Home, episode 1 – Tie Gua Yin

16/06/2010, posted by Cha in tea

During the last weekend I visited my parents. That was the last place I expected to improve my tea education, but  it seems every place and opportunity is great.  Not having somebody to teach me, I rely on internet sources  , my small travels to Hong Kong  and lot and lot of brewing sessions. From time to time  I make small accidental steps forward, like this one, using the knowledge I gathered until that moment.

I went home with two teapots, one for tie gua yin, and with a small generic teapot. I also had some small cups and that’s it. I took my tie gua yin teapot with me because I wanted to maximize my tea experience. I perceive  that tea as a floral tea. It’s smell and taste always reminds me of flowers.  It so  happens that my parents have a lot of flowers. And by lot , I mean a lot. I didn’t included all the pictures here, but you can see more on flickr.

I chosen the evening for this tea.  I started by day and ended by night. The smell surrounding me changed as some flowers became more active and some  inactive. This was also in sync with how the infusions changed their taste. It was some how complementary.  I think it’s the best way to enjoy tie gua yin and the best time so far.  This was also an experiment for me ( the time , the surroundings) and I payed attention to the effect it had.

I  think I also understood how gongfu tools progressed in time.  Not having a tea table, I used a regular plate . It was actually nice and felt very comfortable.  In the next sessions I made a better use of it, and I started to understand the practicality of the old style gongfu sets . It was really instructive.

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