Don Mei : Hey teaheads.
This is Don from Mei Leaf.
In this video : How to make people fall in love with tea.
In this video I'm going to be giving you my tips on how you can be converting your friends
and family into teaheads.
This video is going to go under the "Teamaster Class" playlist.
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At the end of every single video I make I implore you to spread the word about true
tea, and many people ask me how they can go about doing this.
Well, it's coming up to Christmas - I'm filming this in December 2016 - [and] so it's a perfect
opportunity, as you gather friends and family together, to try and convert some of them
to tea.
If you're watching after Christmas then these tips will still apply.
It's not just about spreading the passion about tea, but it's really also about gathering
"partners in crime" [who] you can share tea with, [and] have sessions with, where people
can introduce you to more tea [as] everyone can bring out their stash and enjoy tea together.
I've been in the tea business for over 13 or 14 years now, and I've picked up some little
tips along the way.
I want to share six of them with you.
Let's get started.
Okay, so tip number one is [to] choose a tea that you are passionate about.
Most people, when they're trying to convert someone to tea, they're trying to second-guess
what that person might like.
Maybe they're a coffee drinker [and] so you're thinking, "I'm going to give them a dark,
roasted tea."
Maybe they currently drink [artificially] flavored teas, and you're thinking, "I'm going
to give them a gateway tea by introducing them to a fine Jasmine tea."
But, in my experience, the best way to convert people is with your passion.
Pick a tea that you're passionate about, because ít's your passion and your excitement that's
going to pique their interest.
They're going to find that really engaging, [and] that's what's going to draw them in,
so pick a tea that you're passionate about.
For example, I have here a Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong, "Royal Peach Orchid" [which] is one
of my favorite teas.
I think it's a great tea as an introduction tea, because I love it.
If you've not heard about this tea, or are interested about [it], I'll put a link about
[it] in the description below, and maybe a little card will pop up here if you're watching
on YouTube.
I'm going to brew this tea, and try to brew whilst talking to you.
So,, pick a tea that you're passionate about.
Okay.
The second tip that I have for you is [to] express your passion for tea, but don't talk
about flavor.
There are many things in tea that we all love.
You may love the aesthetics of the brewing process.
You may love the aesthetics of the teaware.
You may love the story, or the history, of tea.
You may love the history of the actual tea that you're preparing for them, so you may
swot up and learn a little bit about what makes this leaf so special, how it was processed,
where it was grown, and give them the whole story in the artisanal basis of the [leaf]
that you're introducing them to.
Maybe you're particularly excited about the health benefits, or the functional aspects,
of tea, and you want to express that to them.
You need to express your passion, [and] you need to tell people why you love tea so much,
but what I would advise you...
Ah!... not to do is talk too much about the flavor of the tea that you're introducing
to them, because tasting is personal, and if you start to impose too much of your thoughts
about it you start to take away the interactivity of the tea tasting process, and you start
to take away the potential enjoyment that your guest, friend, or family [member] might
get out of the tea.
It's all about trying to hold back [and not] talk too much about flavor until later.
Okay, the third tip is [to] brew Gong Fu style.
You all know by now - of you should know by now - how much I love Gong Fu brewing.
If you haven't seen any of the videos on Gong Fu brewing, again, maybe a little card will
pop up somewhere here [where] I'll put a link in the description below to a video about
Gong Fu brewing.
Gong Fu brewing - hands down - for the majority of teas; I know there are exceptions - is
the best way to taste tea.
If you're going to try and convert people to tea then you need to give them the the
best tasting tea that you can possibly brew.
It needs to start off on a high.
You can't give them some slightly weak, western [style] brewed tea, because it's just not
going to have the same impact, so brew Gong Fu style.
Many people ask me, "Well, how do you brew Gong Fu style in a group?"
The simple answer to that is [to] keep brewing in small teaware like this - so exactly the
same as if you were brewing by yourself, or with one or two people - and mix up infusions.
So brew one and two infusions, put them together, and then serve.
