has nothing to do with tea, but she learnt the importance of consuming tea correctly in daily healthy diet based on the Chinese traditional medicine principles in Yin-Yang and 5 elements from her family when she was very young.
She entered the tea learning in Taiwan since 1985, left her root because of marriage in 1991 helped her to expand her learning from original inward-out views to 360 degree. She started to promote the authentic knowledge about tea and wisdom in Chinese tea culture in Belgium since 1995.
Tea has always been and will continue be her best teacher. In front of Nature and Tea, she remains as an innocent child, a life-time learning student.

I connect

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 12/02/2019

In Others

What is I?

Who am I?

I do not exist, I simply connect.

I expand when I am willing to share

Egoism boosts up the desire of the selfish “I”.

The selfish “I” builts wall to block me from the rest.

I can not go out when I do not let others to come in.

When I see me in you, I love you as loving self from within,

then, the world peace is not so far.

Dao means way, when can be named already is an extraordinary way.

Is it a question? Is it not a question? Which question?

Your way, my way, which way?

Good tea, bad tea, which tea?

Mei Lan Hsiao

12/2/2019

甚麼是我? 我是誰?

盲目自大擴大我的私慾

過大的自我如高牆將我隔絕於世

當我不讓他人進入, 我也走不出去

當我目中有你, 由心視你如視己, 那麼我愛你也將如愛己

那麼, 世界大同有何難?

Learning in tea

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 10/02/2019

In Others

Learning tea is easy, starts from liking tea, willing to summit to learning and take time with yourself. Learning life can be easy too, starts from facing own subconsciousness with honesty.

When able to transforn the balanced and peaceful scent in heart to tea, can then refine the fine flavors and taste in tea; the aromatic additives will then not needed in life.

The genuine intension in heart and mind transform scents to tea;
The authencity in quality and scents reflect the straightness of the person;
tea is like life, living as tea.

Convince self before trying to convince others.

The beauty of tea is that we can easily integrate those principal learnings in actions through a cup of tea.

心真意真茶自真
质正香正人自正
茶若人生，人生若茶
. Mei Lan Hsiao
#wisdomintea #meilanhsiao #chineseteamaster #learningintea
Belgium Chinese Tea Arts Centre
Tea Sommelier Centre
Tea Culture Rendez-vous
Cha Dao – The Way of Tea.
Antwerp Business Community Group

©Mei Lan Hsiao

Belgium Chinese Tea Arts Centre / Belgium Chinese Tea Culture Association, 9/2/2019 Antwerp, Belgium

Possible vs. Not Possible

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 08/02/2019

In Others

I can have tea seeds from China, India or Japan, but can I grow and make tea with the same quality flavours and taste as they produce in China, India or Japan? The answer is …………. OF COURSE NOT !

Tea and tea culture migrated from China to the West and now even travel far in the world. So as to tea trees and production methods. Well, answers actually are quite simple ……………

Tea tree cultivars? It can be migrated and planted in other part of the world; but the macro- & micro ecological environment, conditions, weather, air, water and energy in the air and under beneth in the core….these are simply not possible to be duplicated or re-engeered!

Tea production methods ? Production processes can be copied and learned, but experience and accumulated wisdom based on feeling…….can not !

The local tea growers need to understand the characters of their plants in their environment and know when and how to abstract the best but not try to copy with blind eyes.

Learning Tea, Learning Life

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 08/02/2019

In Others

Egoism and self-confidence are very similar, often the difference is so thin as a see-through rice paper.

The basic theory about tea and how to prepare tea are not the most difficult learning in tea, but willingness, respectful and submissive learning attitude are.

On the journey of tea learning, I remain as a white paper so I can receive all information, but I do not take information for granted, because I like to maintain objective digestion and diagnosis without preconceived ideas, certainly to avoid pre-judgement before I even have a chance to know more.

Learning tea, learning life.

Mei Lan Hsiao 蕭美蘭

Belgium Chinese Tea Arts Centre / Belgium Chinese Tea Culture Association 8/2/2019

Air quality for tea storage

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 08/02/2019

In Others

One of most commonly asked questions is

How long tea can be stored?

As matter of fact all teas can be stored for very long time under the appropriate storing conditions. Of course, some teas will lose its natural fine and sexy aroma and the taste might become woody. We certainly should understand how the post oxidative fermentation might occurred because of the long time storage.

There are four basic principles for tea storage:

Air flow environment
Avoiding direct light
Avoiding humidity
Avoid bad odors

Air quality is the fundamental element to consider in the first principle, and it is even more crucial and important especially to those teas that can be stored for longer perio, i.e. traditional fermented Oolong, Black Tea, Dark Tea and Pu’erh.

In the tea storing either warehouse or room should avoid:

parfum nearby, personnel who work in the tea environment should also not to wear too much or strong parfum
environment or compartment where there are bad odors easily presented

Above suggestions also are suitable to consider for tea shop layout.

