The collection of teas in my kitchen are primarily from India not counting the Iranian rose tea, yerba mate and such. We gave first and second flush single-estate Darjeeling teas, several varieties of Assam and Nilgiri. The tea bags I have left are from J's high school years, she kept that drawer stocked and was the primary consumer of it. For me, loose leaf tea is the only way to drink tea, always has been, After a successful run with ordering Jasmin Dragon Pearl tea directly from China, I tried with Da Hong Pao this time. At the time of ordering, I did not know much about the tea expect that it was a nice oolong. It was delivered well before the estimated date and on a Saturday afternoon. Now that the tea was on hand, I spent time reading about it and the proper way to brew it. Turned out to be a great learning experience.
Based on the price of the tea, I likely got the commodity Da Hang Pao - the stuff made for regular tea drinkers. The results of the first steep were excellent - this is nothing like any oolong tea I have tasted before. The smoothness and aroma are remarkably different compared to my baseline of oolong. It is great that the tea has so many benefits too. Whenever I drink an interesting tea I did not know about growing up in India, my thoughts always turn to my parents who introduced me to tea. In their case, it was typically Darjeeling teas. They trusted a specific tea-seller to make them a blend they would like. Friends and family would sometimes bring nice Darjeeling teas when they were visiting - in lieu of the mishti that is customary for the guest to bring to the host in Bengali culture.
They knew that the gift of tea would be appreciated a lot more. My mother was very scrupulous about keeping the flavor of the tea intact. Only small portions of it would be placed in the container she used regularly but the rest would be packed tight with layers of paper and silver foil secured in place with rubber-bands. This was the "for later" tea that lived in the pantry. Though I played no part in any of this except drink the tea once it was prepared, the attention to detail in storing the tea and preparing it stayed with me. If we were visiting someone and the ladies went to the kitchen to chat, I was usually there with them. I could see my mother cringe, if the woman in charge there did not steep her tea right. She would talk about how that person destroyed a fine tea by not treating it right. Might as well had not bothered at all and made a chai with the cheap CTC tea and be done with it. Atleast it would an honest beverage serving its intended purpose. Some might call my mother a tea-snob but that's probably not right - she just wanted to do right by the tea, make it shine.
While all this chatter was about tea, I took away a slight different lesson that has served me well in life - one of treating what is in front of you in the manner it is meant to be treated. Only then can you evaluate if that thing can and is indeed serving the purpose it supposed to. It could a fine tea but it could be an gardening implement or piece of software - it does not matter what the thing is, the true generally applies.
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