I drink tea in the morning, in between classes, while in class to keep me coherent, in the evenings, while visiting friends and family, and even a cup before going to bed… I’m not gonna lie, I’m a tea person, which is why the different forms, uses and traditions affiliated with tea fascinates me.
During my travels in China last fall, the one thing I wanted to do was visit a traditional tea house – one that was not too expensive because I’m a budget traveller and poor – but after 3 days in Shanghai, I settled for just purchasing some tea at a market and gave up on looking for a “free” tea house until…
It was a rainy Tuesday and a day before flying back to Incheon, my friend and I ventured out on the subway towards the Jade Buddhist Temple only to learn it closed 20 minutes prior to our arrival. My disappointment soon turned to excitement when we came up to a little tea shop! We stopped by to have a look and the owner invited us in for some tea. Over the next fifty or so minutes he performed the tea ceremony that I was searching for and told us about his shop, Shanghai, Buddhism and the different benefits of different teas. When out visit was over, I of course, just had to take home some of his awesome merchandise and bought a box of his “family blend.”
The tea that I purchased at his tea house and the market earlier in my trip have been amazing but the experience I had with this man was much more rewarding. So if you’re a tea person, I highly recommend visiting a tea house in Asia (China, Japan, Korea) at sometime in your life, it’s well worth the trip.
foreignmuckyuck 