For example, if I'm infusing this Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong - this is probably about a 15 second
brew - I would not go and pick up a big pot, because ýou're more likely - if you pick
up a big pot - to put les leaf in [and] get the ratios not quite right, because you don't
want to use up too much of your precious leaf, so keep it small, and infuse the tea a couple
of times.
So basically, one of these pots is 180 ml.
You will fill up, with one of these pots, five of these cups.
So if you do two brews, and mix them together, that gives you ten cups of tea, which is usually
pretty good depending on how big your social situation is.
Again, just mix up your infusions.
It means you're going to get less rounds of tea out of it, but what you'll get is really,
really high quality flavored tea without using too much leaf.
If you have one of these Connoisseur tea [brewers] then, again, fill it with leaf, put the water
in, allow it to brew, push the button, decant the tea, and [then] immediately just go and
put more water in there, brew the second infusion, push the button - so that the second infusion
comes out - and you will have a good, nearly 500 - to about 450 ml - of tea which will
happily serve ten people, and they're getting the best tasting tea.
So always brew Gong Fu style.
Okay.
Let me taste some of this tea.
[Let's] make sure I'm in focus, and have some of this tea.
This is a Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong, [which is] one of my favorite teas.
Okay.
The fourth tip is [to] indulge their senses.
This is really, really important.
If you go off to the kitchen and you make some tea - even if you make it Gong Fu style
- and you walk out with a cup, and you go, "Here you go.
Here you go, Here you go.", and you pass it around, and everyone gets a sip of tea, they're
not going to get the whole experience of tea.
You know that the experience of tea is not just about simply smelling, looking, and [tasting]
the liquor.
It's about the whole process.
This is [another reason] why Gong Fu brewing is so great in this situation - and if you
have have a Gong Fu Guru, or you have something like this- a water tray - bring it out.
Bring it onto the table.
Get yourself a thermos so you're not running back and forth to the kitchen.
Get yourself a good thermos that keeps the water to temperature, and make tea the centerpoint.
Make tea the [centerpiece] of the table so that people can look at you brewing, [they]
can see the process, because you don't know might hook that person in.
You don't know what might excite that person.
It might not be, initially, the flavor.
It might be all the teaware.
It might be the way that you brew.
They may ask you why you're rinsing the tea, [and] all of those things.
If you do it in hiding in your kitchen you're going to lose all of that.
Similarly, having the leaf in front of them is so important.; the dry leaf [and] the wet
leaf, [and] getting them to stick their nose in the pot, or the Gai Wan, [these] are so
important, because ýou're adding more and more richness to the experience.
You're adding more richness to the [sensory] information that they're getting out of it,
[by] looking at the leaf, smelling the leaf, looking at how the leaf unfurls [and] how
it opens, [and] examining the leaf afterwards.
Bring the tea out.
Make it a centerpiece [by putting] it in the middle of the table.
That's why these Gong Fu Guru [trays] are so, so great.
Okay, the fifth tip is [to] make the tasting experience and active one.
What you don't want to do is tell people what you think this tea tastes like [and then]
give it to them, because [that's] a very passive thing.
I'm going to say, "Okay.
This Dan Cong tastes like peach, it tastes like honey, and it tastes like orchid."
[They] drink it [and say], "Yeah.
I get those things.
Great."
You've taken away so much of the pleasure and personal experience of tea, because taste
and aroma is personal.
It's hard-wired to your memory [and] experiences.
So if you start talking too much about flavor at the beginning you're taking away the personal
experience.
Instead, what you should do is give them the leaf, [and] ask them to smell it.
Try to engage their senses.
Try to engage them in an active process.
Get them to smell, [and] get them to try to describe [the tea].
Now, a lot of people find this quite difficult, and there [are] a couple of reasons for that.
The first reason is that they feel a bit uncomfortable.
They think that there are right or wrong answers, and they think, "Oh, If I say it smells of
flowers when this tea is meant to be fruity than I've got it wrong."
