Hearty, Warm, Sustaining

To read tea leaves is to review the cultural and political history of tea over centuries, tracing the brew’s role as a medicinal palliative, spiritual assist, encouragement to artistic invention and world trade, and incitement for revolution and exploitation. But for those can’t read tea leaves, ‘Steeped in History: The Art of Tea’ now on view at UCLA’s Fowler Museum through November 29, will provide important insights. Curated by Beatrice Hohenegger, author of ‘Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West,’ the exhibition offers a visually stunning excursion through the centuries, beginning with the ‘discovery’ of tea as a medicinal plant in China a thousand years before the modern era, and the Chinese’s embrace of the art and uses of tea. The Fowler exhibit flows from gallery to gallery, following the migration of tea from China to Japan in the 12th century, and finally to Europe along with the Dutch traders, and America. A little background makes the significance of tea in world history even more remarkable. Like salt in ancient times, tea, because of its exclusive botany and particular climate and soil requirements, became an invaluable necessity and a desirable trading commodity. Tea comes from a single plant, camellia sinensis, native to southeastern Asia. The Chinese multiple-stem shrub (var. sinensis) has small leaves that protect it against cold weather, while the Indian single-stem plant (var. assamica) thrives in subtropical and rainy regions. The difference in color’black, green, oolong, yellow, red or white’depends on the varying levels of oxidation. Black teas are fully oxidized, white teas are nonoxidized. Chamomile, rooibos and herbal beverages are derived from other plants; they are infusions, not teas. While we may be accustomed to drinking loose-leaf tea stored in a tin or a bag, tea may also be compressed or powdered. During the Tang dynasty (619-907), tea was molded into bricks and then shaved and boiled in a cauldron. The custom of grinding tea into powder to form cakes or whisk with hot water in a tea bowl followed. The first teapots specifically designed for brewing loose-leaf tea were created in the 1500s. These early, unglazed vessels were designed and produced in Yixing, in eastern China. They were never washed, simply rinsed out with cold water, which resulted in the interior of the pot developing a residual layer of tea. The father of tea, according to legend, was the Chinese emperor Shen Nong, who tasted tea accidentally one summer day while visiting a distant region of his realm. He and his servants stopped to rest, and in accordance of the emperor’s ruling that drinking water be boiled as a hygienic precaution, he awaited his servants’ preparations. Dried leaves from a nearby bush fell into the boiling water and a brown liquid was infused into the water. As a scientist, Shen Nong is credited with identifying hundreds of medical and poisonous herbs by personally testing their properties. Tea, which acts as an antidote against the poisonous effects of some 70 herbs, was an important discovery indeed. Tea found its way to Japan along with Buddhism during the Heian period (794-1185) by monks who had traveled to China to study Zen and believed the beverage enhanced religious meditation. The custom spread to the royal court and was given imperial sponsorship, which elevated it to an art form and the creation of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, known as chanoyu (‘hot water for tea’).   Journalist/teacher Lafcadio Hearn, who lived and worked in Japan for 15 years at the turn of the century, married a Japanese woman and became a naturalized Japanese citizen, captured the significance of the Japanese Tea Ceremony: ‘The Tea ceremony required years of training and practice to graduate to art. The supremely important matter is that the act be performed in the most perfect, most polite, most graceful, most charming manner.’ This description of the ritual of tea ceremony is beautifully displayed through the accoutrements that complete the ceremonial pastime in the Fowler exhibition. These include tea bowls, each designed for a specific type of tea, (thick or thin), and season, shallow during the hot summer and taller with thicker walls for winter. A tea room has been constructed in the corner of one gallery in which the five essential elements are present: fire in the brazier, water in the water jug, earth in the ceramic tea bowl, wood in the tea-lacquered tea caddy, and metal in the teakettle. In the chado, or the ‘way of tea,’ the host symbolically brings together the entire universe through these elements.   Knowledge of tea in Europe began with the Portuguese, who developed the first trade route with China in the mid-16th century, transporting the tea aboard Dutch ships from Lisbon to France, Holland and the Baltics. Tea became popular in The Hague, due in part to its high cost (over $100 a pound), and as a result, became the exclusive domain of the rich. But as consumption increased, prices fell and the craze for things oriental swept Europe, tea became part of the way of life. By 1650, the Dutch were trading throughout the Western world. Peter Stuyvesant brought the first tea to America, satisfying the colonists’ taste for the exotic beverage. By the time the English arrived in America, they found that the small settlement of New Amsterdam consumed more tea at that time than all of England together. The history of tea takes on geo-political significance as trade meant power in the late 17th and 18th century, and this development takes up the final galleries in the exhibition.   