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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Lobsang – On Water in the Himalayas

A morning of brittle cold that brought the eyes to a standstill in Darlag, southern Amdo. Lobsang watches while his two sons source ice from a nearby ‘lake’ to bring home to boil for morning tea. Lobsang asked me whether I would be photographing him, and when I responded that “yes, I wanted to”, he promptly left wiithout a word, leaving me in the morning cold, going back to his little homestead.

Lobsang all done up in a still morning cold that the Himalayas do very very well.

He emerged minutes later with a new chuba (long woollen robe) and a much more styling traditional Amdo fur cap. He then told me that I could photograph him however much I liked.
Lobsang spoke about water and the ‘health’ of the mountains in simple terms and how he hoped his sons didn’t have to worry about their homestead or water. He spoke about how every element was right there and that there wasn’t ever a time to really shut off of being aware…and thankful. He was a steward of the land in the purest sense of the word.

Lobsang’s two sons sit upon what will soon be melted water for tea

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Time with Tseten – Tea Horse Road Trader

We sat in the dark gloom of his home, with a bit of lukewarm butter tea roaming around our hands. Another of the remaining legends of the days of trade and odyssey journey-making along the Tea Horse Road, Tseten was slow but steady to warm of the times and tales of his time along the great trade route. One memory spoken would unhinge another, which would lead to more meandering tales.

It was like this with many of these remaining participants of life along the Tea Horse Road. Stories started slowly and triggered a memory strand that in turn would lead to another. Hours and days could pass uncoiling the past. Tseten was ill during a visit near my old home of ‘Gyalthang’ (aka: Shangrila, Zhongdian, Jiantang) in northwestern Yunnan, but it didn’t prevent his old engine of a heart to rise as we sat together.

The great expanses of the Himalayas remained prominent in most of his tales and how they instructed, wreaked havoc, and formed bonds. This route and the conversations around it and the times, almost inevitably sparked something epic in people as though travelling back into a rare time portal. It always had felt that the these participants of the route, had garnered some magic dust upon them that lasted. When asked if he would mind a portrait being taken, he nodded immediately and excused himself. He would come back a few minutes later having fixed himself up. He was ready and he was stunning.

Kham (Eastern Tibet), where so much of the history of the Tea Horse Road passed through…and remains

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Tseba, his Tea, and the Walk(s)

One of the most purpose-driven of walkers, Tseba, would prepare a kettle of butter tea every morning before leaving to circumambulate around Litang’s Chode monastery. No less than three rotations would ever be done and afternoons would often see Tseba back out with his mala beads in hand doing another three rounds. Not rain, hail, blasting sun, nor heaps of snow would ever prevent Tseba from his ritual rotations (nor his pre-ritual taking of tea) in this town of over 4,000 metres.

A contented Tseba post circumambulation and post butter tea

Litang was, for over a decade, one of the zones that I would inevitably find myself navigating to, and remaining in. A community of friends, relentless mountain forces, and a vital conduit point along the Sichuan-Tibet portion of the Tea Horse Road kept me wanting more and more time there. To arrive, whether by foot or vehicle, was always an entire body feel as the altitude began to tighten its  grip on the body.

A heightening of all senses was influenced by a particular type of air current and temperature drop, as though this set of elements were prerequisites to acknowledge where one was arriving to.

Some of my favourite people at the Litang Horse Festival, including Tseba at the far right

Tseba embodied much of what made the area compelling and unambiguous, and his butter tea offerings were no different. They were powerful, rich, stimulant liquids, that were as much a meal as they were anything else. Barley, salt, yak butter, desiccated tea leaves from Sichuan gardens leagues away, and even at times the addition of dried yak yoghurt balls, called chura could all, depending on his mood or the availability of these items, be found within a bowl.

Litang

Proudly Khampa, he remembered the region’s contributions to the Ancient Tea Horse Road. Caravans would pass through these vast nomadic spaces in western Sichuan, sometimes needing the assistance of ’traveling protection’ – nomads payed to accompany and protect both caravans and their participants from attack and thieves.
Many a time, we’d share a butter tea before heading out where I’d do a version of a scurry to keep up with Tseba as it has been years since I’ve been in his spaces.

Some of the bold landscapes of the Litang area, which mirrors some of its butter tea offerings

He often said that both his preferred teas and people had the same qualities: direct and having an impact. Whether he knew it or not, he perfectly personified both of those qualities…and I hope he does still.
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