baby tea

Sometimes I get a bit obsessed over a particular type of tea. Not drinking wine at the moment, I am appreciating tea and I realise that a very fine tea is just like a very fine wine. The same qualities of smell, colour and taste apply. My current obsession tea is called baby chrysanthumum tea. It is from a very famous tea shop in Hong Kong called Mee Heung Cheun Tea Co. I have never been that thrilled about Chryssy tea, always pale yellow in colour and kind of mouldy tasting...that was until I tried this tea. From the moment I poured in the hot water, it immediately began to brew, I could smell an almost orange blossom fragrance, sweet and soft. The colour is a very clear green and the flowers open up as you can see above. The taste is both smell and flavour in one, sweet and not bitter or mouldy. This is how tea is meant to be drunk. It is the difference between a $10 bottle of wine and a $60 bottle of wine, that kind of difference.

I remember being very disappointed after returning from Japan and buy some expensive green tea to find the quality so poor that it would not be served in Japan, ok maybe from the station food cart on a long train journey or other kinds of places, but not in the home or restaurant.

My recent excitement about tea has made me think more about tea culture and the niceties and warmness it encourages. I am guilty of having a friend visit recently, who was there for a good hour and as we had planned to go out for lunch I did not offer a cup of tea, or even water....I have slipped out of the tea culture I once loved and participated in so passionately. I will offer some baby Chryssy tea next time.