Enjoyment to the Tea

I'm expanding my tea drinking experience in an effort to reduce coffee intake. I used to be the toss-a-tea-bag-&-add-hot-water kind of tea drinker. I've no input whatsoever when it comes to ordering tea during dinner at the typical Chinese restaurant.

A few things changed my outlook on tea:
- My trip to Cameron Highlands led me to visit the Boh tea plantations and there was something about the rolling green fields and different aromas that perked me up.
- An excursion to Klang would not be complete without having bak kut teh and I noticed it's pretty common to bring your own choice of tea leaves to the restaurant.

So I decided to drink tea by brewing the tea leaves and straining to get my cha. However it's not practical to bring a mini teapot; the volume's too big and it'll be messy to clean plus I don't have a lot of desk space.

Solution? Get a tea infuser. A tea is a miniature strainer typically sized for holding a small quantity of tea leaves. Available in many shapes and sizes, you can find many adorable designs! I bought a ducky one from Kitchen Shop, Bangsar Village II for RM35; it's perfect for holding a sufficient amount of tea leaves and easy to use.

I started with Palas Supreme, produced in Cameron Highlands. This is a very light pekoe tea, and has a delicate aroma. I'm moving on to the dark Pu Erh tea, I bought a huge bag and it's my favourite so far.

Still, some days you just need to go to a mamak store and call for teh tarik kurang manis, but there's so many types of tea waiting to be experienced, so give it a shot!