Our “The Tea Explorer” Documentary is – finally – up on Youtube (with heaps of ads).

Almost ten years ago Andrew Gregg, sound magician Mike Josselyn, 90th Parallel, and I, made ’The Tea Explorer’ documentary. Many over the years have asked when it will be available for a more general viewing. Finally, the piece which (still) airs on CBC Docs in Canada is out on Youtube. A friend recently sent me a link saying it had been up for about a year. Now it sits, accessible, up on Youtube…albeit with heaps of ads.

Three of us spent a month retracing portions of the Tea and Horse Caravan routes, documenting what we could that was still humming of the days of trade (and tea). Much of the journey was a realization that the memory-banks of the days of trade were largely all that was left. Memories and stray, windblown pathways through the mountains.

Our little endeavour was entirely fuelled by – and about – tea. It was too, a project that increasingly was about the people who interacted (and interact still) with the eternal fuel and those epic routes through the sky.

Link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r9d83lqOtE&t=584s

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Recent interview with the energy and hustle that is Shaolin Low on her ‘Begin with Shaolin’ podcast.

Link for full interview here.

More of a conversation that meandered in all directions than anything overly formal. Tea, mountains, time, and why Julie and I are doing what we do at the Akahiao Nature Institute along with Shaolin’s wonderful little rants and observations were all served up.

Much like a good tea session, ‘within the structure, some fun mayhem’.

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Tea Pot Chronicles in the Amazon

“There isn’t a right time or place for making a first brew within a teapot. It is in the making of many pots of tea that a pot becomes right”.

These words, spoken years ago by Mr. Lu in Taiwan were words that had stuck in my mind. They weren’t really meant in any way to be deep or doctrinaire, but they had remained with me.

The words spoken (and as I interpreted them), emphasized the idea that a pot/vessel and its user (and the leaves and water that would infuse within the vessel) alchemize over time. They bond with experiences and time. A pot ‘becomes’ what it is through use and care and the ‘act’ of what it was created to do.

A pre-trip rinse

Every tea vessel of mine in subsequent years has evolved into the piece that it represents on a day of serving, through its own experiences and my own daily interactions with it. Through the deed of preparing and infusing, it has evolved into something of meaning and memory.

Recently another of Emilio del Pozo’s (The Jade Leaf) hand made pieces came into the family – and it came just before a month long return to the Amazon region of Colombia. Travel with pots, leaves, and the little rituals associated with the packing, always seem to embed the details and elements a little deeper into the memory palace. Which leaves will accompany which pot? Which  pot? How many pots?

First Meeting

In the case of this journey, the leaves are a compressed 200 gram cake of Jing Mai old tree brilliance. Lighter in force and with only 3-years of ageing behind it, the leaves remain clean, fragrant bits that are almost impossible to over-infuse. A tea custom fit for tea on the road.

The choice of which leaves and which vessel has never been so much a luxury as it is a cheerful choice – a choice to invite a set of leaves and flavour components along with a particular clay or ceramic vessel – on a journey that will forever remain in the mindset and be associated with a place, its humidity, its air and its people. It is a deliberate selection of items (or needs) that will always be linked to the journey. Leaves and a pot that are used at home become something else when used ‘on-the-road’, and particularly when that ‘road’ is a series of some of the most iconic waterways on the planet.

The journey itself along tributaries of the Amazon by boat for our documentary film project “It’s a Beautiful World” that traces waterways including the Igara Parana, the Putumayo, the Cotuhe and Pupunya, before joining the main trunk of the Amazon itself. Our journey will pass through much of what was once a corridor of utter destruction wrought by the various outside forces that sought precious resources. The region’s highlight of destruction was brought to utter reality by the years of the rubber boom in the late 19th and early 20th Century. Regions and peoples cut off from all external forces – forced and pried open – that now lie in some middle zone of struggling with the notion of ‘progress’ which in many cases is simply other’s definition of ‘progress’. Still there are hubs and zones of some kind of isolated tranquility, but much of the region remains under the shadow of history.

It is within these areas of so much turmoil and power that I took tea as often as water and time allowed. A thermos was always at hand, tucked away in a satchel for quick nips when I wasn’t near my pot and kettle.

For a month, the 140 ml blue celadon pot was the first bit of structure I interacted with each and every morning aboard a hospital boat (the first of its kind in such areas) called the ‘Mau Pata’. My bunkmate in the minuscule room, Jonathan, would partake with me each morning at 5:30am as we would chat the day into its first hour of waking time. The tea was part of the conversations and thoughts and just observations of days upon the river.

The ‘line up of us in the village of Cris along the Putu Mayo River with Finn, Jonathan, and Matt.

It, my two cups, and my cake of tea remained on a cheap, unstable, small plastic shelf, for the entirety of the journey – through regions of humidity and grand silences; through days of blessings and permissions by elders. Ultimately, it fuelled – and perhaps helped – hone a perspective upon all of which was taken in.

