All the Tea in China

After a week in China, our group must have drunk all its tea–that’s how we felt–or at the very least, enjoyed a daily dip in those giant teapots. At breakfast, lunch and dinner, whether in a hotel or in a restaurant, a pot of tea was always on the round table’s revolving tray. How wonderful to start a meal with what is good for the digestive system and, what matters to us women, for the complexion, as well!

In the tea village of Hangzhou, every inch of ground is planted to tea. The hilly parts bring back nostalgic images of the Banaue Terraces verdant with tea instead of rice! We were received in a tiny hall with a long rectangular table lined with glasses filled with water and Dragon-Well tea leaves–the best in China, we were told. The water was less than half in each glass; a full glass would have meant we weren’t welcome!

In what appeared like a ritual, a woman went around pouring steaming water into three glasses at a time without spilling a single drop as she filled every glass.

Our hostess, a petite ingenue, with wide baskets of tea leaves spread out before her, began thus: "My father plants the tea; my mother dries it, and I drink it," adding, "It’s also correct to say ‘I eat it’ because the leaves can be eaten. And if you drink Dragon-Well tea, you will stay healthy and slim"–"like me", she should have added. We also learned, tea harvested in spring is best.

Business was brisk. Many bought a tin of Dragon-Well tea each, but as an irresistible enticement, our hostess urged us with quaint charm: "Take two tin cans and you get a baby for free; three cans, and you get two babies for free." I only got one tin can, afraid that being single, I would seem indiscreet for having instant twins without the benefit of matrimony.

Before arriving in Hangzhou, we drank chrysanthemum tea, compliments of the house, with the flower floating about as we sipped nature’s beverage, then lying at the bottom of the glass after we finished it. (Should I have eaten the flower in all its beauty?)

That night, at a restaurant, Dellie Yap, connoisseur of Chinese cuisine, said that in ancient times, the tips of the Dragon-Well tea leaves were only for the imperial household; the rest of the leaves, for the masses.

Those who have patiently read my piece thus far will be rewarded with this prescription for high cholesterol or diabetes. (I’ll send you the bill later.) Dragon-Well Green Tea, 5 g/Haw, a red-colored seed, slightly bigger than a grain of rice, 10 g/Orange peel, 5 g. Soak mixture in 200 ml of 85-90 degrees boiled water for 30 minutes, then drink the water and eat the mixture. Do this daily for two months.

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Tea drinkers were led by Rita C. Tan, the country’s foremost authority on ceramics–more on her later–her daughter Richi, Pilar Martinez Miranda, Marietta Cuyegkeng, Maria Troesch, Dr. Lydia Alfonso, Betty Roxas Chua, Teresita Ang See, Juan Go, Angelyn Lim, Norma See Ting Ling, Juanita Te, Ming Yin Fan, Andre Tan Ong, Hua Co So and Grace Lee, Toti and Norma Chikiamco.

Also Alain Mialhe, Amaya Michel (wife of Mexico’s former ambassador to RP), Monique Zani and her mother (French), Susan McGee, president of the Oriental Ceramics Society, Sonia Kruger (American) and Sato Yuki (Japanese).