A lot of people have that approach, so it's important that you tell them [that] there
are no right and wrong answers, that tasting and smelling is a personal experience, and
[that] ít's about finding their personal connection with this tea.
The second reason why people don't like to express too much [about] the tasting is because
they [simply] haven't trained themselves to kind of make links between a smell and an
object, or a memory.
It takes a while for them to get into it.
What they'll tend to do is stick their nose in [the cup] and they may say something like,
"Oh, it smells a little bit woody."
That's great, [and] that's a starting point.
Then what you should do is try to push them.
Make it an active process.
Try to push them [by asking], "What kind of wood?
Is it dry wood, like dry balsa wood?
Or is it like wet wood that's rotting in a forest?
Or is it freshly cut, sawn wood?"
Try to push them a little bit to focus on the next layer of detail.
So "woody" is a good start, but then move to the next layer of detail.
Up on the screen right now I will put our "tasting wheel".
You can see [that] in the middle of the tasting wheel you have the more basic and generalized
descriptions, and then as you move out it becomes a little bit more detailed.
This is a great way to encourage people to explore further.
After they have given you their tasting notes that's when you can step in and finally tell
them what you taste too, and hopefully the conversation can move forward from there,
but you need to make sure that the tasting experience is an active process.
Engage their mind [and] engage their memory.
Ask them to open [and] free their mind.
Say, "Listen.
Just stick your nose in and tell me what emotions, or what memories, this evokes for you."
You'll be amazed at what comes out.
A lot of people will start to go back into their childhood and say, "Oh, this reminds
me of my grandmother's farm..." or "The cellar of my old house."
Whatever it may be, smell and taste [are] hardwired into memory, so if you can engage
that memory [and] make them remember something that is emotional to them then they are going
to start to have an affinity, and a connection, with the tea, and they'll come back to it.
If you come straight out and say, "This is a peachy tea that has honey notes..."
you've taken away all [of] that pleasure.So make the tasting process and active one.
The sixth, and final, tip for you is [to] give them tools to learn.
If you've been successful at piquing their interest you'll notice a little glint in their
eye as they ask questions about tea, and you can see that you've started to ignite a passion
for true tea.
But this is just the beginning.
It's a very small flame, and if you send on their merry way with no way to learn more
than chances are that this is just going to be consigned to a happy memory.
What you want to do is take you out of the equation.
You want them to be self-sufficient to learn more, so you need to give them the road map
for how they can continue learning.
I would humbly suggest that you introduce them to our YouTube channel.
As you know, there [are] plenty of videos there that hopefully they can get into and
learn more.
Maybe you could introduce them to one of your favorite videos [which] you have found particularly
fun or informative.
Alternatively - or as well as that - you can introduce them to books you may have found
particularly informative.
I struggle with this.
A lot of people ask me to recommend books, [but] I've never found the perfect book.
I find a lot of them have great value, but are often flawed as well.
But maybe you've found a book that really, really helped you, so introduce that book
to them so that they have a road map to continue to learn.
If you follow these six tips I promise you [that] you will start to convert your friends
and family to the way of true tea.
[This] means you get to have more tea sessions with more people, and the great thing is that
they will start to bring you even more of the good stuff to try.
If you've tried these tips and tricks please let me know your experiences.
I would love to hear from you.
If you have other tips and tricks - [as] I'm sure many of you have converted people to
the way of tea - [that you would like to share] please put them in the comments [section]
below.
I would like to read them, and I'm sure that other viewers could learn a lot from you too.
That's it teaheads.
If you made it to the end of this video then please give [it] the thumbs-up.
Check out our YouTube playlists and let us know if there are any videos that you would
like us to make.
If you're ever in London then come visit us in Camden to say "Hi!" and taste our wares.
If you have any questions or comments then please fire them over.
Other than that, I'm Don Mei from Mei Leaf.
Thank you for being a part of the revelation of true tea.
Stay away from the tea bags, keep drinking the good stuff, and spread the word - using
these six tips - because nobody deserves bad tea.
[WAVING] Bye.