A sublime fragrance rises over a tea and lifts you up, away from the mundane. This happens as a good Jasmine Pearl unfurls. The fragrance doesn't shout; it unfolds, the way the flower itself does after dark. We've been thinking...
When "Ochatsubo Dochu", a procession carrying the year's first harvest of tea in 18th Century Japan, would pass through a village, residents knelt on the ground as a mark of reverence. Although the respect might have been inspired by the Shogun, the beneficiary of the procession and the recipient of the tea, it would be fair to assume that some it was also evoked by the tea.
