Something I have been trying to say for a long time was just handed to me by our Tea goddess, Winnie Yu.

Tea has no place in a commercial world where the value of things are based solely on monetary gain, for It becomes just another beverage competing with the soft drinks, bottled water, coffee, for gross margins and shelf presence. The value of tea, especially good tea, is subtle and sometimes downright profound, and no price tag can mark its true worth. How can you attach a price to a real experience?

Tea has no place in a world where experiences are fed to us, clothed in the guise of authenticity. Once, while trekking in a tea mountain, a friend remarked to me:" this is like a theme park, the theme is tea, except the thrills are real. You really can fall off the cliff! " Unfortunately for many of us, living so remotely away from the authentic, we have no way of comparing our experiences. How do we know that vanilla scented tea is not really how good tea is supposed to smell, and that the subtle wonderful aromas of real tea has been completely obscured by the artificial application of citrus scenting? It is like mistaking a shadow for the person, a greeting card for a friend, a movie for an adventure.

To me, the bevy of artificially blended teas in the marketplace today obscure the true essence of what tea is about. Tea is about authenticity, a deep revelatory experience. Upfront aromas that assault our senses merely disguise what is not there, and often, perfumes cover up the lower quality black teas that are mass produced. There is no soul in mass produced products. Tea, for its long thousands of years of history, has always been produced mostly by hand, from harvesting in the field to rolling tender leaves to shape, to crafting the final baking over charcoal fire heat. The spirit of the tea master lives through each cup of tea.

Often, what is most valuable to us is the simplest. Air, water, earth. What we do pay for the most, we probably don’t need to survive with. Has anyone purchased a five hundred dollar handbag lately? Or a thousand dollar gadget that becomes obsolete in a year? A cup of tea is created simply from adding water to leaves. Its intrinsic values are not apparent to the naked eye.

Real, authentic teas offer a real, authentic experience. Its physiological effects include waking the mind, keeping it alert and focused, the breadth of healthful effects well documented in ancient herbal medicine as well as modern science. By keeping our bodies healthy, our minds clear, our discovery of where tea can take us is infinite.

Real tea has an ability to move us, with endless complexities often revealed in layers over time. The varieties of flavors and aromas that lead to sensations, feelings, and lingering aftertastes in your palate are endless permutations of enjoyment. It is no wonder that poetry after poetry the simplicity of tea was praised, for in simplicity is where the meaningful life is reflected.

To me, the true value of tea is its ability to ground us- I can always rely on it to return me to the most valuable aspects of life, the call of artificially created frustrations receding quickly into the background. I land into emerald green terraces on vertical hills , shrouded in misty fog, as the swallows zip by and the fiercely gentle breeze fluff the tea leaves and the aroma floats for miles. The world returns to us via a cup of tea, the great treasure that already lies within us.

The teas that we carry here at Salumiere Cesario are of the highest quality and are hand picked by real people, often the same people who grow it. All of the teas are vintage teas, yes just like wine the have a season and vintage. We care a lot about what we do and what we carry, come in and see why our teas are real.