Yesterday, some friends and I had a tea party with cucumber sandwiches, muffins, and cookies. And also tea. It was fun, and I exclaimed how I love tea parties.Today, for our last Extensive Reading class this semester, our teacher announced that the reading for class was on Chinese tea and customs. So she had us all rearrange our desks to make a big rectangle. She then brought out Chinese snacks, her tea cup collections and four kinds of tea to try. She explained some of the customs and explained each tea.
The first was an Oolong tea. This tea smelled strong and has a pretty strong bitter aftertaste. I usually like Oolong, but this one was too strong.
The second tea was a black tea whose name literally means "Return of Sweetness." At first it tastes smoky, but then at the end it tastes sweet.
The third tea was "pi-er tea." It was reddish in color. When the students tried the tea, there was an overall sense of, "ewww." I thought it was definitely not my favorite. These tea leaves were dried in a clump and were then aged. This tea was the most expensive. The worst part was trying to keep a straight face in class while Alvin repeatedly whispered in my ear, "this tastes like manure."
The last tea was a mixture of items, very similar to 8 treasures tea. This tea included mo-li flower tea, dried lemon, rock sugar, dried rose petals from the teacher's garden, and red dates. This tea smelled like roses and tasted sweet. I think this one was most people in our class's favorite.
So my ranking of the teas, from best to worst is: 8 treasures imitation, "Return of Sweetness," Oolong, and "Pi-er."
By the end of the class, we all enjoyed learning from the teacher while sipping our tea and eating our rice cake snacks. I looked around the room and felt privileged to have gotten to know our classmates who come from around the world. This semester has been fun, and we are sad to know that most of our classmates will be going back home for the next semester. I am so glad for this experience today to top off the semester. I love tea parties.
2 comments:
How does Alvin know what manure tastes like?
We just finished having good Chinese food in BC. Miss you guys...but there won't be a shortage of pictures to share ;).
maybe in the next semester your teacher will show you the correct way (the classic way) of making a perfect pot of tea. There is so much but so interesting to learn the culture with the language.
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