Tea

April 12th, 2013

Sydney, Australia

Song of the Day: Save the World Tonight by Swedish House Mafia

Mood: Gellin' like a felon

Tea

Tea is an important part of many Asian cultures and I am expanding my knowledge base through many different experiences. In particular, I learned about the growing process at a tea plantation in Guilin, China, and while drinking tea with friends in Taipei, Taiwan.

Different teas are made in different ways. Depending on the way the leaves are picked, the length of drying and the general process, tea leaves can turn into a variety of types of tea including white, green, yellow, oolong, and black. Certain leaves taste best when oxidized in certain ways. To oversimply, here is a table on some of the differences.

	Type of tea:
	White	Green	Oolong	Black
Withered	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fermentation	None	None	Some (2 hours)	Full (4 hours)
Caffeeine (g/100g)	None/Least	Less	More	Most

To properly make tea, one needs to start at a tea plantation

Then, one must pick leaves in the field

Different types of teas have different ratios of leaves and stems

Then the leaves are exposed to the air for varying amounts of time and withered

Then they are pressed, which removes some of the oil.
This begins an oxidizing process known as fermentation.

Then they can be heated in various ways. The hot air stops the oxidizing process.

Then they are stored. After the leaves have been properly prepared, they are served in different types of kettles and served at different temperatures.

A brass teapot is more porous

The Wisteria, Taipei, Taiwan

After the process is complete, you get to drink tea. My favorite tea house on the trip has been the Wisteria, which is a famous tea house in Taipei. It is the former tea house of the governor-general before 1945 and has been featured in movies such as Eat Drink Man Woman.

After attempting to sit on the floor, we confirmed that I am simply too large
and we moved to a more western table. 

We ordered four teas to sample different types, flavors, and strengths. All of our pouring was completed by our resident tea master/recovering investment banker, the Indefinite Immigrant.

The first pour is always too strong and so you must dump it. 

This looks similar to the Detroit tradition of "pouring some
out for your homies." 

After the second pot has been poured, you should tap the table three times to signal that you want some. Then you pour into the small cup and drink.

The fancy way to pour is to combine both the cup and the
saucer with some magical pouring technique. Our attempts
mostly led to tea spilling everywhere.

Tea is also served with small bites:

I always associate eating peanuts with happy memories of Minnesota Twins' and Gophers' games at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. I thought I knew peanuts pretty well. My world was blown when I found that some peanuts contain four nuts inside.

Most importantly, tea is always better when shared with friends