Initially, tea was not valued as a commodity unto itself, but as tea-drinking became more popular, teapots and other Chinese ceramics were found to make practical ballast for sailing ships, which were sold after the voyage. Soon the demand for tea and the chinoiserie phenomenon spread across Europe in the 17th century. China remained the sole provider of tea in world trade throughout the 18th century. With the merger in 1773 of the John Company and the East India Company, both established to promote Asian trade, the British company held a privileged position with the British government, not only in trade monopolies but also in territorial rule, most notably in India.   Tea is re-emerging as a preferred beverage in the United States, cited for its health benefits and as a pleasant social accompaniment. Looking back through the Tea Manual Chashu by Xiu Cishu in the Ming Era, not much has changed. It advised the following occasions for drinking tea: In idle moments, when thoughts are confused, in the bridal chamber, after tipsy guests have left, and finally when viewing springs and scenic rocks. (Beatrice Hohenegger ‘Steeped in History’ guest curator and tea specialist considers the history and culture of tea at 4 p.m., September 12 at the museum. For more information, visit: wwwfowler.ucla.edu.)

You might think that, with two performing arts studios and an annual enrollment of 1,000 kids in musical theater and dance workshops, that actress/teacher Janet Adderley would have become a CEO caught up in the mechanics of running the business than imparting her energy and techniques to up-and-coming talent. Not so. Adderley, who is celebrating her 13th year in Pacific Palisades and is completing an addition to her studio on State Street in Santa Barbara, has honed a masterful faculty and administrative support team, which allows her to do what she always has done: teach.   A true Broadway baby, Adderley enjoyed a feast of theatrical parts, including roles in ‘Starlight Express’ and ‘Cats,’ before moving to Los Angeles in 1990 to work in film and television. With her luck not as stunning, and with two young daughters, she elected to set her stage career aside to teach kids and adults the magic of the musical, using Broadway as her text. She opened her 28,000-sq.-ft. studio in the Highlands in 1997 and launched the Santa Barbara school in 2005.   ’On the East Coast, theater is king,’ Adderley says while taking a ‘hot second’ to reflect on her mission. ‘All kids go into the city to see shows. Whole families go to New York for a week just to see Broadway musicals.’ It’s not so easy in Los Angeles and that’s why Adderley’s repertory is strictly Broadway, which she refers to as ‘the source.’ ‘It’s all about tried-and-true Broadway, where kids have an opportunity to chew on art, on words that have value and worth.’ While Adderley School’s text is Broadway, she doesn’t impose her favorites on her students; favorites that run from ‘The Sound of Music’ and ‘Westside Story’ to ‘Into the Woods.’ ‘If it takes a ‘High School Musical’ to get kids to sit down to watch ‘Guys and Dolls,’ that’s okay with me,’ she says. Students are between the age of 5 and 14, although several have started as young as 3. Adderley defines her school as striking a balance between those structured for the complete novice and the ‘I-can-get-your-kid-into-show-business’ model. Adderley’s mantra: As long as the student walks out that door loving the process, she feels as if she is doing her job’building a future audience and/or future craftsmen. The three-week summer camp, which met five days a week, mirrors the regular 14-week, once-a-week workshops. In the first week, children get to know one another, and the director, choreographer and musical director get to know each child. In the second week, the teachers tailor the productions to the kids, making sure that each child will be able to perform a solo and duet. They learn production numbers and dance steps, and work on blocking and scenes. The last week is dedicated to a ‘stumble-through, when we just throw it up there to see how it’s looking,’ Adderley says. Her students presented their culminating show, ‘Wicked,’ last Thursday in Santa Monica. Their ‘home’ theater, the Pierson Playhouse, was unavailable. While most of the older students, once in high school, become involved in their school drama programs, Adderley works with a group of ‘top drawer’ actors in the Adderley Repertory Company. These kids meet for four hours on Saturdays mastering their craft and preparing a show. Over the years, several of her students have gone all the way to Broadway and, on many occasions, the children have collaborated as backup choruses for musical productions and CDs. An upcoming video, produced by David Foster and featuring Andrea Bocelli, will include an Adderley chorus. Adderley is equally proud of her staff, some of whom have made the Broadway cut. Former teacher Jeff McLean, who got his break in the ‘Spamalot’ national tour in Las Vegas, recently offered a master class to about 30 summer camp students in the Palisades studio. Currently starring as Warner in ‘Legally Blonde’ at the Pantages, he was joined by cast members including Becky Gulsvig, who stars as lead character Elle Woods. Looking over the last dozen years, Adderley, who divides her time between the two studios, has made some self-discoveries. ‘As much as I want to feel that I can train people and walk away, I can’t,’ she says. ‘The secret sauce is me. I have learned that it’s way easier to be proficient and to teach the craft than to be loving, nurturing and mentoring. These are God-given gifts.’ Adderley says that she will continue to find young, energetic men and women who genuinely love children. ‘It fills us up when our progeny shines.’

