This story might sound strange but believe you me, it is as real as it gets.
I was introduced to the concept of actual tea (not the teabags you get at the grocery store) roughly at the age of 16, during covid. I was assigned homework from geography that concerned Sri Lanka and a part of it was tea production. Sri Lanka is one of the biggest exporters of tea. So, naturally, I watched some videos about tea production on Sri Lanka and I was intrigued. Of course, this made me dive into a rabbit hole, as I do, and soon I got to a video from Mei Leaf. I have never actually ordered from Mei Leaf, but I was interested in the concept of what they call “True tea”, so I odered a Bai Ye Dan Cong and some Bai Mu Dan from caj.cz. I immediately fell in love with both of them.
Having tried those teas, I started being interested in more and I immediately became interested in Pu-Erh. I had some and I hated it. It was fishy and really bad. During that time, I also tried some Bi Luo Chun and it is still one of my favourites. After some time, returning from my piano lesson, I went to a teashop in České Budějovice called “Čajový ateliér”. It is a highly controversial teashop but I believe they serve the best tea in town and it is a shop I like. There, I finally had a Pu-Erh revelation. I enjoyed it and I came for more. Guess how it continued.
Nowadays, I drink all kinds of tea. With my partner, I drink a lot of Japanese greens, with Marko we drink mostly Pu-Erh, with my brother I drink a lot of Dan Cong (his favourite) and alone I drink the tea that suits the weather and my mood the best. Generally, I drink
You wouldn’t believe the strange interesting worlds tea can transport you into, if you haven’t I urge you to try at least one session of any high quality Gong-Fu tea. Trust me, once you have had something that suits you, it is a lifelong journey and an enriching passion that helps you transcend national borders, understand different cultures and perhaps even take a liking to history. Or at least it did to me.