“What would you like to put in your tea?” asked the server, dressed in a grey traditional GUI overcoat.
I stood transfixed on the other side of the counter, browsing through the various ceramic bowls containing different ingredients. The assortment offered was different from what I had seen or experienced anywhere else during my stay in China. It had boiled black-eyed beans, chopped coriander, fried flour balls, puffed rice, fried peanuts, ginger, and an option to put hong-thang (red sugar) or salt.
The tea boiling in the big stone cauldron was green or rather sap-green. It was unlike any matcha I had encountered before.
Curious, I asked him to pour me one bowl. He smiled back at me, prodding me to try the concoction he had served me as tea.
As I sat down at the table to try my green matcha, I was amazed by the myriad flavors that revealed themselves to my tongue, it was more like a green tea soup than tea.
If you are wondering, it was not the result of the matcha craze catching up in the special economic zone the GUI (Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region) in China. This is how matcha has always been served in this region. Youcha (Oil Tea) is a tradition of the Yao and Dong communities of Guangxi involving green tea, oil, and savory additions. The savory, piquant broth is made by pounding and boiling green tea leaves with ginger, garlic, and oil, then serving it with puffed rice, peanuts, and chopped green onions rather than sweet vegetable-matcha blends.
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For me, having tea in China has been both foreign and familiar. I grew up to be a tea lover, making my own blend of milk tea with ginger, cardamom and garam masala even as I travelled to China.
Having lived in China for almost two decades I have had a variety of green teas, flower teas, dried vegetable teas. Each boasted of special benefits, and each had to be had in its own season and way of being relished.
“Let’s have Indu Cha,” is how I would coax the ageing grandmothers in my apartment complex to take a sip of the milk tea I would make at home.
They loved it or were kind enough to try a new blend, with milk. Nai cha (Milk tea), they called it.
“It’s good for your throat,” I would explain.
Some grew fond of my milk tea over time, as I adopted chamomile and lotus root tea which were lighter and more refreshing during hot summer months.
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It just became a way we exchanged our cultures, understanding the nuanced tastes and appreciating the benefits. I’ve sat through elaborate tea ceremonies, mesmerized by the delicate hand movements of the tea servers with their pots, tea leaves and hot water. The delicate unfurling of the tea leaves with each immersion has led me to appreciate and understand the culture as it continued to unfold.
Being a foreigner trying to belong, I found that belonging can sometimes be as small as a shared cup of tea.
