First you drink the water, then you drink the tea 💦💧🍵

Maybe too obvious to be worth mentioning, but tea is ca. 99% water. 

“Hot water before anything else” is not a single universal Asian custom

It has a long-standing role in several Asian and other cultures and traditional medical systems, while the exact practice varies considerably by place and tradition.

What if the first we reached for, before anything else, was some hot water?

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Warm water has a long history in Chinese culture and medicine. In TCM, the digestive system is associated with warmth and with the transformation of food and drink. Cold foods and drinks have traditionally been viewed with some caution, while warm liquids and food are considered gentler and more supportive.

There is a very practical historical reason why boiled water became so deeply embedded in many cultures: boiling made water safer. The custom therefore has both medical/philosophical and public-health roots.

Ayurveda

In Ayurveda and in the Yogic tradition, warm water and drinking water at appropriate times have long been incorporated into daily routines. The Ayurvedic concept of agni — our digestive fire — provides another conceptual language for understanding why warmth is considered important. 

The explanations differ, but there is something they share: warm water is not necessarily seen as something that needs to be improved. What it brings is enough in itself.

In Shana Zhang's highly rated online tea courses, you will be able to learn all about the importance of different types of water and the way to pour them over your tea for optimum benefits.

This is rather different from the way we often approach drinking today

We wake up and immediately reach for coffee/tea. We add lemon, ginger, herbs, powders, supplements or flavourings to our water. We look for something that will energise us, cleanse us, stimulate us, or make us feel better.

But what if, before all of that, we simply had some warm water?

No caffeine. No flavour. No stimulation. Nothing to achieve.

Just water, warmth and a little time to be still and breathe.

A resting koala 💚

After coming into contact with this water drinking practice during my tea and yoga travels, I have made this into a personal habit over the years. I also use it to “cure” myself. When I begin to feel slightly uneasy — that vague feeling that perhaps something is coming, that my body is asking me to slow down — I often stop eating and drinking anything except hot water.

I don't reach for a cup of tea. Even though I love tea, I leave it alone.

Instead, I drink hot water slowly and allow myself to rest.

Before tea, there is water

Sometimes I do this for several hours. Then I go to bed early, sleep well, and most often when I wake up the next morning, I feel completely fine.

I would never claim that hot water has cured anything. Perhaps it is the combination of hydration, warmth, rest, and simply removing unnecessary demands, and by doing so activating the body’s natural ability to heal.

Warm liquids can feel soothing, particularly when we are tired or not feeling quite ourselves. But we don't need to turn this into another wellness promise. There is no need to claim that hot water “detoxes” the body or possesses miraculous digestive powers.

Water is already remarkable enough.

So before tea, there is water

The quality of the water matters very much. Its temperature matters. The way we pour it matters. We wait for the leaves to open. We give them time to release their flavours, aromas, and goodness

Tea is, in many ways, a lesson in transformation. But the transformation is facilitated by something we look at as extremely simple. Water.

If you want some really fine and tasty, speciality teas, directly from artisan plantations, you find them at Långbrogård in Mölnbo. If its far away for you, welcome to contact me here! 😊 🤎 ❤️ 🧡