Favorite Tea Related Tasting

When I think of all the tea tastings the one that first pops and stays in my mind is when a group of us went out for dim sum in San Francisco. Experiencing tea and dumplings in the first dim sum house in San Francisco added a special historical and community context to the tea we were sipping. One thing that I have learned from this quarter is that I do not have the most refined taste when it comes to tea. I must have gotten it from my Grandma- the cheaper it is, the better it tastes. Maybe the tea at this dim sum house was  of the finest. Unfortunately, I need more time to fully identify this taste distinction without first knowing its background and plucking process. As a group we opened the lid to our tea pots to inspect the tea leaves. Full squiggly leaves were crushed at the bottom and a few floated to the top. Respectable.What first sparked was the dynamic taste of bitterness. There were slight notes of saltiness but more heavily twigs.  The tea’s taste first hit the tip of my tongue but soon spread to coat my entire mouth in soft bitterness. Each sip was kind of like an alarm clock that you keeping hitting the snooze button on. It comes and then fades away so you have to immediately follow with another sip to bring back the sensation.