Perspective by Tai Jordan / photo by Willow-Creek Feighery
Tea tasting, for me is not as simple as it seems. This idea of tasting and where it comes from. What is it to genuinely engage in the act of tasting tea. Is it the way the tea moves across the taste buds, tantalizing sensations are sending messages to the brain; sweet, sour, bitter, bland all taste but are they flavors or feelings associated with what happens as our body reacts to the stimulus? Thus far this quarter has not been what I expected in terms of tasting tea. Before this class I had never quite gotten to experience tea the way I have now. Although not my ideal drink in a sweet or neutral pallet, tea has challenged me with sensations I am unfamiliar with and avenues I have yet to explore. The most impressionable tea tasting came not with the tea but with the place. My favorite tea related thing I tasted was in San Francisco when we ventured into TEN-REN-TEA a tea house in the heart of Chinatown, San Fran. I was encapsulated with the aromas, the sounds, the atmosphere it all held into an experience I was unaware I was going to have. I began to listen I heard porcelain cups chattering, metal spoons stirring, tea brewing. The grassy, oaky, nutty aroma blending into the air forcing my sense to choose one. Acknowledging they could not exist as strong individually as they did together, however individually they were all unique as well the tea I tasted was a black tea from china called Keemun. The tea was astringent, oh so bitter. However, that’s what made it my favorite, I do not have the knack for bitter drinks but in that moment being in the company of friends, the green paint on the walls adding life through color to the environment, the smiles, the tea tasted different still bitter but not as bitter as it once was.
