An Evening Tea Tasting

It was a lovely summer evening last Thursday when we ventured
out to the Portland Chinese Gardens to have tea with Veerinder Chawla
and the Teahouse Staff of The Tao of Tea.

There were 5 tables, each with it's own theme.
This table was serving Old Growth, Rare, Tea Forest
Puer Teas. Each table served 4 different teas, each different from the other.
My favorites here were the 25 yr old Guangdong Puer Cake and a new blend,
Yunnan, Black Pepper Puer.

We were served small finger foods at each table to go along with the tea.

Veerinder's table served Oolongs. My favorite tea!
Here I liked the Pinglin High Mountain oolong from Taiwan
and Single Trunk Oolong from Chazhou.
We also had the pleasure of tasting Drunken Cloud oolong, which Veerinder grew and
processed from his own yard.

The evening garden was so pleasant to walk through.
I also found two black teas, which I really liked. They were
Hunan Summer Black, very light, and Star Village, Wuyi, a slight smokey flavor.
A fun way to enjoy a summer evening tasting tea.
***
A poem by Sung Dynasty poet Tai Bing,
translated by Martin Tai (1998)

Tasting Tea
Fetch my own spring water,
Fragrant with fallen flowers,
Set up a fire in a marble stove
Try out my new tea,
Lying under the green shades in a tranquil garden
Listening to the bees
Reporting their latest harvest.