A Pot Of Tea, Killed

Many restaurants have noticeably given more focus on its options of tea. But this line is written because I've only recently started paying attention to the tea served. Prior to 2012, I don't even bother flipping through the menu for tea. A few restaurants housed in hotels do provide an impressive list.

The other evening, while glad to have a hotel support local business by sourcing teas from Gryphon. I was a little disapproving of how they served the tea. Excitedly, I ordered a 'Dan Cong Magnolia' (广东乌龙，单丛玉兰香) a Guangdong oolong, a brew known to be gorgeously elegant. This particular batch, going by the earlier held tasting sessions in July this year, would have been from this year's Spring harvest, which indicates that the tea leaves to be tasted ought to be fresh. But it would depend on the quality of tea leaves and chosen method of brewing.

When the pot of tea came, I inwardly yelped. All that metal! All that steeping! Spring harvest, best quality whatever also no use liao. What a waste of good tea leaves! I took the first few sips, lifted the lid to stare and smell the tea leaves, and extracted one leaf to stare and touch it. Sigh. A decent batch, killed by steeping and all that metal. In this giant pot, the flavors were forced out bitter, the sweetness and trademark layers were gone by the second refill of hot water. The third refill simply produced a colored liquid that couldn't have qualified as tea. I could take a couple of steps to control this, but still. :(

The man lagi better, commented, "No taste of tea. All water." That totally cracked me up. He's not even at noob level of structured tea appreciation lor, but he has drunk enough fine brews to discern that this particular fragrance of a Dan Cong is vastly different from what he has tasted from my hand. And yes, I understand that in normal operations at a restaurant, it's difficult to present a decent brew with the hardware, especially with that force of water hitting the leaves so rudely. What a pity, because this batch of tea leaves supplied by Gryphon was so decent.