How much do you know your cup of tea?
I used to have zero information about tea. All I knew was it could cause some sort of addiction. It’d cause me headache, and my body would shiver sometimes if I didn’t have tea in a day. It used to work if I drink plain water to cure hiccups, but at one point, I needed tea to stop hiccups. It was mandatory to have tea with sugar, but now I could sip it plain.
I become more concern of tea after my friend brought me to a Chinese teahouse back in town where I used to attend school. First, about the place. It’s a small shop in a secluded area of the town. It’s however a place complete with a marketplace, some eateries, a trendy hair salon, and my favourite magazine stand. I didn’t notice the teahouse during my days hanging out there though. Besides selling tea and providing tea-drinking culture, the shop also offers a variety of tea wares, basically a set of pot, cups and covers, and strainer of varied materials and designs, and also a convenient kettle. There are also tables designed complete with drain to make tea brewing easy. Two girls, one of them is a friend of my friend’s, served us the whole time we were there. Handling tea from taking them out of the storage box into the pot and the processes following it is very graceful I should say.
I am not sure of how tea is classified, but a simple way of classifying tea would be dividing them into green tea (minimum oxidation so tea doesn’t look red), black tea (hong cha; while hong really means red), brick tea (tea pressed into blocks instead of the usual flakes), and scented tea (flowers in your green tea!). If tea were to be classified based on colours, then there are red, yellow, and I heard of silver (owing to the leaves’ hair floating on the surface when tea is brewed) colour. Some are subdivided into first class (jia) and second class (yi) depending on the time they are picked.
While at the tea house, I was given the opportunity to taste a few types of different tea. My favourite would be jasmine tea (Moli Zhenzhu), a type of scented tea. You could see solid jasmine buds in the tea and the smell is so pleasing. I also saw a box of rose tea, but I didn’t try it. Other tea include Longjing (green tea), Tie Guanyin, Da Hong Bao, and an expensive black tea which I don’t remember the name. I am vague about the taste and what it could make your tongue feel. Some tea taste strong, and even taste like KFC. Delicious indeed!
There are a few methods of making tea dependent of tea leaves’ quality. I noticed two methods of brewing while I was at the tea house. Gongfu cha method needed tea to be prepared in a small teapot before serving. Tea is first of all rinsed. Boiled water is poured into the teapot and the pot is drained after a few seconds. The drained water does not go straight into the drain though. It’s used to wash the drinking cups so the real taste of tea is prevailed, and to wash away remainder of taste from the previous drinking. I am not sure of how many times of rinsing needed though. Tea is then steeped for a given time before consumption. Glass cup brewing is adopted to make scented tea. Some hot water is first added, then some more is added when tea swells. The cup is covered for 3 minutes before tea could be served. Sip your cup of tea three times! Tea could be infused until the good taste subsides, usually 3-4 times of steeping.
Though we were only drinking tea, we spent almost three hours, talking about… what else than tea! There are some books on tea there, but I couldn’t read them all because each book is so thick. The tea house owner just came back from a trip to a tea plantation of one of their tea suppliers in the People’s Republic of China. The plantation is more massive than what we have here. Anyway, tea produced here is not bad either. Skip sugar please. It will taste better.
You may think that you have drank some tea, but you might have to go to the toilet before you leave the tea house, or else…! Tea could also hinder iron absorption in the body, so be careful ladies, especially if you are anaemia-prone.
To H.E, it has been a year. How about we relive that fun moment once again this coming festive season?
I used to have zero information about tea. All I knew was it could cause some sort of addiction. It’d cause me headache, and my body would shiver sometimes if I didn’t have tea in a day. It used to work if I drink plain water to cure hiccups, but at one point, I needed tea to stop hiccups. It was mandatory to have tea with sugar, but now I could sip it plain.
I become more concern of tea after my friend brought me to a Chinese teahouse back in town where I used to attend school. First, about the place. It’s a small shop in a secluded area of the town. It’s however a place complete with a marketplace, some eateries, a trendy hair salon, and my favourite magazine stand. I didn’t notice the teahouse during my days hanging out there though. Besides selling tea and providing tea-drinking culture, the shop also offers a variety of tea wares, basically a set of pot, cups and covers, and strainer of varied materials and designs, and also a convenient kettle. There are also tables designed complete with drain to make tea brewing easy. Two girls, one of them is a friend of my friend’s, served us the whole time we were there. Handling tea from taking them out of the storage box into the pot and the processes following it is very graceful I should say.
I am not sure of how tea is classified, but a simple way of classifying tea would be dividing them into green tea (minimum oxidation so tea doesn’t look red), black tea (hong cha; while hong really means red), brick tea (tea pressed into blocks instead of the usual flakes), and scented tea (flowers in your green tea!). If tea were to be classified based on colours, then there are red, yellow, and I heard of silver (owing to the leaves’ hair floating on the surface when tea is brewed) colour. Some are subdivided into first class (jia) and second class (yi) depending on the time they are picked.
While at the tea house, I was given the opportunity to taste a few types of different tea. My favourite would be jasmine tea (Moli Zhenzhu), a type of scented tea. You could see solid jasmine buds in the tea and the smell is so pleasing. I also saw a box of rose tea, but I didn’t try it. Other tea include Longjing (green tea), Tie Guanyin, Da Hong Bao, and an expensive black tea which I don’t remember the name. I am vague about the taste and what it could make your tongue feel. Some tea taste strong, and even taste like KFC. Delicious indeed!
There are a few methods of making tea dependent of tea leaves’ quality. I noticed two methods of brewing while I was at the tea house. Gongfu cha method needed tea to be prepared in a small teapot before serving. Tea is first of all rinsed. Boiled water is poured into the teapot and the pot is drained after a few seconds. The drained water does not go straight into the drain though. It’s used to wash the drinking cups so the real taste of tea is prevailed, and to wash away remainder of taste from the previous drinking. I am not sure of how many times of rinsing needed though. Tea is then steeped for a given time before consumption. Glass cup brewing is adopted to make scented tea. Some hot water is first added, then some more is added when tea swells. The cup is covered for 3 minutes before tea could be served. Sip your cup of tea three times! Tea could be infused until the good taste subsides, usually 3-4 times of steeping.
Though we were only drinking tea, we spent almost three hours, talking about… what else than tea! There are some books on tea there, but I couldn’t read them all because each book is so thick. The tea house owner just came back from a trip to a tea plantation of one of their tea suppliers in the People’s Republic of China. The plantation is more massive than what we have here. Anyway, tea produced here is not bad either. Skip sugar please. It will taste better.
You may think that you have drank some tea, but you might have to go to the toilet before you leave the tea house, or else…! Tea could also hinder iron absorption in the body, so be careful ladies, especially if you are anaemia-prone.
To H.E, it has been a year. How about we relive that fun moment once again this coming festive season?