圣诞快乐 Merry Christmas to everyone!!

Christmas is really rushing in, with all lights and holiday spirit up all over, in every home, all over the city, like all these wonderful christmas trees and lights you can see on streets, stores and shopping malls, and soon the christmas eve and day, just wonderful:

Happy Holiday to Everyone!!

... for chadao ....

Text: 黄琼丝 /Celina Huang

Photo: En Kopp Zen Tehus

瑞典圣卢西亚的茶杯 St Lucia Tea!

So now christmas is really approaching. Last December 13 was St. Lucia day which is much celebrated in Sweden. Schools usually arrange a Lucia parade with many wonderful songs. People will then eat a saffron spiced bread called "lussekatter" in swedish and one may drink it with glögg, coffee or tea.

Many business companies and stores of the community might arrange to have the Lucia parade come and sing at their office or factory. All employees will then gathered and enjoy those lovely songs and eat these delicious lussekatter and drink what they might prefer of the above mentioned beverages. It supposedly spreads joy and light among the employees, employer and customers, which naturally brings fortune and happiness to everyone.

Just like christmas carols in other countries perhaps, the company will then donate some amount for the children shool trips and so on. It´s a wonderful mutual exchanges of joy indeed.

Many schools are therefore busy during this day delivering songs and joy to everyone. And some would even go to the expense of arranging wonderful Lucia parade with horses and stuffs like the Säbyholm Private School did in these pictures, which really brings everyone warm and light in this cold winter. Enjoy!

... for chadao ..
Text: 黄琼丝 /Celina Huang
Photo: courtesy of Le Ly of the Säbyholm Private School and its wonderful St. Lucia Parade

茶叙会 Tea time talk: The forgotten dear ones

Something rather peculiar catched my attention while drinking my cup of tea the other day. While drinking, I started paging a local newspaper, and here it is:

It says " Ashes forgotten away for a year" as title, and that three families each lost an elderly family member last autumn, namely 81, 70 and 50 years old. Today after a year, they still don´t know the where about of the cremated remains of their beloved one?!

Yes, really shocked, I thought this is not happening, considering, what in my opinion, the admirable precision of Sweden when it comes to proffessionalism.

Yes, a country where each of its residents and citizens is accurately labeled with personal numbers, each place and case were checked and double checked, that one button and it shows if you have lost one finger or are they all still entact, where one o´clock is one o´clock no more and no less. - this could not be happening!?

Anyway, continuing the article, it says that the families involved were not allowed to be present in the whole funeral procedure, and now not knowing where to turn to, the case is now "hand bolled" between the funeral agency, the crematorium, and the community´s church, while the Swedish Registry of Population is now planing to start an investigation of the matter.

Feeling really sorry for the concerned families, I nevertheless couldn´t help almost bursting out all the tea in my mouth with unexpected laughter when I read the framed information on the higher right side of the article, which I am not exactly sure if it´s really true or it is just the journalist way of funly mocking the responsible agencies.

Anyway the framed information says:

Here is the rule:

*Families are not allowed to be present during the placing of the cremated remains at the memorial home, but will rather be informed as soon as the ashes are in place. Then the church congregation will send out an informing letter to the surviving family. Normally within two months.

*If the family have not received such letter by the time, they should please contact the community´s church.

*If the ashes are still not in its proper place at the memorial home after a year, the Registry of population will starts an investigation of the matter and its cause.

... well anyway so much for the laughter, .... may these families and their deceased one soon find peace at last ... and as to this, my reading tip to everyone: try reading local papers with your tea instead of national or global ones. I think it´s in the local where real stories of real people like this are.

And speaking about forgetfullness, guess what I´ve forgotten myself - I forgot it´s my mother´s birthday the other day ( who passed away a few years ago ), and so now I bought some fruits to offer in her memory. 

... for chadao ..

Text: 黄琼丝 /Celina Huang

Photo: En kopp Zen Teahouse

开花茶:皇后的最爱 Flower Tea: the empress`s favorite

... and talking about beautiful flowers, it  reminds me of those blooming teas or flower tea, which are even said to be dating back as early as on Marie Antoinette´s time around 1755-1793.

I tried looking for more about this, or the teas existence in France already by that time, but find nothing much, except that blooming teas, which are actually bundles of tea leaves tied together, were said to be actually already existing for as long as several hundreds years back.

Being aware of the artistic creativity of chinese people for centuries already for one thing, I thought it can actually be right and wouldn´t really want to argue about this anymore, except to continue and enjoy this short filmclip, showing the existence of flower tea in France already on the 18th century. It shows Marie Antoinette amusingly demonstrated this `amazing blooming tea from China!´

Just how amazing it is, well - it actually has some sort of a powerful taste as it brewed away such strong bronze like color, which might surprise you, as coming from such, what you might thought, innocent, mild and pretty looking blooming tea only .... Enjoy!

... for chadao ..

Text: 黄琼丝 /Celina Huang

Photo: En kopp Zen Teahouse

姹紫嫣红 Beautiful purples and brilliant reds: beautiful flowers

Now that those beautiful autumn leaves are almost gone, and we´re in the middle of leaving behind the joy they gave us and waiting for the first magical snow fall, aside from livelier music, dark chocolate and tea to energize my spirit, I usually take a look on some lively spring colors on the net or something.

And yes, it really gives joy! This is another cousin of mine, Raquel Sy and her family, on Taipei Inter´l Flora exposition in Taiwan. Looking at these lovely pictures, and I thought nothing can feel more beautiful than being around flowers.

No wonder millions of flowers are sold around the world, and such huge flora exposition Taipei hosted: Just one look at everyone and the pretty smile on their lovely faces, like that of Raquel and family, and you can see how flowers and plants spread happiness indeed.

Thanks for sharing, cousin, I hope I had enjoyed this lovely event with all of you in Taiwan, and naturally with a warm cup of taiwanese oolong, ... surely another time like this will come ... until then, keep the smile!

... for chadao ..

Text: 黄琼丝 /Celina Huang

Photo: courtesy of Raquel Sy and family

每日 Soup and tea of the day

Le Ly and cousin

Lately, a relative arrived in Sweden, and I and Le Ly went and show Stockholm around a bit before we drove to the westcoast the same day, and back to Stockholm again after two days.

While around Stockholm, we naturally got hungry, and hunt for something to eat and found this tiny eatery, which serves different east asian food. Their food are delicious, specially the thai coconut soup, sour and chilied, very dilicious!

Their tea was alright, but do not exactly have an ambitious menu, I should say, but still, the service was great and friendly, which made it tastes fine and sweet, nevertheless.

Or perhaps I should say, I actually never make any big deal when it comes to food or drink, as long as they are fresh, clean and warmly served. And perhaps it depends on mentors we met in life, and how they formed us.

Anyway, as the great old mentor I fondly called "grandpa Fu ", once said, " as long as you try to do the right always, ... nothing and nothing can go wrong, remember that" , he said.

And so as I then always try to remember, ... even that day and tried to do the right thing, and just thankful for the tea as it is, then indeed nothing went wrong,  ... and the journey to the westcoast and back went smoothly all the way and right to schedule.

...and that´s how food and tea can really taste good every day, as grandpa Fu used to say, when you make every moment of the day as good and right as possible. Great appetite and tea drinking!

... for chadao ..

Text: 黄琼丝 /Celina Huang

Photo: En Kopp Zen Teahouse