As an aside, Air Canada - I thought they were just incompetent, until I realized their corporate motto was "Do Evil - Always" & they must have signs in the break rooms saying "Complaints are down, we need to see more cruelty on the front lines"
Any how, all that fades in comparison to the experience I had with Michael and his wife Pat at Best Tea House. They treated me as if I was not only a guest in their home, but an honored guest.
Some gleamings -
1) Vesper Chan, of the Best Tea House in HK wrote the introduction to Cloud's book "First steps to Chinese Pu'er Tea" and was Cloud's teacher. (Second Edition)
2) They are originators of the "88 Cake" - of which one is for sale there, $2500.00
3) The cup Michael used while I was enjoying tea at his table, I asked about. It is about 100 years old, and adds "smoothness" as well as makes hot tea easier to drink. No doubt digital thermometers would produce reams of reports about this, but if we ignore our western thinking, I wouldn't mind a cup just like his.
4) Even though the people at the table spoke 99% chinese - I was included in their discussion of tea and art .. and certainly shared the goodwill of hosts and other guests.
5) They have ten million teapots. I counted them.
6) No Meng Hai (Dayi) tea cakes in sight - lots of their own brands and CNNP stuff.
7) Drinking with a master gives a certain validation to things I wasn't sure of - his Yiwu tasted like mine, old tea has the same quality, young sheng was said to be "Bitter" and "Strong", and it was like I expected.
He doesn't use roiling boiling water, it had a few really large bubbles, which he then took of the heater and let sit. It was a glass teapot with "mei fan" <?> rocks. 9) He uses a really large gaiwan, no scale to measure the tea, and I think uses the lid to gauge color, rather than either breathing or a timer. Gets poured through a screened filter into a glass fair pitcher, then poured to the small cups for guests.
10) My first cup was from the 20th infusion of a 1997 feng qing cake. He had several gaiwans with various teas in them. I tried 5 teas while I was there. I have to say not everyone might have the experience I had, but it is certainly worthwile to stop in and take a look.
I bought an antique large gaiwan, a 2001 toucha and a 1996 brick. I will post pics soon.
