Chai Wallah Margate – Jasmine Green
Happy birthday! You might not know it’s your birthday today but, trust me, it is. It’s Renri, the seventh day of Lunar New Year and today everybody in the Lunar-New-Year-celebrating world is having their birthday.
Renri (人日) translates as “Humans’ Day” and it commemorates the day that the goddess Nüwa created people. She spent the first six days of creation making – in order – chickens, dogs, pigs, sheep, cows and horses.
When I first read this, I was a little put out that dogs were apparently invented before cats. But then I realised that there would be no point in having cats in the world before there were humans to serve them. Good thinking Nüwa.
To celebrate my and literally everybody else on the planet’s birthday, I am drinking Chai Wallah Margate’s Jasmine Green tea. I associate Chai Wallah Margate with Indian tea (what with them being Chai Wallahs and all) but, actually, they have quite a number of Chinese teas in their arsenal.
This blend of Chinese green tea and jasmine blossoms made me feel rather nostalgic. There used to be a time when jasmine tea was the only exotic tea I knew. There were ‘normal’ teas for daily consumption and the occasional cup of jasmine tea drank after a Chinese meal.
Sipping this blend took me right back to those days. Chai Wallah Margate Jasmine Green is much nicer than the cups of tea I remembered though. Partly because I’m brewing green tea at the correct temperature these days. Partly because I’m not using stale tea leaves that have been sitting in the cupboard for years on end. But mostly because Chai Wallah Margate produce really, really tasty tea.
This tea was delicate and fragrant and refreshing and all the things you could wish for in a flowery green tea. I am raising a cup of it now in a birthday toast. Ren ri kuai le, tea friends!
Today’s featured book is Chinese Tea Culture by SK Mishra.
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