Jasmine Tea

At dim sum, scanned through the menu and promptly lost interest in it. There wasn't anything I really wanted at this restaurant. While the stitches in the mouth had been given the all clear, I've been told to protect the newly healed gum for another week or so, and the entire area will be fine and dandy in 3 months. Only boring hor fun and tofu would be most suitable. Everything else gotta be cut into tiny bite-sized pieces. (Dentist seized the chance to ask me when I'd be removing the other 2 impacted teeth. I was like, not till 2013 at the earliest!) 

Anyway, before the food came, the servers set down 'gongfu tea'. I was most interested in it. But I was careful in tasting it. Still hot. Took one sip and stuck out my tongue. The water used was too hot, probably boiling; it was steeped for too long, and acidic, leaving a dry sour aftertaste. YUCKS. This wasn't the 'gongfu' style of tea! More like anyhow give customers thick tea. This burnt, and I could still tell it was poor quality pu'er. No wonder for years, I've associated 'gongfu tea' with crap tea, and stayed away from pu'er, in spite of all the reading done about it. Bleah.

When the accompany-the-meal jasmine tea popped up, I didn't have high hopes for it. It was the usual 'xiang pian' (香片). Yes, it was an easy floral tea, but it really wasn't of a good grade. As expected. No other choices- the restaurant doesn't have a separate list of single brew teas like some other restaurants in town. No, of course I didn't tell this restaurant that their tea sucked. There're at least 5 other restaurants in town that serve decent 'house' tea and offer choices for a limited but pretty all right selection of good Chinese tea. I miss those wonderful teas at Lung King Heen. That restaurant really knows how to pair tea with food. With a sigh, I left the cups of tea aside and stuck to iced water. Die, I'm turning into a tea snob.

What luck to be able to brew floral teas the next day at class. Brewing two floral teas as a comparison was quite something. The first jasmine floral tea (茉莉花茶) I brewed was slightly better than most grades fine restaurants serve. It was honestly, faultless. Non-offensive, neutral, light on the caffeine, it would probably go down well with many people. However, the nose and the palate were similar. No layered textures within. The second tea brewed was a high quality floral tea that few teahouses or restaurants will offer- also a jasmine known as Snow Flakes (花雪蕊).  

I don't know much about floral tea. A good grade can be fragrant and delicate, but it's not a complex tea. Still, it's rather enjoyable on a day when nothing heavy is preferred. Minimum caffeine. Aromatherapy, methinks. Some people say that when they drink it, there's this constricted feeling in the upper chest (胸口闷). *shrug I don't feel it. But yes, it's not my favorite type of tea.

A comparison of tea leaves. The quality is most evident in its wet form after 4 brews.
Left column: the standard jasmine (普通的茉莉花茶);
Right column: the jasmine Snow Flakes (花雪蕊).