Drinking SE Asian Teas
How fortunate I am to have friends that love tea AND that travel to far away places and bring back teas to try! I recently had the chance to taste tea from Southeast Asia, specifically Laos and Burma.
The Laos tea was from an "old tree." We think that means no one knew exactly when the tea tree was planted. Maybe it went rogue, but now it's being harvested and processed into black tea. It brewed into this lovely copper color shown above. I enjoyed this tea very much.
Piglet gets muddy
The Burma tea was a "pu-erh" in the shou (ripe) style. This tea brick was purchased from a local company, Tao of Tea. As you can see, it brewed into a rich chocolate color. Look closely to find the steam floating on the surface of the liquor.
As we sipped, we reviewed a map to see exactly where the countries that produced these teas were in relation to Yunnan, China. Relatively close, which makes for an interesting consideration of tea flavor profiles and processing techniques. I love learning about the world through tea!
haha, good timing. I reviewed a Laotian pu'erh last week and I'm going to review a few Vietnam border teas this week.
ReplyDeleteHow lovely, Steph! Happy holidays to you!
ReplyDeleteQuite exotic! Love piglet's muddy joy.
ReplyDeleteLove that you were mindful enough to actually see where the tea was produced. Doesn't it amaze you how much smaller the world got when we all began exploring tea?
ReplyDeleteYummm! This is one I would love tasting.
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