Alchemy in the Cup

What's in my cup: Houjicha, a roasted green tea from Japan

There is nothing especially sophisticated about houjicha. Maybe that is what I really like about it. Every cup is comforting, gentle on the palate, and easy to brew. Unlike other Japanese green teas, this one isn't particularly finicky when it comes to temperature or time. Houjicha is also a relatively young tea- it has been around for less than a century.

In the 1920s, a tea merchant in Kyoto, Japan was left with a surplus of late-flush bancha. This is a common tea produced from the last of the pick-able leaves on the Camellia plants in the autumn and winter. Bancha is a less-refined tea than earlier harvests of sencha, but, rather than let his product spoil, the innovative tea merchant decided to try roasting it in a ceramic vessel over high heat. The application of heat, and ingenuity, to the tea leaves gave the tea drinkers of early twentieth century Kyoto a new beverage.

This particular variety of green tea is not especially vegetal or astringent. It's mellow and earthy notes harmonize for a velvety serenade, one that is perfect at day's end. The roasting eliminates nearly all of the caffeine present in the tea leaves, and so I was able to enjoy more of this low-caffeine and low-tannin beverage after my kidney concerns. I really love the feeling of warmth spreading through my body that matches the warm and smooth taste on my palate with each sip of houjicha.

The secret to this tea is in it's simplicity; it is an entirely uncomplicated tea to master. With each successive sip, I found myself thinking about how easy it is to get caught up in the ceremony and and ritual of everything. Nothing about this tea holds onto false pretense. It has humble origins and undergoes a drastic transformation by a simple process, and that is what holds the key to everything we can learn from this tea.

Bancha, the base for this beverage, is often overlooked by tea connoisseurs. It is the least favorite child in the sencha family of leaves, consumed daily because of its price and availability rather than its complex aroma or sophisticated flavor. Despite this, houjicha is widely enjoyed as a delightful cup of tea with more notoriety than just any other late-harvest green. This tea began as a surplus. It wasn't particularly in demand, and would simply have gone to waste if not for some fast-thinking merchant in Kyoto. Perhaps he was inspired by the way that the Chinese pan-fire their green teas or by Taiwanese roasted oolongs. Perhaps the kami, or spirit, of the leaves themselves gave him the idea.

However it came to pass, houjicha went from one level to another. It underwent a process of transformation from a base substance to an infusion that leans a dark amber to golden brown. This is a tea of alchemy. We have a lot to learn from these leaves. Hundreds of medieval texts on magic and alchemy obscure the details of what it really was intended to be. Most of us today believe alchemists sought only the philosopher's stone in order to produce the elixir of life, a potion believed to endow one with immortality, and to transform base metals into gold. What we have yet to learn is that the complicated rituals and laboratory instructions are seldom intended to be taken literally.

Alchemy is a process of transforming the self. We take all of our dull, leaden bits and allow them to become shiny and golden. Attaining immortality has less to do with living forever than it does realizing that part of us that is undying and eternal. Real alchemy is an internal process of spiritual awakening whereby the alchemist becomes aware of the connection of all life and the simplicity of the spiritual truth that we are all one.

Our teacher for today, houjicha, undergoes a simple process involving a mere application of heat in order to become a new tea. It transforms from practically a waste product as a surplus harvest into a tea that will be forever endeared to the hearts of tea lovers around the globe. That sounds a lot like immortality to me.

Let's learn what we can from this tea. Houjicha preaches simplicity with each sip. It's difficult to spoil a pot of it because it is remarkably easy to infuse. Perhaps by uncluttering our minds and seeking simple pleasures, we can begin the process of transformation and open ourselves to what we are truly called to do in life. By allowing ourselves to be transmuted into the spiritual analog of gold, we can also touch those around us and live on forever in their hearts and minds.