Given the span of time and efforts to immerse in leaves and the lives connected to tea, there aren’t many more satisfying additions than starting up a tea column (in joyous collaboration with Outpost Magazine). These pieces will comprise ‘The Tea Sessions’ and they’ll take place in the midst of blizzards in the Himalayas, be inundated with butter, formality in Tokyo, ripping tea buzzes in Taiwan or simply serving Paniolos from my own stash here in Hawaii. It is about a coming together and a kind of union, however informal.
The idea is based upon a set of tea journeys that involve some of the more epic characters, moments that rip into the very bloodstream, and spaces and efforts dedicated to the leaf. Though The Tea Sessions doesn’t and won’t really do justice to the characters and the intimate spaces, ‘tea’ is the inextricable resin that binds all of these elements together.
Inevitably most of these elements don’t necessarily involve the ‘best’ teas – or sometimes even good teas – but they all involve an immersion into – and efforts dedicated to stimulation and restoration…or just very large characters who know well the art of generosity, in a time that is so in need of this old code of simple giving and providing. A tea-fuelled set of journeys that touch upon the stimulant fuel but most often about a dive into the visceral moments that blow the whole internal system side open.
It will be about the tea, yes, as it is this vegetal elixir and panacea of which so much of the column is about – but it will also about attempting to conjure up the sensory moments as well.
On we go…and best taken with a sip of something.
About JeffFuchs
Bio
Having lived for most of the past decade in Asia, Fuchs’ work has centered on indigenous mountain cultures, oral histories with an obsessive interest in tea. His photos and stories have appeared on three continents in award-winning publications Kyoto Journal, TRVL, and Outpost Magazine, as well as The Spanish Expedition Society, The Earth, Silkroad Foundation, The China Post Newspaper, The Toronto Star, The South China Morning Post and Traveler amongst others. Various pieces of his work are part of private collections in Europe, North America and Asia and he serves as the Asian Editor at Large for Canada’s award-winning Outpost magazine.
Fuchs is the Wild China Explorer of the Year for 2011 for sustainable exploration of the Himalayan Trade Routes. He recently completed a month long expedition a previously undocumented ancient nomadic salt route at 4,000 metres becoming the first westerner to travel the Tsa’lam ‘salt road’ through Qinghai.
Fuchs has written on indigenous perspectives for UNESCO, and has having consulted for National Geographic. Fuchs is a member of the fabled Explorers Club, which supports sustainable exploration and research.
Jeff has worked with schools and universities, giving talks on both the importance of oral traditions, tea and mountain cultures. He has spoken to the prestigious Spanish Geographic Society in Madrid on culture and trade through the Himalayas and his sold out talk at the Museum of Nature in Canada focused on the enduring importance of oral narratives and the Himalayan trade routes.
His recently released book ‘The Ancient Tea Horse Road’ (Penguin-Viking Publishers) details his 8-month groundbreaking journey traveling and chronicling one of the world’s great trade routes, The Tea Horse Road. Fuchs is the first westerner to have completed the entire route stretching almost six thousand kilometers through the Himalayas a dozen cultures.
He makes his home in ‘Shangrila’, northwestern Yunnan upon the eastern extension of the Himalayan range where tea and mountains abound; and where he leads expeditions the award winning ‘Tea Horse Road Journey’ with Wild China along portions of the Ancient Tea Horse Road.
To keep fueled up for life Fuchs co-founded JalamTeas which keeps him deep in the green while high in the hills.
