that tea
one day in Changsha
I was out wandering around the city with friends. One friend said, "Hey, this is a good tea shop". We went inside and the owner sat us down at a table carved intricately from a tree trunk then polished to perfection. The carving included trays, spillways, and drains carved straight into the wood to allow one to brew tea the old, formal way - pots and cups preheated inside and out, excess water spilling onto the table and draining away; tea presoaked then used to wash the cups, excess tea draining away; first pour into the tall cups; round cups on top, flip them over, gently left the tall cups and roll between your hands or over your cheek, inhale the vapours; drink from the round cup in three sips; repeat.
Having sat us down, the owner brewed tea that old way. We drank tea. The experience was intoxicating - tea with the deep flavour of wulong, with a certain spiciness to it, and something liquorice-like. Sitting there sipping tea while this madcap city roared by outside brought a deep, golden, meditative calm.
a few years later in Beijing
That day in Changsha I had not gotten the name of the tea we were served. One day in Beijing I was remembering this moment. I thought, why not ask online? See if maybe the hive mind can't figure out what tea it was? The answers all suggested 人参乌龙 - ginseng wulong. So I went down to my local tea shop and asked.
I got home and brewed up a pot of this tea as well as I could with the utensils I had. Naturally I could not recreate the full experience, but the flavour was pretty close. Ginseng wulong became a favourite afternoon pick-me-up.
in Aotearoa
I can not get good tea here. I miss my tea shop in Beijing. The water supply in this city is not good for my preferred tea - longjing. So I've found myself drinking a lot more red and wulong teas, particularly pu'er 普洱 and dahongpao 大红炮, to a lesser extent tieguanyin 铁观音. These are all good teas, but the teas available here just aren't quite up to the standard I was used to in China. But I can find tea here that is good enough, and good enough will do.