Cup of Tea

Yesterday as I wandered aimlessly around Shanghai, this time in a direction I hadn't been before, I found bootleg dvds (which cost less to buy than they are to rent in the US), Chairman Mao stationary, and much more, including tea shops. One tea shop that I went into was in an "L" shape, with the longest side being about 7' long. Meaning it was tiny. I felt like a bull in a china shop with my messenger bag on my back...every time I turned around I listened for the sound of falling china or ceramics.

The woman working at the shop was incredibly nice, but geiven the amount of chinese I speak right now there was a lot of repeating what she said, but not a lot of comprehension. I found a ceramic container that said "black tea" and gestured that I would like to buy some. She took one bag (probably weighing a kilo) of tea out of the container. Oh crap, that's a lot of tea. But how do I convey "less"? Apparently the gestures I meant to convey "less" were more indicative of "try," so she and I sat down on two little stools and she began a wonderfully intricate tea tasting process.

To start, she poured some of the tea leaves into a white bowl which we then both smelled. After that, water was heated in a kettle, the tea leaves were poured from the white bowl into a ceramic container that would hold about 1/2 a cup of water, and water was poured onto the leaves. From there the tea was poured through a strainer into a mini-tea pot. She and I smelled both the tea leaves that had been soaked and the tea in the pot. She poured tea into my cup; it was the tiniest cup I've ever seen, equivalent to about 1 tablespoon made of thin white china. Both she and I tried the tea that had been prepared, and she refilled our cups until the mini-tea pot was empty. Then the same ritual was performed to try another kind of black tea.

At the end of all this I was still struggling to convey that I wanted to buy somewhat less than 1 kilo of black tea. She took out a bag, and I filled it with the amount I wanted. I attempted to ask how much it would be, and she declined my money. She smiled and indicated that it was a gift (at least I hope so, because I didn't pay). I said thank you numerous times and walked out feeling wonderful.

I think I'll go back and buy (really buy this time) some more tea from that store, luckily I took a business card so I could find it again.