|
| |
For many of us, food triggers an equal sensation and stimulation in the brain (memories and emotions), as it does in the mouth (think taste bud party). It's this sensation that companies like Dove chocolates, for example, use in adverts to exploit our determination to stick to that New Year's Resolution. (Remember those?). But more specifically, remember this? Dove Moments. One google search alerted me to this: "Chocolate won't let you down. Love, Dove".
After studying journalism in college, I developed an aversion to these types of ad campaigns. The ones that target our emotional connection to consume more; you deserve this moment, buy me!
Yet despite this aversion, when entering the atmospheric city of Granada, in the heart of Andalusian Spain, this exact campaign crumbled my reserve, especially when speaking of tea. The tie in was even more swoon-worthy, the aromas of the city's greatest treasure, the Alhambra. Completed in 1391, it's a testament of the Moors' stay in Spain, but also of their sense of art and architecture. A sense that is hardly matched elsewhere in Europe. It's here also that this imaginative empire ended, too. As a preface to the Spanish Inquisition, the Prince of this Muslum empire fled on request from Isabella I and Ferndinand II and with him the Islamic grip on Iberia soon ended.
The remaining evidence of the Moors and Islamic Spain still echoes in the city and gives Granada an irresistible energy, especially if you have a view of the palace with the snowcapped Sierra Nevada towering behind it. It's here that the blend of aromatic teas, with the name Scents of the Alhambra, that I lose any idea of "willpower". Whatever that may be. I want to conjure up the sense of history and the magic of this place for days and, if I'm lucky, weeks to come.
You can find dozens of tea blends with names like Scents of the Alhambra in the market stalls scattered around Granada's grand cathedral (Ferdinand and Isabella made their Catholic mark) in the city center or in any of the many tea shops scattered around the city.
 I'm a travel junkie with few immediate plans to change that. As I yearn for the rush of my next adventure, Spain!, websites focused on travel appease my cravings. As so, The Matador Network has given me the inspiration that I'm adopting here. In the name of tea and travel, I've taken a spin on their weekly "By the Numbers" blog offering and curtailed it for you.
Originally a coffee-addict as well, I came to China with the enticement of teaching English for 10 months at a college in little-known Zhengzhou, a typical Chinese city of six million. After I grew to love tea and my 10 months of teaching, I took off, dragging along two friends, to experience the country's quirks and extremes. Here's my tab.
Days spent traveling: 15
Cities visited: 6
Varieties of Chinese loose leaf tea sampled: 6
Number of tea houses or shops visited: 6
Number of times we drank tea in a park while getting our ears cleaned: 1 very strange time
Number of times we enjoyed massages while drinking tea: 2
Nights spent trying to sleep on a train with a hard seat at an acute 90 degree angle: 2
Price paid for transport in such a "bed": 10 USD
Concrete steps hiked up a mountain: 255
Number of dumplings consumed: 56
Number of dumplings oddly shaped and created by myself during a cooking class: 35 (essentially each one I touched)
Number of fortune cookies spotted: 0
Number of times Obama was mentioned: 3
Number of times Lady Gaga was mentioned: 5
Pandas spotted: 9
Starbucks spotted: 7
Starbucks purchased: 0
Bowls of rice eaten: 29
Cups of tea drank: 17
Number of times we were offered a fork and knife: 2
Times a chicken head appeared in a dish: 3
Times we got sick: 1 (The Sichuanese do like it spicy!)
Number of squat toilets used: Too many to count
Photos taken of one of us by random Chinese tourists: 50+
Hours spent on a bike: 6
Bikes spotted: Too many to ever countBike accidents: 1 small collision and thus 1 swollen ankle
Number of Chinese spotted drinking tea: Look to aforementioned response
Favorite Chinese tea: The famous green tea of Anhui
Favorite place: Chengdu, the Panda Capital of the World, or Beijing. Decision making has never been a strength.
Yes, that is me on a bike in China with a panda hat, where I am surrounded by more pandas. Do not be misled, however, my count refers to pandas that are not made of plush.
3, 2, 1---and the mountain was gone. A ball of mist swirled in a masking envelope. I looked on. This was the power of Huangshan or as English-speakers will better understand, Yellow Mountain.
And moments later, as if my murmurs had been heard, a single ray broke the swirl and the creamy jutting spires of stone dazzled. A natural muse, Hunagshan has served as the source of allure for countless traditional ink paintings and thousands of poems (20,000 to be exact, from the Tang to the Qing, 618-1912). Last counted in 2007, 15 million visited, but for more than just that.
Yes, GREEN TEA.
One of China's premier tea growing regions, Huangshan's mist rolls over the mountain peaks like a fluffy sea. Rendering the environment moist and artfully ideal for tea growing. Tucked deep into Anhui province, tea culture is life here.
Most notably, Mao Feng (meaning first fluffy, then mountain peaks) is the tea of Huangshan. Jade in color with a flowering aroma and taste, its sitrringly delightful as a green tea with an almost-apricot taste. The total effect is a clean, refreshing and slightly sweet taste that seems to linger like that awkward guy at a party, except only one in this comparison is a problem. Noted for the coating layer of fur, the Mao Feng tea leaves are not fermented, but actually dried in the sun and then pan fried and rolled, preserving the natural flavor of the tea leaves when fresh.
