Tea - My Muse

Chinese connoisseurs use tea leaves again and again, until only the faintest flavour remains, an echo of taste receding, like something barely recalled from a dream.

- Twisted Tree by Kent Meyers -

I don't call myself a connoisseur of tea, but it has became an instinct for me to boil the tea leaves again and again. As a Chinese descendant, it is as if almost certain that I prefer tea than other beverages. I need tea when I do revision, I need tea to finish up my reports, I need tea to write this blog, etc.. Then again I need tea after revision done, the reports done, and blog done, as if to celebrate those little successes in my life. Basically, tea kinda helps me the way coffee helps many other people. 

In the matter of fact, coffee might as well be the main cause of the Enlightenment. Before the Enlightenment, the Europeans tended to drink gins and wines more than water. After the introduction of coffee into Europe, people then preferred coffee, changing from depressant to stimulant.  

Through my experience, I think everyone must have their own favorite drink. A person who drinks only wine and no water? That for me was outrageous and exaggerated. However I know exactly a person who did that. The funny thing is, his wife can't live a day without Coca Cola and cigarettes. And one of my friends used to be obsessed with Sprites.

If coffee helps the Enlightenment, absinthe certainly is the source of inspiration of many great writers. Among many, there are Emile Zola, Arthur Rimbaud, van Gogh, Picasso and Ernest Hemingway, who were known to be absinthe drinkers. No wonder absinthe is given a beautiful name despite its 80% alcohol content, The Green Fairy. 

For how much I love tea, the irony is, I always dislike the first brew of the tea. The taste is just too strong, and makes me feel like I am chewing a mouthful of fresh grass. It is until the second or third brew that the taste is the best. And I prefer no sugar. For me, sugar will ruin the taste. Even it is just Lipton, I always drink it without sugar.

Normally, when other people are taking coffee or beverages other than tea, I won't take tea neither. Because tea has a delicate flavour, anything other than water would spoil the flavour of the tea. There is no way tea can beat the aroma of coffee. That is why I rarely drink tea outside my house. Rarely, infers exceptions. The only exception I can think of, is when having Bak Kut Teh. There is no better combination than Bak Kut Teh with tea.

Like I said, I am not a connoisseur of tea. It tastes good as long as it is tea, it doesn't matter whether it is just Lipton. But whenever choices are available, I would prefer pu-erh tea. For the sake of easy preparation, I now drink more Ho Yan Hor herbal tea than any other tea.

I don't how to prepare Kungfu tea. I don't know how to differ a good quality tea from a bad one. I don't even know the exact way to properly prepare a tea. So how to learn about tea?  To quote James Norwood Pratt during an interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9zT5VZKHI0) about tea obsession and his book, his answer to the question is,

"The same way to learn about love making. Privately, discreetly. And with devotion and feeling."

For me, I totally agree with a quote from the movie Fearless. Drinking tea is a mood. When you are in good mood, good tea or not, it doesn't matter anymore (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_dp5W3FEPI). So what James Norwood said is quite true. You need to be in the mood of love making in order to have a good sex.