All In This Tea, a movie (Hardwear Sessions)

a cup of tea

by Victor Ichioka

The movie, All in This Tea, follows entrepreneur David Hoffman around China in the mid-90s as he tries to establish contact with Chinese tea farmers. The film records his quest to find and buy highest-quality organic tea directly from growers, showing scenes of him smelling various large bags of tea leaves offered for his inspection (he demonstrates a discerning nose, rejecting bags as "too chemical" after one smell), having discussions with state bureaucrats about buying and shipping tea (they try to convince him that their state-run factories can produce the quality he is after), exchanging toasts at farmers' association banquets (where he touts the virtues of worm compost), hiking the picturesque mountain trails that lead to the tea fields, visiting small production plants (where we get to see some of the techniques used to produce artisanal tea), interspersed with sequences of various tea gurus expounding on its history, its cultivation and production, its benefits, and its pleasures. As more and more Americans become curious about tea as an alternative to coffee, this film provides a wonderful introduction to its rich and varied world.

Hoffman comes across as dedicated, persistent, driven even, in his search for a quality product that he can import to the U.S. We find out that he came by his passion for tea while a young man on a multi-year journey through Asia (originally planned for a few weeks) on which he was served tea wherever he went, including during an audience with the Dalai Lama. This drink-of-choice for billions of people, takes root in the taste buds and esthetic of an American ex-hippie and he returns in his later life to bring something of his Asian experience back to his homeland. We learn that during the Cultural Revolution in China, the tea industry suffered neglect to the point where many Chinese were reduced to drinking hot water as their regular beverage. Later, tea production resumed but under the domination of a state-run conglomerate which abandoned traditional methods in favor of industrial ones. In a way, then, Hoffman's mission is also to bring part of China's tea industry back to its roots.

So, in a sense, the movie is about how to enter the modern era without leaving traditional culture behind. It raises issues of organic-versus-chemical farming practices, public-versus-private ownership of key industries, fair trade, cultural cross-pollination, and the choices involved in globalization. But, mostly, it is a highly entertaining look at one man's passion for an ancient Asian drink.

By Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht

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