Among my time there I met a lot of cool people, saw a lot of cool things, and drank a lot of good tea. The focus of the trip was tea. I wanted to look into a culture that had tea ingrained in their lives to see how they treated it. That is exactly what I saw.
Over the next few posts I will discuss various parts of my trip to China but first I want to talk about the person who taught me the most about tea, Aaron.
I met Aaron in a hostel at the Touran Hangzhou. (A highly recommended hostel). He was a kid about 19, with short black hair with a calm and almost shy voice. He wasn't very out going but when he spoke you could tell he was smart and had things to say.
We first chatted on the patio and became good friends. Aaron was studying clean air technology in hopes to help clean up China's air, but his family were tea farmers. His family was from Suzhou and grew Bi Lo Chun.
Tea was a part of his daily life and always had been. Though he didn't know it, Aaron actually gave me the best lesson of my trip while standing on a busy street corner.
The staff at Touran hostel was great. Among many things they actually got to know you and hung out with you. One day we all took a trip to the city center. While the girls were going into some store, Aaron pulled me aside to see the tea shops in the area. We first went into a tea house. This was a most upscale place where you sat down to have tea. The atmosphere was quiet and peaceful and every table was in its own room. Aaron would explain the significance of that later.
Afterwards we went to a chain tea store called Ten Fu. When we first walked in a nice sales lady came up to us with a tray of small paper cups, each about 4 fl oz, and offered us some Lung Jing.
I knew this wasnt going to be good tea, but I wanted to test my tasting skills. I looked at the color, smelled it and took a slurp, making sure to take in air to enhance the flavor.
Needless to says I was right, it wasnt a fantastic tea by any means. The color was a simple green, with no shine or anything to make it really noticeable. The smell matched it. It was a light vegetle smell but lacked that fresh mist like quality that quality teas have. The taste fallowed suit. A simple green taste, with a darkness that sat uncomfortably on the back of your tongue after you swallowed it. I finished the small 4 oz cup in two sips and was very proud of my tasting ability, until I looked over at Aaron; he wasnt even half way done.
When I looked over Aaron was carefully smelling the cup. You could tell he had taken a small sip already and was smelling it for what was probably the second time. What struck me the most was how he was smelling it. He was smelling it slowly and was paying full attention to the tea as if it was telling him a secret. By the way he took the long sniffs you would think he was holding a high quality tea, not a free sample at a chain. He glanced over to me, saw my empty cup, and almost in shock he said "You finished that fast".
We walked out of the store and on the corner Aaron gave me one the of the best lessons of my trip. "Tea is the practice of peace. You drink tea in the spirit of slowing down and appriecating. That's why all the tables in the tea house were sectioned off, so people could have peace."
This struck with me. In the tea store I had been so worried about tasting the tea right, I hadn't tasted it right. Sure I had gotten the tasting notes, and had very systematically determined the quality; but I hadn't given the tea its full respect and attention. I had taken all of the soul out of the tea.
I laughed, told him that I now understood I had drank the tea too fast and promised him I would slow down next time. He laughed and we went back to meet the girls.