How to Make a Small Fortune in the Wine Business

People in the wine business often say that the way to make a small fortune in the wine business is to start it with a big fortune. Traditionally, profits in the wine business in California have been primarily reserved for a privileged few, such as Gallo, Mondavi, and Two-Buck Chuck’because of their huge production and high-priced marketing. But a few boutique wineries get a reputation and then make a profit because of the high sales price compared to production costs. For such winemakers as the Firestone family, the Staglin family, and Walt Disney’s daughter, I’m not sure that profit is much of a motive. But for most winemakers in California, the cost of the land, the structures, the equipment and the labor (even at minimum wage) puts vintners under a heavy financial burden. It’s not that way in the small boutique wineries in France and Italy, where the winemaker often inherits the land and winemaking facilities from their ancestors, and the extended family makes the wine. I’ve known producers whose only cost in making the wine is to pay for the bottles and labels (a total of about $1.25 per bottle). So you have to take your hat off to Palisadian Tim Perr, co-founder of the Pali Wine Company in Lompoc. With a degree in applied mathematics and statistics, he did his homework before starting up the company, and he figured out that the odds were with him. Pali’s latest wine move is the Cuv’e program, with a lower priced pinot noir named after areas of Pacific Palisades. ‘The Huntington,’ ‘The Bluffs,’ even an ‘Alphabets’ pinot noir! Now that’s what I call an inside joke!   Why do some of these red wines sell for $50 a bottle while others go for $20? Well, the $50 wines are ‘Vineyard Designate wines.’ That means all the grapes come from the same vineyard. The Cuv’e wines, which sell for $19, are made from pinot noir grapes amassed from several different vineyards, but within a common ‘American Viticultural Area.’ When you make wines from grapes grown in different vineyards, you have to blend the grapes to get the best flavor. One would think that in light of that fact, that blended wines would be better than wines from a single vineyard because one would have better control over the taste with the blending process. But for some reason, that’s not the way the wine world works, and the single vineyard wines sell for more. But you might not find that they taste better. I asked Tim what he looks for in a pinot noir wine. Here is his reply: ‘The nose should be perfumed and enticing. I enjoy both red and black flavor profiles in pinot noir, and a modest amount of minerality. I do not like the under-ripe or green flavors in pinot (which were all too common among California pinots of the past). The mid-palate should be substantial but not syrupy. Oak should be present but not overpowering. The finish should be long and bright’I enjoy the more acidic wines. Tannins in pinot should be silky and not drying.’ As for his favorite local restaurants, he mentioned a nice diverse selection: Boa, Josie, Melisse, Rustic Canyon, and the Oak Room. Finally, I asked Tim what kind of wines he and his partners drink. He said, ‘My partners and I enjoy a diversity of wines from all around the world’red, white and ros’. For myself, I have moved away from California cabernets because they have tended to be too syrupy and oaky. I prefer Bordeaux for their balance. Of course, I love a good Burgundy, but I find my strikeout rate too high, given their cost. Most of the time, for reds I drink California pinots from the producers I like”Kosta, Browne, Loring, Auteur, AP Vin, and a few others. For whites, I love chablis (or chablis-style chardonnay). I also enjoy the less expensive fruity white wines of Italy. A good ros’ is one of the most versatile wines in the world. Nothing like a cold ros’ on a hot afternoon. Better than a beer, if you ask me.’ Pali wines can be found at the local Gelson’s market and on the wine list at the Oak Room.