烏龍茶(Oolong Tea)
American Lipton teabags SUCK. This shouldn't be news for a Chinese-American kid like myself, but living in San Diego doesn't exactly give me easy access to the Asian things I grew up with. My father's daily tea brewing for example, is something I have only recently begun to miss.
My extremely hydrophilic self has been guzzling down Lipton tea ever since starting work, and I havent really noticed its subpar tea flavorings until tonight. There's this lady at work who brought in an assortment of TenRen teabags for her team. I tried the 普洱(Pu-erh) first, recalling my father's affinity for it at Dim Sum places for it's superior degreasing capabilities. Not really satisfied, I moved onto the 茉香綠茶(Jasmine Green Tea) which was pretty average; no emotive qualities about it. However, I got to the Oolong Tea, and suddenly everything came back to me. Memories of stealing my dad's tea that he prepared for himself immediately after coming home from work, being forced to drink tea when I was sick, trying to figure out the leaves to water ratio with my sister when we were craving daddy's tea, my parents' squabbles over seep time..and the list goes on.
Oolong tea might not be the best tasting tea nor the one with the most curative effects, but one thing is certain--it's my dad's daily tea of choice, and that makes it perfect for me. All those sessions I've sat through with my dad, family friends, and uncles about its ceremony, health benefits, and how Japanese green tea has NOTHING on Chinese/Taiwanese tea..it's all coming back to me.
Needless to say, I refuse to go back to Lipton. Ugh!