If you go to glimpse the infamous Huangshan sunrise, don't forget, there is good tea waiting to wake you up.
As an ancient Chinese proverb goes:
"Better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one."
Will I miss coffee? And why am I drinking tea these days?
As a new blooger for California Tea House, I have to admit I am a Tea Novice. But as the saying goes, "Great journeys all begin with the first step." and this is my first step. About the only thing I can really say at this point is that I've been drinking ordinary, grocery store variety, green tea daily for the last eight months. After many years of being a solid coffee drinker, sometimes even 3-4 cups a day, this has been an unexpected run. I've surprised myself that after three months of tea drinking I wasn't wandering the small appliance aisle of Target contemplating the purchase of the latest espresso or single-serve specialty super-dooper robot coffee machines. I just didn't want it. I wasn't interested.
My conversion to a tea drinker has been a slow bloom, but looking back I see it now as a definite permanent conversion. I'll still have the occasional cuppajoe I'm sure, but no longer will it be a daily requirment. I suppose I could attribute it to my changing middle-age female hormones (since everything that changes in a woman's life from laundry detergent brand to a preference of dogs over cats is always attributed to that) but in all honesty, I don't think that's the case. I stopped drinking coffee because I became bored with drinking coffee. Once I was bored with coffee, I became even more bored with coffee and then - I was really bored with coffee - ad infinitum. The day finally came after the millionth time of dumping wet grounds into the office trash can, a tiny dot inside went "poof" like a little disappearing genie. No more coffee.
I drank coffee just about every way and every flavor that I could think to drink it - at least through the mouth. Coffee enemas - not going there. I started with cream and sugar, via my mother who always left her half cup sitting on the breakfast table while she fried eggs for my dad. Then went to my own signature style of cream (creamer)only as a youthful sign of my individual taste. That became the mainstay for many years. Coffee with cream, half-n-half, Coffeemate, soy milk (yuck) milk, evaporated milk, powdered milk, whipped cream and ice cream.. And then came the flavored creamers, powdered and liquid: Tiramisu, hazelnut, Irish cream, chocolate, French vanilla, ad nauseum. When there wasn't any cream, it was black, black with sugar, coffee with chckory, camp coffee, cowboy coffee, instant coffee, Starbuck's concoctions: lattes, cappuchinos, espressos, frappechinos, mochachinos, Bailey's and coffee, Kalula and coffee, and the classic: cigarettes and coffee. Coffee was acidic on an empty stomach, comfort on a snowy morning. Looser coffee, lukewarm and bitter after sitting on the warmer tray all day. Coffee was strong and rich from a favorite cafe, and after driving all night, watery and scalding hot from Micky D. Too much made me chatter like a monkey, withdraws gave me throbbing thought-blocking headaches. I think I've drank hundreds of cups with Coffeemate in styrofoam cups at job seminars, waiting for an oil change or tire rotation, in the reception room with cookies after church. Sipping In dark hotel room in TV light waiting for my roomate to awaken, but the day came, unexpectedly when I couldn't drink any more.
Part Two to follow...
As the tea puffed its warning steam, the host of the teahouse urged me to drink up. I was in the Old Town of Shanghai and after market hunting and bargaining I needed a good wake up. Tea.
Old Town is a reminder, albeit kitschy, of the bustling financial city’s older glamour and simpler times. Dragons decorate ornate black and white buildings, red lanterns populate the area like tourists and truly nothing is more relaxing to escape the preying hawkers than to sit for a spell and watch some tea seep.
So, after the requested gift of Jasmine, I asked, what is the best?
Reminiscent of a green tea, but with the body of the darker black, oolong is the perfect go-between; quite possibly China’s favorite, or at least that of the teahouse matron who, as a native from Fujian province, grew up in the tea’s most-acclaimed home. As she poured another round, she proudly exclaimed why an oolong from Fujian tastes different and better, according to her, than its neighbor and competition across the Strait, Taiwan. A banter that is as strong as the tea itself; an oolong from Taiwan will have a defining fragrant taste, where as that from China will have a characteristically darker color and taste.
However, as I sipped and relaxed from the haste outside, both seemed too goo to deny. On either side of the Taiwan Strait, a good oolong is like a ripe piece of fruit. The taste lingers like a peach with a slightly sweet resonating aftertaste. And just like its comparative teas, green or black, an oolong garners much in health benefits:
- Weight control—If consumed daily, oolong tea activates certain enzymes that are responsible for controlling the fat metabolism of the body.
- Better skin—According to scientific studies, patients with skin disorders, such as eczema can benefit by drinking daily cups of oolong.
- Promotes good bone structure--The antioxidants within oolong help protect against tooth decay and strengthens bone structures.
- Busts Stress—According to a study in Japan, mice ingested with oolong tea lowered their stress levels by 10-18%, a remarkable improvement.
So, I waged another bargain battle and bought a bag (or two).
|