Along the Cotuhe River

And so the pot became part of the trip; it became part of the support and joy of the journey, and it became imbued and infused by the time and space of the ‘lungs of the world’, the Amazon Rain Forest.

Sitting in a peque-peque with Jing Mai leaves and a withering sun in the Cotuhe River at the village of St. Lucia.

Pot, leaves, and I all returned home intact and infused with little bits of residual humidity, flavour, and memory from the journey. A couple of ants too, made it into what was left of the tea cake for the return journey.

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Keynoting World Tea Expo 2024

It is perhaps in some of tea’s more informal moments (and people) that something of the leaf’s spirit is kept immortal.

I’ll be happily ranting on about this and tea’s restorative and connecting abilities at the upcoming World Tea Expo 2024 Keynote in Las Vegas, March 18th-20th.

See and ‘drink-in-the-link’ here: https://www.worldteaexpo.com

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Episode 2 – ‘It’s a Beautiful World with Jeff Fuchs’ is now out on Amazon Prime

Our latest episode of ‘It’s a Beautiful World’ is now up and alive on Amazon Prime. The team at Global Heroes has been at it in the editing suites and our latest journey to Guatemala (tea fuelled as always) is now out.

It's a Beautiful World with Jeff Fuchs

It’s a Beautiful World with Jeff Fuchs

Guatemala will be a multi-episode experience which will focus, as we do, upon the little stories and understated organizations and individuals who simply do the deeds to assist and support others, the land, and the precious stewarding of culture.

It's a Beautiful World with Jeff Fuchs

As with our intention, we try to honour a bit of legitimate food, some of the deeper layers of histrionics, and the vital aspect of time spent listening.

This first episode includes Chef Mirciny Moliviatis and her rampant energy opening up and encouraging some chilly and cuisine…the chilly actually had us delay our filming entirely due to its less than subtle intensity when it hit my own palate. We also get time with the elegant restorer and reader of the Mayan world, Francisco Estrada-Belli who led us into the tombs of history at Holmul; and Juan Pablo Romero Fuentes welcomed us into his version of what education could be for youth and children alike at the incredible El Patojismo.

Honoured to have had the time and shared breaths and food with these wonderful characters and experience their efforts.

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Expedition Update – Departure for Nepal

The concept of a ‘departure’ has all changed since Sebastian’s arrival into our little orbit. Now a departure isn’t simply an exciting bit of stimulant rip…now it is thing tinged with a bit of regret knowing he won’t join on this first journey back to the Himalayas since he arrived.

 He feels something is up and doesn’t like the little mound of gear and bags that has been sitting on our floor for days now.

The journey will follow another trade route(s), this one part of a meandering pathway in the north of Nepal through Upper Mustang and Upper Dolpo. Like so many of these ‘pathways through the sky’, its story is a part of something wider and broader as these routes operated as thin-aired conduits of trade and commerce, migration, and other worlds.

The tea is ready, the pots are ready, and the hope is that he will in time join me on these journeys.

Thank you Julie Rogers for the unsaid permission to go back into the mountains and for watching over our son…and convincing him I’m returning.

Updates to follow


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“It’s a Beautiful World with Jeff Fuchs” is now available on Amazon US and Amazon UK

At last. My collaboration with the wonderful crew of creatives at Global Heroes, “It’s a Beautiful World with Jeff Fuchs” is now up and ‘watchable’ on Amazon US and Amazon UK. Link here for the trailer and airing information.
The first episode is based around that grand swath of life, the Amazon, and the surrounding world of green and the vital people that reside ‘with’ it.
It's a Beautiful World with Jeff Fuchs

A huge thank you to Sergio David Spadavecchia for the magic creatives and ‘edits’

 
Nothing happens without some little bits of fortune, some huge bits of commitment, and some stories of those that simply restore. This first episode is about those that relentlessly restore, heal, and immerse. It is about the often understated people who simply ‘do’.
 
Will be updating as to where and when subsequent airings will take place.
 
For now, big thanks to those wonderful hearts and minds that took part in this production.

 

 

 

 

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New Pot, New Pour, and New Pourer…but not a new Tea

A far too long gap of absence from posting, but life burbles onwards in no particular order and that often dictates moredoing than anything else. In these months past, my son, Sebastian, finally decided that it was time to ‘own’ his tea pot. Ithad sat amidst other pots awaiting the time and the leaves that Baz would gravitate and decide to take it (either by his ownaccord or by coaxing). The pot’s deep ‘Da Hong Pao’ clay had teased and tempted but I left it to itself and only used it acouple of times, with only minimal interest from Baz.

The setup is set up

One day I simply loaded the pot up one day with some raw ‘Sheng’ Puerh leaves and poured myself a tea, leaving another empty tea cup beside him. Up until this point Baz had been stymied in past attempts by the fact that the entire pot was blazingly hot. This time, he delicately took the the one part of the pot that wasn’t a scalding hot bit of danger, the handle, and then did the unthinkable (but dreamt of).

