A GREAT CUP OF TEA

Of course you go to China, or Taiwan as we did, and you expect to drink tea. Tea is considered to be one of the seven necessities of life, but it is often not the tea we drink at home. Made from the leaves of Camelia sinensis, how the leaves are treated results in the different types of tea. Most often in Chinese restaurants it will be green tea or an infusion made with chrysanthemum petals. As we found on our visit teas are often made from herbal infusions.

Unless you are in the know you might not be aware of how the tea is packaged. This was a tea shop in Kenting. What a fascinating way to package the tea.

And another shop in Taipei. If you want a teapot then you have to go to another store.

I'm afraid this size of teapot would not do for the English.

On our trip to the southern part of the island we headed up into the hills where the tea is grown on terraced hillsides. Everywhere neat rows of tea plants to make picking easier.
Back in Taipei visiting the markets we came across the street of teas.

But as we soon found these teas were a little different.

It seems like they make these herbal teas from just about everything that grows.

Now this is a surprise. Surely they don't make tea from graptopetalum?

David explores further.

and finds cactus. Surely not! But a google search brings up teas made from both these plants.

There was a tea stall in front of the store and we sampled the herbal tea. I have no idea what was in the mix and could only discern a hint of mint. I'm sure it had to be good for us.

So on our first morning home, when I made our pot of morning breakfast tea ( typhoo decaf) I'm sorry to say that David said. "That's the best cup of tea I have had in 6 weeks" We like our black tea at this house.