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I have lately become very interested in tea. Tea is grown in Taiwan and you often see tea growing on the side of the road. I have seen Tea fields in Taoyuan on Hu Tou Shan (Tigerhead Mountain), Daxi and Longtan.
Union Tea has a tea that has been judged as the “Best in the World” by tea masters. It won a competition against teas from sixty other countries. This tea sells for $3 Million NTD for 600 grams. That’s $90,000 USD. But you can buy it in packages of 200 grams, for about the price of a Toyota Prius. That’s a little more than I want to pay for tea.
There is a whole ritual and tradition that goes with drinking tea in Taiwan and so I have learned to brew and serve tea Taiwan style. I purchased a tea table that is made from a large stump of a tree. The table is hollowed out and has a drain in the bottom to drain water from the brewing process. There are a number of varieties of tea tables, some are modern functional stainless steel, while others are made from stones or wood like mine. The wooden and stone ones are much more traditional as they mix function with beauty, which is part of the Chinese mindset.
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| Brewing Pitcher |
Prior to brewing tea it is necessary to warm the ceramic pots by pouring hot waster into them. Then you put in a small amount of tea, the amount depends on the size of your brewing pot. Pour 100 degree Celsius water over the tea and then pour it out immediately into serving pitcher and then into the cups. This washes the tea leaves and warms the ceramics. Then brew a pot of tea for 20 seconds. Then pour into the serving pitched and then into the cups.
If you don’t have a serving pitcher pour the tea from the brewing pot into each cup. But fill only partway, then fill the cups the remainder of the way. This will keep the tea at a uniform strength. Then rebrew. You can rebrew up to seven times with a high quality tea. (Four times for a lower quality tea.)
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| Serving Pitcher |
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| Tea Cups |
Chris Banducci is a pastor and missionary in Taiwan. He has, at other times of his life, been a white-water rafter, rock climber and adventurer. He left the corporate world of Solid Waste Recycling in 1996 and went into full-time ministry, where he pioneered a church in Riverside, California for the Potter’s House Christian Fellowship and is now engaged in the same endeavor in Taoyuan City, Taiwan. He writes on the culture, religion, tradition, and day-to-day life in Taiwan. Twenty-six years of living with Muscular Dystrophy may have weakened his muscles but not his spirit.