Baz gets ready

He poured a steady bit of tea into his own cup without burning himself, slopping the tea everywhere, or dropping the pot. It was done just like that with a reasonable measure of calm and skill and he even waited for the nectar to cool a bit before taking the cup in two hands and sipping like he’d watched me sip for the first two years of his life.

Baz does his first little dance with his tea pot

It was a kind of beginning for him and regardless of the tea actual tea that was served (in this case a gentle Jing Mai), it became a new beginning for the entire household. It was to set off a number of tea sessions where he would just imbue himself into his own versions.

And then, he accepts a pour

This series of ‘happenings’ set the mind back to so many tea sources, mentors, pots, and leaves of the past decades of my living, and ultimately seems to connect a huge circle. Now, another circle of tea begins with Sebastian, his pot, and our collective tea times that we share together.

That big of Jing Mai cake that fuelled a bit of tea pot activity

 
Far from being any kind of milestone, I realized that this was simply how tea flowed into one’s life.

 

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New Year, New Projects, and Some Tea

We’re now well into the New Year and with that come wishes of warmth to you all, with some peace – in whatever form that comes in – and a little go forward in all aspects of life…and more tea. Our little clan sends these wishes…

That little clan of ours

Our Akahiao Nature Institute non-profit continues to hum along with another beautiful wave of collaborations lined up for the year.

Another little item on the menu of upcoming 2023 is an upcoming television production with the folks at Global Heroes that I will humbly host. A project that will focus on good deeds, some food, my tea, and some extraordinary and understated stewards who commit to the planet and to others. Updates will follow and be fuelled on by sips of tea.

Within the editing suite at Global Heroes, failing to understand the neon graphs, hues, and ‘wonderful’ dials.

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Seiji Ito’s Clay – A Tokoname Blue

First day in Japan and already a day ‘late’. A day late in meeting a man who has been crafting clay from Tokoname into tea vessels for decades. Upon arrival to Tokyo and dealing with the restless charm of jet-lag in a city like Tokyo, I found by complete chance an announcement that there had been (upon our arrival day) an in-person introduction by Seiji Ito of his new works at a small gallery in the Akasaka district. It is the first day of a nearly month long journey through Japan and it couldn’t haver started better (except of course if I had only arrived a day earlier).

Huls Gallery in Tokyo

Decades ago I had seen his work and and even written his name down in a small notebook of random “tea bits”. I had no access to his work those years ago. And so, his name was almost (but not entirely) forgotten and his work acquired a kind of sparkle of light in the distance…but only there in the distance, never close.
One of the historic and ‘classic’ ceramic towns of Japan, Tokoname lies upon the southeastern coast and has been long known for producing smooth and clean tea vessels. It is a considered a still-living part of history with regards to its ancient kilns is part of a very storied list of ceramic-centric centres in Japan that include Banko, Arita, Suzu, Kutani, and Bizen amongst others. For me however, it was the work of Seiji Ito which had put the town of Tokoname on a kind of mind map, rather than the other way around.

Those striations are formed by tying seaweed to the unfired pot

I conspire to take the walk to Huls Gallery and arrive (a day late) to gaze for the first time upon Ito-san’s work. His clays in my memory were – more than anything – vessels meant to be used rather than those meant to be gazed upon, but upon entering into the clean well lit gallery, there was one Kyusu which brought me to its side. It was a ragingly blue flat vessel with deliberate striations that mimicked kintsugi (the art of repairing pottery and ceramics). In the case of the blue Kyusu in front of me, I’m told there is an attempt to tribute the town of Tokoname’s proximity to the ocean and the Ise Bay which it sits upon…and its vital seaweed beds. The technique is called “mogake” which involves tying strands of seaweed to the exterior of the pot before firing the clay which leaves a textured and random set of curls and striations.
The flat design and unglazed interior will allow for me to do what I do with every new piece: ‘christen’ the pot with an infusion of large leaf Puerh without constricting the leaves. It is easily the most opulent piece of tea vessel that I own but it shines and gives pleasure with its seaweed tribute and sea-blue burst.

The first infusion

For the coming month it journeys with our little family in a box, carefully nuzzled with cloth and a light sleeve to separate lid and body. Daily, it arrives to locales that we do and is infused. This ‘journeying’ (for me at least) with a tea pot is a kind of right of passage to give the pot a memory to place and time as much as to a particular set of leaves.
The pot, leaves, and some cups join me for a little jaunt up to Mount Asama where a female deity is worshipped, and where the winds welcome…and where just over ‘there’ on the horizon, Mount Fuji hints at its supreme stature within the clouds.
It will be passed along (whether he cares or not) to my son, so I prepare little infusions for him as well, though sweat (and in one case shriek) every time he is close to the little blue gem. I keep it “up, up, and away” but he too is drawn to the blue and at all times he knows exactly where it is.
The blue kyusu remains intact for the journey, and it becomes ever so ‘tainted’ by the relentless leaves that have been within it, though my son’s interest has only increased. What point though, if that bluest of blue hasn’t charmed him just a bit?

Baz, Seiji’s Pot, and I

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