I’m back in Hong Kong, tea paradise.
It’s funny though. When I’m in Hong Kong, I drink lots of “tea in a cup” and rarely brew gongfu style. It’s a little too much work for home, and it is also a little odd doing the whole thing in front of my family (parents). I’m sure my mom will ridicule me for being such a tea snob, not that she doesn’t already.
I also consume WAY more tea than I usually do in the States. Since I am basically drinking tea all day long, with little spells of water in between, caffeine intake is easily 2-3 times normal. I will drink something in the morning when I wake up (in a cup) then go out, and visit a teashop in the afternoon (massive caffeine overload) then come home at night, and drink some more (fresh leaves). Not a good idea…
Then again, it’s really hard to avoid tea here. You go out, and they serve you tea pretty much by default. You come home, and they bring out the tea. Wherever you go, it’s tea, tea, tea. It’s not a wonder that teas are quite nice here, and the selection is usually pretty wide.
Off to Best Tea House tomorrow. I’m going to bring my Xizhihao sample there and see what they think. It’ll be fun, especially since I haven’t been back since Christmas. Second day I come back and I go hit the circuit, lol. I am really an addict.
2 responses so far ↓
Phyllo // August 8, 2006 at 1:16 pm |
Hey Marshaln, so you are back in Hong Kong! I just got back in LA 2 days ago. Have fun there and stay out of trouble. While on a 3-hour transit at HKG’s airport on Saturday, I stopped by Fook Ming Tong’s stand but was dissapointed that they won’t brew any tea for tasting. So I didn’t buy any of their teas, although I was eyeing their DHP in a lavender tin box for HK$460/150gr.
While back in my hometown, I was mostly drinking green Javanese oolong (grown locally in higher altitude from Taiwanese seeds by a Taiwanese company), which was quite good. Round bodied, creamy, caramelly with a slight roasted nose. I brought quite a bit of it — about 800gr — back with me to LA.
MarshalN // August 8, 2006 at 1:24 pm |
800g??
That’s a lot.
That’s too bad Fook Ming Tong won’t do tasting for you. They do in their HK stores, but I guess they won’t at the airport. I’d just go there to buy a cup of tea and drink by myself.