Last night I started a note on the Art of Chinese Tea.
For about 22 years, I was happy and content with the everyday tea you find in supermarket, oblivious to the exquisite world of Chinese Tea. My favourite casual tea was English Breakfast from Twinnings – with sugar, no milk 
My first encounter with good quality Chinese tea was a first-grade Long Chu, which my great aunt brings over from Taiwan.
At first, I didn’t knew that this tea was of first-grade quality – I just found its effect to be very calming, and its aroma exquisite. Not to mention the shape – when these balls are infused in hot water, the pearls would slowly open up, and in my aunt’s glass tea kettle, watching the pearls open up is quite a sight to behold. The taste is also very, very exquisite. I remember drinking it and thinking: “I didn’t knew that tea could be this good”.
When T2 start to open up their shops around Melbourne, I wasn’t that interested in Chinese tea then. I mean, I like to drink it, but I haven’t cultivated the passion to know about it further – I also didn’t knew of the english name for the teas that my great aunt gave me.
Then one year later, curiosity and necessity got the best of me – I have almost finished the tea pearls that my great-aunt gave me, and I have grown to like it (very much), but have no idea where to find it.
So there I was in T2, shifting from one tea to another until I found one that looked exactly like the ones I had at home – the english name is quite funky: Buddha’s Tears (which I later found is also known as Dragon Pearl)
I have since purchased several bags of teas from T2 and other tea shops from around Melbourne, I even tried to buy some in my home city, Jakarta – I was actually surprised to find that the tea that my great-aunt gave me was superior from all the ones that I can find. And she gave me not only one kind, she gave me three : Buddha’s Tears (Long Chu), Iron Goddess (Kwan Yin), and a kind of Oolong which I have yet to identify. All three are of first-grade quality.
Unfortunately, in my ignorance, I have finished the Buddha’s Tears that she gave me. The little that is left of the Iron Goddess and the mysterious Oolong tea – they are now a part of my treasured tea reserve.
Every time I visited my great aunt, we would have long conversation about tea. She would cook an awesome dinner and afterwards, we would talk about tea, over tea. We exchanged information, for even though she is very knowledgeable in the art of tea, she doesn’t have the internet on her fingertips.
I for one, have my e71, ready to query whatever info that she was uncertain of, and thus we both learn a lot from this conversation.
Thus began my love and passion for Chinese Tea.