Montsho pours tea into a gong dao bei or justice cup.
Each component in the Chinese tea pouring tradition has a practical purpose. The gong dao bei, which translates to the justice cup or fairness pitcher, serves the purpose of homogenizing the different strengths of tea coming out of a teapot.
Montsho Jarreau Thoth
“The tea found me.”
Montsho pours tea for himself every day, often multiple times a day, but he is always open to share that experience with anyone willing to slow down to his pace.
Montsho’s introduction into traditional Chinese tea pouring came unexpectedly, as he puts it “The tea found me.”
Diagnosed with leukemia in 2014, a friend brought a small gaiwan, a Chinese lid and bowl tea setup, to the hospital where he was recovering.
Even before this introduction to Chinese tea pouring, Montsho had been pouring yerba mate at parties.
“I had social anxiety about bouncing around. Pouring tea allowed people to come to me.”
So while the social aspects of tea pouring were nothing new for Montsho, stumbling upon the Chinese tradition was enlightening for him. The tea itself was much more complex and nuanced and he found the system itself equally enthralling.
Needless to say, Montsho became fascinated with traditional Chinese tea pouring. Simultaneously, he was still recovering from the intense leukemia treatments he had gone through.
“I was over drinking [alcohol] as a culture because I couldn’t really participate...Even being around cigarette smoke wasn’t good for me.” Tea, by contrast, “made my body feel good, it made me heal.”
“When people see me pouring tea in this way, it can expand their idea of what a Black, male-bodied person can be.”
Embedding himself in Austin’s small, but vibrant tea pouring community Montsho also quickly found that “People love together around tea.”
As I sat drinking the tea Montsho poured me, I felt that love. The time and effort he had put into learning everything he possibly could about this specific practice were communicated through intentional thought and movement. The pouring itself became as much a part of the experience as the liquid I was drinking.
As Montsho explains it, “Myself and the tea plant…are having a conversation. You are witness to that conversation. And to the degree that I can have a good, respectful conversation with the tea, that’s the degree to which you will enjoy watching and bearing witness as the person being served.”
As Montsho continued his conversation with the tea, we continued our own. He spoke of his experiences traveling through rural China meeting and learning from tea farmers, he recanted proverbs “Chan Cha Yi Wei—Tea and Zen are of one flavor”, and spoke of “cultural engineering” an idea that was foremost in his mind.
As a cultural engineer Montsho sees himself as doing more than simply pouring tea. “When people see me pouring tea in this way, it can expand their idea of what a Black, male-bodied person can be. When Black people have tea with me...it gives them license to participate in culture that is not necessarily their own, but that with study and intention could be.”
As I watched Montsho effortlessly and comfortably engage in a tradition that he has clearly made his own, I felt that his example would give anyone agency to pursue something outside of what is expected of them.
In a way, I came to see Montsho as a living embodiment of a justice cup.
The energy he puts out into the world is infectious and the environment he creates as he pours tea has the potential to promote connection and inclusivity.
Leaving his daily tea pouring I felt more open, awake, and enlightened by the experience and conversation. Montsho was quick to point out the positive effects that can be attributed to the caffeine and theanine found in the tea we were drinking. But a lot of it had to do with the environment he created, the intention he set as he poured his afternoon tea.
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Montsho often pours tea at Guan Yin Tea House in Austin, Texas. You can follow his tea-related endeavors on Instagram @slowhandtea and his photography and art-making @montsho.