Taiwan
I see that the automatic posting function is still not working. This was supposed to post last Sunday when I was traveling in real life, but it didn't. It has been a while since I've gotten away and gone somewhere. It was nice to have a bit of a break.
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Today we are traveling to Taiwan, a small island nearly 3 times as long as it is wide, off of the southeast coast of China. The island is volcanic in origin, and about 2/3 of the land is covered in mountains. Spoiler alert, they grow tea on top of those mountains! I was quite amazed to read that maple trees grew there. Now I want to go there, set up a sap shanty, and drink tea. Real tea.
Most of the information I first found about tea in Taiwan was about bubble tea. Sigh. They must drink it another way. I did a little more digging, and found the "old fashioned" way to drink tea. Traditionally, oolong tea is made and drunk in Taiwan. From the videos, tea is brewed in small teapots. It is then poured into a tall, narrow (comparatively) cup, then is poured into a small wide cup for drinking. The tall, narrow cup is the smelling cup - you sniff it to enjoy the smell of the tea, then you drink it from the small shallow cup. While I have seen and touched ACTUAL cups that are for this style of tea drinking, I decided to save my money and improvise a bit.
Yes, this is my tea drinking "set". The more I learn about drinking tea around the world, the more I recognize all the tea drinking/serving items in the shop. If I were to buy an actual set, they consisted of a tiny wooden tray, and 2 matching cups that are sized to match each other. My cups were a bit of a mismatch. I have the "dessert" cup from the dollar store that holds just under 2 tablespoons, and a teacup from my gongfu set that holds about a tablespoon.
While at my favorite tea shop, I contemplated buying a package of Taiwanese oolong, but I really wanted to try the Kenyan oolong. Thanks to checking out the bulk food section at the Co-op, I was able to get both. I got a small bag of Iron Goddess oolong tea from Taiwan. Since I was drinking in such small quantities, I decided to brew it in my gaiwan.
Isn't it pretty. While this is more of a whole leaf style tea, it is rolled up into little balls. It is also smoked at some point in its processing, so it is darker than a non-smoked oolong.
I brewed my tea, and poured it into the tall cup, then the short cup. Yes, I dirtied two cups to drink my tea (if you look closely at the tall cup, you can still see some steam on the right side indicating that hot tea WAS in the cup before this picture was taken).
The verdict: the tall cup does hold the scent of the tea well. Iron Goddess is also an excellent tea. It has a deep smoky flavor with the first brew, then the smoke flavor decreases, and the tea flavors come out with subsequent brewings. It is definitely a tea I would buy again.
While the 2 cup system may seem a bit excessive, there are videos on the internet talking about the different shapes of tea cups available. The ones that are easiest to drink out of hold the least scent for you to enjoy, and the cups that hold scent the best are the ones that are hardest to drink out of. This method of tea drinking solves both problems, but does leave you with a few extra dishes to wash. I don't know that I will ever buy a Taiwanese tea set (serving for one person costs the same as a Moroccan tea cup, and well, you can see that I bought another one of those), but it is nice to try the concept even if my cups don't match in size and style.
.
Today we are traveling to Taiwan, a small island nearly 3 times as long as it is wide, off of the southeast coast of China. The island is volcanic in origin, and about 2/3 of the land is covered in mountains. Spoiler alert, they grow tea on top of those mountains! I was quite amazed to read that maple trees grew there. Now I want to go there, set up a sap shanty, and drink tea. Real tea.
Most of the information I first found about tea in Taiwan was about bubble tea. Sigh. They must drink it another way. I did a little more digging, and found the "old fashioned" way to drink tea. Traditionally, oolong tea is made and drunk in Taiwan. From the videos, tea is brewed in small teapots. It is then poured into a tall, narrow (comparatively) cup, then is poured into a small wide cup for drinking. The tall, narrow cup is the smelling cup - you sniff it to enjoy the smell of the tea, then you drink it from the small shallow cup. While I have seen and touched ACTUAL cups that are for this style of tea drinking, I decided to save my money and improvise a bit.
Yes, this is my tea drinking "set". The more I learn about drinking tea around the world, the more I recognize all the tea drinking/serving items in the shop. If I were to buy an actual set, they consisted of a tiny wooden tray, and 2 matching cups that are sized to match each other. My cups were a bit of a mismatch. I have the "dessert" cup from the dollar store that holds just under 2 tablespoons, and a teacup from my gongfu set that holds about a tablespoon.
While at my favorite tea shop, I contemplated buying a package of Taiwanese oolong, but I really wanted to try the Kenyan oolong. Thanks to checking out the bulk food section at the Co-op, I was able to get both. I got a small bag of Iron Goddess oolong tea from Taiwan. Since I was drinking in such small quantities, I decided to brew it in my gaiwan.
Isn't it pretty. While this is more of a whole leaf style tea, it is rolled up into little balls. It is also smoked at some point in its processing, so it is darker than a non-smoked oolong.
The verdict: the tall cup does hold the scent of the tea well. Iron Goddess is also an excellent tea. It has a deep smoky flavor with the first brew, then the smoke flavor decreases, and the tea flavors come out with subsequent brewings. It is definitely a tea I would buy again.
While the 2 cup system may seem a bit excessive, there are videos on the internet talking about the different shapes of tea cups available. The ones that are easiest to drink out of hold the least scent for you to enjoy, and the cups that hold scent the best are the ones that are hardest to drink out of. This method of tea drinking solves both problems, but does leave you with a few extra dishes to wash. I don't know that I will ever buy a Taiwanese tea set (serving for one person costs the same as a Moroccan tea cup, and well, you can see that I bought another one of those), but it is nice to try the concept even if my cups don't match in size and style.
I haven't been able to get the automatic posting option to work either.
ReplyDeleteApparently they have it there to remind them that it would be a nice feature to add someday.
ReplyDelete