Tea Stories

Lately, I have been having problems writing. I don't know what to write! However, if you ever come to drink tea with me, you probably will notice that I won't stop talking about tea. So in the past weeks, I made the effort to keep track of what I've been saying. Aside from talking about how to identify good tea and how to taste it, I often talked about my tea experience. Here I am in Seattle, excited about going back to Taiwan to learn tea in May. I'd like to write down my past tea experiences to connect with the future tea learning.

When I was a child in Taiwan, I often saw people drinking tea. Back in my hometown, I saw LaoZuenCha(老人茶,Old Man's Tea) tea making(aka Gongfu tea) in my cousin's house for the first time. My cousin and I are the same age. Her father had a huge metal tea tray set on a table and that was where he made his tea. The tea tray and lots of his teapots had a lot of tea stains due to the frequent tea making. When I went to visit my cousin, he would always ask me if I wanted a cup. In a lot of places of Taiwan, people don't mind that children drink some tea. Those were my first tea experiences. My own family didn't drink tea. As a kid, I never really pondered why some people drink tea and why some don't.

When I was a teenager, I drank a lot of bubble tea and focused on going to the best universities.

I went to National Taiwan University in Taipei for college. Taipei is very different from where I grew up. It's much busier. A lot of my high school friends also went to Taipei and we would hang out once in a while on the weekends. Our favorite thing to do was to escape from Taipei for a day. We would ride our scooters to places with more greenery and had a good time walking around and eating (Food is very important for Taiwanese people and we are constantly eating). My friends told me about a tea house on the hills outside of Taipei. So one weekend, we decided to visit. I met the owner, Mr. Tsai who currently makes our Taiwan Wuyi Oolong. My fond memories of tea started here. If you ever ask me what I remember about tea, I will tell you about this memory of my friends hanging out in that teahouse, drinking tea, chatting, playing games, eating snacks, and having a good time. I remember tea is actually really fun!

I was learning English in university so I tried very hard to save money to be able to come to the states to practice my English. One summer, a family in Florida told my friend that they would host me. So I went to stay with the family for two months.

I believed that tea represents my culture. Besides some art objects, I brought the family a gongfu tea set as a present. One evening, we all sat down and I was supposed to show them how to make tea in a tiny clay teapot. I proceeded with the Gongfu tea and wow, that tea tasted terrible! I always watched people making tea in Taiwan, but I never really sat down to make a pot of tea. Nobody commented on the tea. I think they tried to be polite.

Back in Taiwan, I continued hanging out with friends in different tea houses and totally forgot that I in fact couldn't brew a good pot of tea.

To be continued....

Chinese Tea Ceremony?

I prefer to make tea using the Gong Fu style. Many people see this when they came into the tea shop and have asked:" Are you doing a tea ceremony?"

Perhaps there is a Chinese Tea Ceremony that I am not aware of. I think Gong Fu Cha is one of many ways to brew tea and it's just the way that I prefer.

In Taiwan, one can see people brewing Oolong tea in a clay tea pot or Gaiwan in many places. The first time that I experienced Gong Fu Cha was at my cousin's house. Her father drinks Oolong every day. Every time he'd see me, he would always ask me if I would like a cup. I was about 8 years old at that time. Drinking tea at a young age is not an issue in Taiwan.

When I was in high school, I liked to go to a classmate's house to study. Her father would brew tea and would also ask me if I'd like to have some. I started to notice that there were different kinds of tea and they all tasted good to me.

Outside of big cities, you will see people brewing Gong Fu Cha in the house, underneath a big tree (it gets really hot in Taiwan), on the sidewalk, and in shops.

Nowadays in big cities, there are many tea houses that serve Gong Fu Cha. Friends will meet at tea houses and visit over pots of tea. The atmosphere is very relaxing and everybody is busy talking. And of course, there are tea snacks. The varieties of tea snacks are amazing: seasoned plums, toasted seeds, almond cakes, crackers, tea eggs, etc....

So what's my point here? One doesn't need to treat Gong Fu Cha as serious as a tea ceremony. Gong Fu Cha can be very quiet with one brewing tea and appreciating tea alone. Or Kong Fu Cha can be enjoyed with a group of people, drinking tea, talking, eating and having a good time.