Friday, December 28, 2007
Posted by Miss Neddy at 07:34 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Related

There are very many different teahouses, some differ by function, others by culture. There are teahouses which serve tea only as an afterthought, concentrating mainly on food, such as the teahouses in Guangzhou and Hong Kong; there are teahouses in China where operas or storytelling takes place as entertainment while one enjoys one’s tea; and there are small teashops where no food is served, only a broad table set with tea equipment, ever ready to serve the customer with a choice of the shop’s teas. It is the last type that I would like to speak a bit about here.

Some teahouses have a house tea and they may serve a cup to you immediately when you enter. Even if this is not done, should you express any interest in a tea, the staff will usually offer to brew a pot for you to sample, frequently drawing the leaves from the stock on the shelves. Be wary of a teahouse which does not offer to do this; their tea may not be up to snuff. At the very least, ask to look at the tea leaves and take in their fragrance. Have a close look at the leaves; for light wulongs, the leaves should be mottled light and dark green, with tinges of rusty brown; for darker wulongs, the leaves should be mostly brown, but not burnt looking, and should exude a strong earthy fragrance that is not overpowered by the smokiness. Black teas, especially pu’er, should not smell musty, and you must be able to discern the shapes of leaves; if it is mostly twigs or if the leaves are crumbled beyond recognition, that is not a good grade of tea.

If you have an interest in teapots, and happen to see rows of matured teapots in the shop, I would advise discretion. It is hard even for an expert to tell from a superficial examination if a teapot has been genuinely nurtured, or if some unscrupulous shortcuts have been used. I have personally seen teapots painted with ink to look older and used. Besides, the accomplishment of nurturing a teapot though a long gradual process cannot be bought. If you do want to speed up the maturation of your teapot, but are unable to spend hours every day brewing tea, here’s a legitimate shortcut. Brew a batch of strong, fairly good tea (preferably the same kind, if not the same grade, of tea you generally use in the teapot you are nurturing), much stronger than you would normally drink. This is called a “tea soup”, and has several uses, as I’ve explained before. Get a paintbrush that is new, soft and clean, and ‘paint’ your teapot thoroughly with the tea soup. Make sure you remember the handles, the spout and the base. As each layer dries, paint on another one until you are out of tea soup, or bored. This shouldn’t take you more than 10 or 20 minutes a day, and you should see your teapot maturing fairly rapidly.

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