Fragrent. A Korean friend gave me some unfolding tea but, alas, I did not have the tea equipment to experience it - so I passed it on.

Tea is grown in monocultures on cleared, steep formerly forested land, and picked by depauperate womenfolk who make USD 0.87 per day.

I don’t know how they control the insect pests.

Maybe Malini does?

Hi There Hugoagogo!

Yes Malini does!

Tea used to be grown in permaculture forest gardens and consumed as a special beverage. This is the ONLY way all agricultural produce should ever be grown.

It was only when the Europeans discovered it (and did what they do to everything else) that the way it grew changed.

When every man and his dog in the world wants tea, there is a price to pay.

The Europeans never made the connection between agriculture and forestry which has led to the current global environmental crises, imbalances in ecosystems and the need for pesticides as a way of controlling insects that get out of balance when monoculture is the methodology of chioce.

In traditional Asian agroforestry, the balance is maintained, because plantations replicate natural ecosystems in their biodiversity and balance.

In such a system, birds and other predators do the work of pesticides and keep insect populations under control. The variety of teas grown in Asia is huge and significantly different to the tea that is consumed by Westerners - which also encourages the planting of a few species.

Basically any medicinal species (which is most species in Asia) can be made into a tea of some sort (as long as they are not poisonous)

Over-consumption was unheard of, so there were far fewer demands on agroforestry systems. Tea was a special drink for special occasions.

The tea I’m referring to in this poem, is a very fine quality of tea (Chinese flower teas of various varieties) that can only be bought at a specialty boutique shop like Cha Do in Elizabeth St.

It’s not the disgusting low grade tea found on the supermarket shelves for mass consumption!