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Millwater Asian Corner Chinese Tea You may have already tried Chinese tea in a Chinese restaurant, but do you know there are many blends of tea and are roughly divided into white, green, oolong, black and red? These are according to their level of fermentation; from lightly to fully, respectively. Green tea is actually very commonly consumed in China, but nowadays people usually relate it to Japan because of their fascinating tea culture. In Japan, the way they roast and prepare green tea is very different from China, which makes the flavour and experience unique. On the other hand, Taiwan’s oolong tea is considered the best in Asia. In New Zealand, we also have people planting oolong tea in Waikato! I found it very delightful and occasionally send it to my overseas friends as a souvenir. If you are interest to try, you can find the products available from the Farro stores. I remember when I was a kid, my mum used to prepare a big pot of tea to drink throughout the day – we drank it even more than water. I can’t recall when I started to drink tea; maybe 10 years old? or even earlier? No one cared about caffeine daily intake at that time, it’s just normal to pick up the tea pot and drink the tea – and I really love it! Besides drinking tea as a beverage, tea is also served on special occasions as a ceremony; a symbol for the younger to show their respect to the older generation. It is a very important part of our culture. How important? For instance, I may have the world’s most simple wedding ceremony, where we just go to the Registry Office at Queen Street, read our vows, sign our names, all done in 15 minutes. (Just to clarify, we didn’t get married in a rush, we did plan and pick a date that has special meanings for us, and no, I was not pregnant, we just wanted a stress-free wedding). Although we can skip almost everything, we cannot skip the tea ceremony. The first thing when we arrived home was to kneel in front of our parents and serve them each a cup of tea,
using a brand new tea set. Without doing this they won’t consider our wedding ceremony as completed. When my brother got married, they needed to serve me tea too, even though I am only 5 years older! To be honest, it was one of the most emotional moments in my life and I strongly felt that my brother is not my baby brother anymore from that point. Next time when you go to a Chinese restaurant, why not order Chinese tea to go with the food? The most common tea you could find in Auckland Chinese restaurants are Tieguanyin, Shoumei, Jasmine and Pu-er (warning: this is very strong!) I hope you find this article interesting to read. If you need any further information or comments, feel free to email me at millwatermag@gmail.com, or just simply PM me through Facebook.
Nita Wong Originally from Hong Kong, 20+ years ago Millwater resident
Millwater 小統計 Millwater Little Survey 為了讓大家更了解住在Millwater的新西蘭人，我們每個月會在Facebook問他們兩個問題。 In order to know your Kiwi neighbour more, we will ask them two questions every month. 本月問與答 Question and Answer of the month 1）你有喝過中國茶嗎？ Have you tried Chinese Tea? 有 Yes 70% 沒有 No 30%
