High-mountain Tea

In the month I was in Malaysia, I hoped to visit more temples from all walks and go on a tea hunt. Alas I just about managed a handful of temples and never managed any tea expeditions. To my complete surprised in visiting on of my oldest and best friends from school, whom while showing me around his hyper minimalist home, whom had a 7 story shelf of booze, to my surprise, had an excellent collection of loose tea leaves that he procured from gifts and trips to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan.

He brewed me a cup of wonderful Oolong using his chic espresso machine. I thought, not even a kettle to boil water? How will this turn out and to my surprise it was perhaps one of the best cups of tea I’ve had in a long while. And even more to my greater surprise he just gifted me that entire bag of precious tea as it was due to expire next month. I had to come home and brew several more cups and have been enjoying it on long jet lagged nights.

I may never have tried Taiwan teas up until this point and the High Mountain Tea definitely speaks to me, and I wonder if there is a bit of nostalgia, as it was with my one other kindred spirit and teacher that I had first tried Tieguanyin which has several notes that seem similar to the Taiwan High Mountain. The Tieguanyin was my gateway tea to savouring tea that I had the good fortune of discovering a tea master in his little garden in Walthamstow, London nearly two decades ago now.

Teas are to be discovered with true kindred spirits.

Laks Indrakaran

Boston, MA

Tired and jet-lagged at 4:41 AM over a second cup and third steep of Taiwan High Mountain Tea.