The Tea Experience

Today was a very interesting day! My faith in certain people was realized, my distrust in others reaffirmed. All in all this day was a day to note.

In any case on our way home today from the plant... well let me give you some background. We (the expatriots that work for Autoliv in Shanghai) live in the same building, so we all commute together. Same van, same driver, same bumpy route, and same crazy traffic. We also have a few stragglers, one of which is the operations manager of the plant.

So today on the way back he wanted to show us some Chinese culture, specifically the tea culture. I have to admit, it was one of the best experiences I've had in China yet! It wasn't like this great history of tea, nor was it some life changing event, but it was the simplicity of trying other tea's to apprecaite something that is almost sacred in China.

Tea in China, is like wine to the French, beer to the Germans, and hockey to the Canadians!

We go to this market, close to the operation manager's house, nothing special just some market in some part of Shanghai. There are many tea shops, but he takes us to the one he frequents. He speaks politely to the young lady and asks if we could try some tea. The lady then takes us into an adjoining room, where we are all asked to sit while she prepares the first glass of tea. The first was a red tea (don't ask me names cause I only remember the one I bought), which was excellent. We then tried a green tea, nothing like what I had before but the fragrance was very nice. The third one was a dark green tea, usually consumed in the summer, this smelled just as nice and tasted really strong with a solid after taste. It was good. The last one was jasmine tea, and I am sure some of you have had it before. This was my favourite, it was a flower wrapped in Mang fu (don't know the spelling, this is how it sounded to me) tea leaves. the first cup was quite sweet, and then the 2nd cup was more of a green tea taste with a hint of sweetness, and the third more green tea like and hardly any sweetness. I really enjoyed the last cup and bought that type of tea.

It was also brought up that, if the tea is prepared properly you should get three cups of tea. The first having the most pungent taste, the second being the best tasting and the third having the light taste of the tea, kind of like a course of meals. There was also this method of tasting the tea. Kind of like wine, keep the tea on your tongue for a while to taste the tea, and take small sips, and as we all know if your cup is empty it will be filled up again! I wonder if this works with the rice wine here too??

I had a great time. I definitely would like to experience more of this while I am here. By the way tea is said cha, and in hindi we say chai.... the tea experience.