Preferences

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 07/02/2019

In Oolong

#flavours and #tastes subject to #individual #preferences #individualpreferences
but there are fundamental #differences between #naturalflavors vs. #aromaticflavors

Attitude Matters

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 07/02/2019

In Others

What is the reality when you fall in love with Pure flavours and tastes in tea?

It is a journey like water that does not float backwards, once into the world of pure, authentic and better quality tea, it is hard to go back.

I started with Pure and Authentic Quality teas without aromatic flavors or taste additives, thus the cosmetic flavours and tastes are TOTALLY not attractive to me AT ALL.

Being able to identify pure vs. aromatic flavours and tastes is only one of fundamental requirements from a #teasommelier. The utmost foundation is submissive learning and respectful attitude；it is not just about the what/which/how in tea, it is about what kind of person you become to.

copyright Mei Lan Hsiao, Belgium Chinese Tea Arts Centre/Belgium Chinese Tea Culture Association 3/2/2019 Antwerp, Belgium

Useful Tips for Tea lovers

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 05/02/2019

In Others

Who do no like good meal, fine drink and party in this holiday season? Here are few useful tips for tea lovers:

Wash tea ware every time after being used. Can consider to use either pre-heated vinegar or soda to remove nasty tea stains when necessary
Avoid drinking too hot tea because the temperature that the swallow pipeline can tolerate is between 50-60℃
when tea gets cold, the continued oxidation with air may generate lots of oxalate. Excessive oxalate might increase the risk of kidney stones to some people, according to the research
Some people misunderstand drinking tea can dissolve alcohol, actually it increases work load to liver. Advise not to flush alcohol with tea after meal, especially if have dronk wine or liquor； it is better to take time to enjoy some desserts or have some acidic fruits or juice；otherwise have some water before drinking tea.
Avoid to pair tea with crabs. Suggest to give 2-3 hours time gap after eating crabs.

copyrighted Mei Lan Hsiao, Belgium Chinese Tea Arts Centre, 2/2/2019

We are responsible for the climate change

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 31/01/2019

In Others

We all concern about the global warming, we all are affected by the climate change. But can we recognize that we are responsible for the climate change? Perhaps it is not yet too late if we could start to take actions together. We all want peace and harmony, but it’s us who tolerate the world super powers to sell weapons and to accelerate conflicts and wars, because the only thing they care is how can they make themselves great and profit from conflicts but not peace.

They said they care about climate and us, but how much actions have we actually saw from them? Some do, some not; in short, it’s simply not enough. On the other hand, how much actions we are committed to the protection of the environment and communities around us?

There are several reasons to motivate me to the promotion of authentic quality tea and Chinese tea culture since 1995, the most profound motivation is because of my fundamental belief in “Ecological Balance and Eco-Life Style” to the health in body and mind.

We can easily start to act together by supporting authentic pure quality tea. Reasons:

Instead of using 1 bag of low quality tea per cup, 4-6 bags per day; do you know you can easily enjoy 4-6 cups (or even more, subject to the quality) with fine flavours and tastes from 3-5gms of good quality loose leaf tea per day?
Do you know you can recycle the left over as natural fertilizer to your garden or plants? Even if you wanted to throw it away afterwards, it will become very good natural compose
The more we support for eco-quality tea, the more we can motivate the growing regions to do the right things to maintain the ecological balanced environment correctly. We don’t have budget to pay for the “Fair Trade” logo, we simply do with the growing regions and farmers.

Of course, I absolutely support and endorse recent protests for climate change, instead of #scientists4climate I think we perhaps should change the slogan to #we4climate instead of hoping efforts from scientists. Instead of speaking about our concerns, we should demonstrate our determination and courage by challenging ourselves if we would willing to change our life style but not just hoping others to change for us?

#ecobalance #ecolifestyle #ecologicalbalance #savetheplanet #climatechange

#teasommeliercentre #wisdomintea #purequalitytea #healthylifestyle #ecolifestyle #climatechange #chineseteacentre #justdo #collectiveefforts #ecoquality #looseleaftea #chinesetea

YES, I CAN

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 09/01/2019

In About Us

You fight, you fight, you fight。

You try, you fail, you succeed, you learn, you keep on trying and fighting.

At end you would realize what support your trying and fighting are not because of IQ, cleverness, knowledge, position or power; but it is because you refuse to give in and give up. You realize key things to learn are how to thicken the layers of wisdom and apply EQ gently in problem solving.

Keys for success can be shorten in 3 assembles:

Purity in heart as LOTUS, the dirty mud won’t corrupt your roots
Recognize strength with ease and advance patiently as BAMBOO
Endure longlyness .maintain confident and wait for the sunrising moment then soaring as A GOLDEN CICADA.

Yielding is not because you are weak or less, adversly, it is becsuse “YES, I CAN”