Tea time — festival promotes tradition

By Matthew Hill
Register-Herald Reporter

OAK HILL August 30, 2008 11:34 pm

— Tea, tea everywhere — and myriad pots to drink.
Dr. Hassan Amjad thinks of himself as the voice of one crying in a parched and thirsty desert in southern West Virginia. His goal is to introduce to that coffee- and soda-saturated wilderness at least one drop of knowledge about the health benefits of tea.
Amjad hosted the second annual Tea Festival on the grounds around his office at 225 Church St. As far as he can tell, the gathering is the only one of its kind anywhere in the country.
“Tea has a calming effect. People who drink tea are poetic. They can sit down and write a nice piece of literature. Coffee stimulates but doesn’t calm down. If you keep the brain stimulated all the time, it doesn’t relax. It burns out,” the author, physician and practitioner of natural medicine explained.
“Tea stimulates and coffee stimulates. There’s a misconception that tea is not strong enough. The amount of caffeine is the same in a cup of each. With tea, it’s a slow-release form. A coffee drinker wants another cup and another cup and another cup. Tea stays in the system, while coffee goes up and out of the system.”
Amjad has studied the history of tea and read reams of literature on what he calls the “elixir of life.” In fact, he penned a book by that title on the numerous health benefits of the ancient brew.
“I became more and more convinced that it is a way of life. It’s anti-aging. People who drink tea live longer, have less cancer, have less heart attacks, have less Parkinson’s disease,” Amjad asserted. He also sees its consumption as a technique for weight loss in the obesity-afflicted Mountain State.
“It’s also a weight-loss (method). If you go to the store and see weight-loss remedies, one main ingredient is green tea. It will be labeled by its botanical name. It’s a slimming agent and increases metabolism. In China and Japan (tea-drinking countries), you hardly see someone who is overweight.”
Amjad said he is winning over converts, slowly but surely. He is often shocked by the average Joe Blow coffee drinker or soda fiend who walks up to him later on and declares he is now a bona fide tea drinker.
“There are a lot of people who have changed their view about tea. This is not a tea-drinking area. I’m the first drop on a desert,” Amjad quipped of his tea-touting efforts.
Those who attended the festival were treated to 15 to 20 kinds of tea from China, England and India, among others. Oak Hill itself even has a blend now, known as Casablanca. There is also a traditional Chinese dragon dance and a conventional tea ceremony.
People can also enjoy lectures about tea pots, brewing, tea’s origins, its Eastern and Western cultural aspects and tea-time manners.
“Yes, I am,” Diana Janney declared proudly when asked if she is a tea drinker. Janney is a member of both Oak Hill City Council and the Oak Leaf Festival committee. Janney goes so far as to schedule her vacation each year for the Oak Leaf Festival, which takes place the same time as Amjad’s Tea Festival.
She had a Styrofoam cup steaming with one of Amjad’s brews in her hand as she and others braved gloomy skies, drizzling rain and unseasonably cool breezes Wednesday to learn more about tea.
“It has a very good taste to it. I didn’t get to come out last year, so I was very interested in coming out today. My mom and I marked it on the calendar,” Janney said.
“Even though the weather is not where we’d like it to be, throw on a sweatshirt, bring an umbrella and you can still enjoy the tea. It’s nice to have somewhere to go to try different teas. It gives me ideas of things to do a little different at home. I wouldn’t try this at home,” she quipped.
For Amjad, several factors must be considered in brewing a truly good cup of tea. “The quality of the water is point number one. Tea will not be good otherwise. I recommend spring or mineral water,” he emphasized.
“Also, don’t boil the water too much. You lose oxygen. When you lose that, it doesn’t interact with the chemicals in the tea leaves. That is lost. Just boil enough, and use leaves. Tea bags are useless. They are just for convenience. There are packs available that can deliver you a nice brewed cup of tea.”
Amjad noted that tea — especially green tea — acts as an anti-oxidant and as a cleansing agent of sorts for the human body. If he had the power, he said, he would introduce the healthful brew to schools.
“Kids are very disciplined in China and Japan,” he observed, dismissing soda as “liquid candy” that makes American children — and adults — hyperactive and overweight. Students in America are “indoctrinated” from a young age to drink copious quantities of soda, he lamented.
Amjad already has his sights on next year’s festival. He estimated that 150 attended in 2007, most from within a radius of 70 to 90 miles. He recalled one wheelchair-bound lady — 96 years old — who traveled 50 miles last year to attend the festival.
“We’re developing a core number of people who will run it each year. We need another year or so to put that into form so it will run itself. We want to have a family festival where children and grandchildren are welcome. It’s absolutely going to be much bigger (next year),” he predicted.
— E-mail: mhill@register-herald.com

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