The Gainesville Tea Buzz™ held it’s inaugural meeting at the famous Merlion Singapore Cuisine Restaurant of Gainesville, Florida.
Turns out there is an even more famous Merlion in the original Singapore, which I notice also has taller buildings than Gainesville.
But I'll bet they don't have the Gators Football Team.
(Click image for Wikipedia article.)
The Merlion is an imaginary creature which is emblematic of Singapore with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. Gotta love those imaginary creatures!
Salsero, Caligatia, Cinnabar Red, and a mystery guest all made it for the grand event. The restauranteur spotted the gong fu tea equipment as soon as we walked in the door and gave us the red carpet treatment. He came over and spent some time talking about his own tea-time favorites, Long Jing being first on the list, but he also recognized our puerh and Da Hong Pao.
The gang of three … and the gang of four.
Salsero pours with an air of Asian grace and mystery
There were tasty Singapore snacks (including scones and cream puffs!). We mostly brewed our own tea, including the Big Red Robe oolong of the spiritually-present Trioxin and many infusions of the light and breezy 2005 Green City Peak Arbor Puerh Tea Cake sheng.
The remains of the day.
A wonderful afternoon with a bunch of instant new tea friends, thanks to TeaChat. Plans are already half formed for a follow up meeting.
The name is not writ in stone ... yet. Deliberations continue. We also considered
- G'ville Tea Troika,
G'ville Tea Exchange,
G'ville Tea Cabinet,
G'ville Tea Council.
That place must not allow overalls or mason jars, huh? 
