quali-TEA

a random walk through the SF chinatown brought me and two friends to a tea shop. really, the only thing we saw before we walked in was the "free tea tasting" sign. i thought the guy would just pour us a cup and that would be it.

WRONG. this master tea man made us 10 PLUS cups of tea...all ranging in price from $60/pound to $1500/pound. i've never had tea that expensive before!


the picture below shows the master tea man making one type of tea...first pouring hot water, straining the tea then serving us. we tried ginseng oolong, green needle, peurh, and rose tea amongst others...i had never really thought that much about the different tastes in tea...tea can be bitter, hard, coarse, sweet, strong, weak...i feel like i learned so much from this master tea man! he told us which types give energy, which types are good for the skin (important for every asian female...or so our mothers tell us), which types were weaker in caffeine and thereby good to drink before bed...


we ended up spending a lot of time in the tea shop, chatting with the tea master about teas and the bar he owns at night (such an interesting man!). we all left empty handed...oh well...at least now, i know how to be a tea connoisseur.