February 11, 2014

• Jasmine Mao Feng Tea.

  The rain has eased its intensity in these past two weeks.  Flooding problems seem to be almost a non-existent, leaving behind many potholes on the roads.  The sky still casts a gloomy grey on most days, yet the world seems more forgiving when you get clouds to break open and allowing sunlight basking down on the city from time to time.  It is during a rain season like now that weekends are almost always making one feels melancholy.  The humidity is more forgivable when in this season, making one craving for soupy noodles and teas.  And what a great way to spend this past solidary weekend by sipping a cuppa tea.

  No.  Not Teh Tarik.  Not Matcha.  Not Masala Chai either.  Chinese blood runs too thick in my veins to want anything less Chinese at this particular mood, although Pu-er will never be an option of mine.  In most cases, I’d vote for Oolong.  I have a long love affair with this sensuous Taiwanese, with root linked to the province of Fujian in Southern China.  But this time I’d settle for something more floral in scent.  Something just as delicate, a touch feminine, with an easy-to-please character.  Enough to make want to cheat on my Oolong collection.  This will be my first date with Jasmine Mao Feng Tea.

  Call me a snob, but something about an upscale teashop that just speaks my language.  It is easy on the eyes and a tempting ground for my palate.  Sophistication written all over it.  Such moneymaking spot is never difficult to lure me in for a stop-by.  And Fook Ming Tong did that.  A well know tea shop with many branches all over Hong Kong, it drew me in as I walked pass the shop and whiffed a scent of brewed tea.  It had me at hello.

  I made my detour in the shop before I could make up my mind.  So many teas, so little time.  I sniffed a few variety.  My nose was begging for it.  I almost settled with another Oolong, when my conscious got the better of me and had me realized that it was best to settle with something different this time.  It was then that I saw Fuding Jasmine Mao Feng tea.  No tester available for my nose to sniff at.  But I knew it had to be it.

  A souvenir for myself, it is something special that I brought back with me all the way from Hong Kong.  It would be unthinkable for a tea enthusiast wannabe such as myself to NOT bring back tea, any tea, when visiting China.  I even brought back some from Cambodia when I went to visit Siem-Reap, even though it is not a nation known for its tea.  So it is only appropriate that I spent some Hong Kong dollars for some dried leaves that may bring warmth to my weekends.

  Now that it is in my possession here in Jakarta, I can confirm to you that it is an all around pleasant soft tea to sip and savor.  Came in a bowed box of 8 individual-serving silver colored packets, it had an instruction card attached to it, to inform buyers of the many more varieties of tea the brand sells, and how to properly prepare them all.

   

  Upon inspection on the content of the packet, I was introduced to silvery-green needle-like dried leaves, unlike the typical round rolled leaves of Oolong tea.  It came with specks of yellow and pale orange colored petals of jasmine flower, which what the tea is infused with.

  

  The skinny leaves fell easily into the depth of my teapot, as the hot water touched and steamed them one by one.  Each floated briefly on top, before falling down and start steeping the water with its intoxicating scent, and painted the liquid, slowly, into a light golden hue.  A little green and grassy, it imparts a very subtle toasty flavor, allowing its floral note to take dominant.  One that I don’t normally would look for in a tea, but still find it agreeable.

         

  It is a personal pleasure when I later searched for the meaning of the words ‘Fuding Jasmine Mao Feng’.  Mao Feng is the name for a type of tea, which denotes the shape of the tealeaves.  Something I had not come across before.  But the real pleasure is when I found out the meaning of the word Fuding.  It is a city located in the province of Fujian, the birth province of my late fraternal grandfather AND the province of origin of my favorite tea of all time, Oolong.  This is such a wholesome surprise.

  In general, I don’t favor much for a jasmine flavored anything, including tea.  It just somehow screams perfume to me.  But sometimes one comes along and had me to rethink of my preferences.  Especially now that I know what Fuding means.  It just makes drinking this Fuding Jasmine Mao Feng tea a sweeter experience of a moment.

  • 11:42 am
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