High Mountain Tea Journey

I remember during my college days I was so into coffee. I drank coffee to keep awake and study for exams and I worked at Starbucks part-time to make some extra cash which I then was exposed to more coffee! I had always figured I was a coffee man with Kenyan Coffee beans being my favorite kind of grind.

Recently however I have reached a new frontier and a little less rugged i guess. The world I'm talking about is the world of tea or high mountain tea. Well to be specific Oolong tea. I know I'm the least likely candidate to be into traditional Chinese tea and maybe the farthest I would go is Green Tea on the side of a well prepared sushi.

Ever since I tried a cup recently I guess you can say i got hooked. First what attracted me was the exotic and very cool way of preparing it from the small tea pot and poured into the small cups. It made me feel like a Kung Fu master or an Imperial Emissary for an ancient Chinese Dynasty. That was the beginning.

Now comes the obsession part of it. I went online and started researching on the different kinds of tea! Did you know that oxygen makes the tealeaves bitter? hence why low altitude teas need that extra two teaspoons of sugar or flavouring to make it drinkable. It all has to do with a process called oxidization where the tealeaves are dried out or during the baking process. Since there is less oxygen at higher altitudes, teas like Oolong tea have a sweeter taste and aroma!!! Hence why Oolong tea needs no sugar and could consumed as is! mixed with water of course.

Pretty cool stuff.