All the tea in China

I've had a brief initiation back home to the ritual of Chinese tea ceremony, and while I like good-quality tea as much as the next person, I'd never really got into it. And I've done tea ceremony in Japan, a dramatic, high mass of an affair including foamy bright green stuff which is more the stuff of ritual than an actual beverage.
In China,I was obviously motivated to make the most of the tea. My first close and personal encounter with Chinese tea (beyond the perfectly decent industrial stuff you get at the supermarket) was through a pu'er cake that a Chinese friend gave me. Then, in Shanghai, I came across by sheer luck the coolest little shop, ran by a charming young man, who was willing to serve me tea throughout the afternoon probably. There, I got more pu'er and some oolong. For the uniniated, pu'er is presented in roundish little buns, resembling this. The shapes and sizes the leaves are pressed in vary, but if you've never seen them and they're wrapped they're not even recognizeable as tea. Oolong is a smokey tea.

Then, one of the highlights of my trip to Hangzhou was the visit to the tea museum, complete with an investment in longjing, or "dragon well" tea, a grassy green tea, that, I've learned since,Chinese people don't like so much (an Earl Grey of China?) . Then, a few weeks ago, I went to Gin Tonic's very own tea market, which looks like this:

Yes, that's a massive mound of tea. Some part of me would like to jump and roll in it as if it were a heap of wonderful-smelling autumn leaves. It's not very fancy and it's mysteriously empty, though presumably the merchants do make a living out of it. The shopkeepers also do the whole schtick of washing the teapots, filling tiny little cups, spilling water all over special trays, but it didn't feel as friendly and intimate as the place in Shanghai. But still, I got some more green tea, more delicate than the long jing, as well as some "iron goddess of mercy" where the leaves are rolled in little balls that make a tinkling sound when they're put in a cup (so you don't just see, smell and taste tea, you get to listen to tea!).

Ware-wise, there's also a lot to discover,. A must have is the purple clay tea pot, which looks like a very plain thing but can cost a fortune (ok not a fortune, but way more that you'd expect a plain little terracotta teapot to cost). Then there are cups, trays, jugs, you name it. Right now, I got a cheap clay teapot off the flea market, I guess I'll start blowing money, but gradually.

The nice thing about Chinese still tea ceremony is that it might not be as elegant and grand as the Japanese one, but it feels a lot more convivial and normal. It's also easy to get obsessive about Chinese tea, as I've known some people to be, because there are so many varieties and so much stuff to fiddle with. Really feels like getting initiated in some mystery of the Orient. The slightly grating aspect I've noticed is that, where foreigners who are into tea are concerned, it's also easy to get a bit snobbish, maybe because you've admittedly gained a lot of knowledge, but still. There's no harm in admitting ignorance or to liking something that "only foreigners like." I've got a lot to learn, and want to learn (I've also invested in two books) but this is supposed to be fun, and a way to know China that overcomes language barriers and doesnt require any particular skills as say, calligraphy or martial arts would. And hey, at least by now I know that that is pu'er and not marzipan cakes!