A Buddhist take on the designation of tea master / artist

An online friend posted an interesting question recently:  What does it mean to be a Tea Artist?

This was first published in TChing, here and here.

My own response is the general theme of this post.

This mentions but never really does explain the claim to represent Buddhism, and if you read that related response detail carefully I'm not saying that at all.  The claim is that my interpretation of use of personal labels and roles has been influenced by Buddhist ideas and practices.  It doesn't relate to having been an ordained monk, to completing two degrees related to Buddhism, or to living in a Buddhist family in a Buddhist country, even though those have been some of my own personal contact points with Buddhism.  Since it's not essential to the rest it's as well to not really develop that part further.

with a cat I think of as my first daughter; a kitten in this picture but now 12

Some framing discussed with that friend addresses issues that underlie fixed role or status designations, related to tea:


I really do think the people who embrace ritual tea interest or competitive tasting aren't getting anything wrong.  It's just a different way to take it all.  Once you take up titles or labels that changes things a little, but even then that could be fine, getting ranked, certified, or acknowledged.

That relates to a Tea Masters Cup group that people join and compete in, an educational interest group that--per my understanding--hosts competitions related to ceremonial form practices and tasting identification.  The last would seem to represent overlap with wine sommelier scope, more or less.


I never really do unpack use of "artist" as a designation versus the more common "tea master" in what I added to that discussion.  Along with those "tea expert" and "tea enthusiast" form a sort of continuum.  My own input relates to underlying context, so not directly about that theme anyway, how those varying terms map out.

Tea production is something else; this response is mostly about the consumption side.


My response to the initial question, what does it mean to be a tea artist?


As someone influenced by Buddhism I tend to use labels and extra concepts sparingly. They can help clarify meaning but they can also limit it. If a few people are tea artists then everyone else has a shallower expression or experience of tea compared to them.  To me the opposite is more true instead, that any of us brewing and drinking tea are sharing common experience. If you put yourself above others for any reason you typically do an injustice to them, and also to yourself. Extreme humility is a very functional position, and an especially valid personal choice.


If you drop the label you only need to keep in mind what is positive that potentially gets lost, and then choose to retain that if it's worth keeping. Unique experience of tea or expression through tea experience can be positive, but linking that to achievement or personal status I would typically see as negative.  Maybe within a competitive interest group that's different.


I might add a little about the one part, what could come along with the label or designation that might be positive. People use tea expert--or artist, master, enthusiast; whatever it is--to describe a range of competencies. Some people are into ceremonial forms, others into experiencing and being able to differentiate types and quality levels of tea. Just being able to brew tea effectively gets a lot of focus, and I suppose to some limited extent the most positive outcomes also require that, careful progress through a learning curve.

this organization relates to tea practice competition (maybe not related to ITMA / Tea Masters training)

To me it's useful to stay open to appreciating teas across a range of quality levels (a theme that only overlaps a little).  Emphasis on only exploring and appreciating the highest, most unique, most rare and sought after forms of some teas could work out even better when coupled with broader interest.  To be clear, as an ordinary tea drinker, with some background and experience, I sometimes drink good versions of teas but nothing too rare, unusual, or costly.  Working from a limited budget makes that choice for me.

I can be more specific about what I mean by type diversity. I think Earl Grey and masala chai are valid, interesting, and pleasant forms of tea, even though I focus more on plain, single-input, higher quality teas. But then I'm a generalist myself, related to tea preference, and of course it's just as valid and reasonable to focus on one type (eg. aged sheng pu'er, or Dan Cong oolong), and to explore higher quality level scope as a main range of interest.


To summarize, it seems that "tea artist" would of necessity mean a broad range of things to different people. Again, tea production is a completely different theme that I've not included in this answer, but of course it could be included.  Making great tea would require even more knowledge and skill than brewing it.

I don't reject this or other role or status designations as valid, or potentially quite useful, I just don't include use of such terms in how I approach tea.

a Vietnamese friend embraces the aesthetic side of tea, and formal brewing, but all that only overlaps