da hong pao: big red robe & revolution
on typical workday mornings, before this surreal state of emergency began, my default workhorse beverage has always been tea. admittedly, i never quite took the pains to brew it properly. i often just throw hot water onto leaves in a travel mug, and decant after a few minutes. yet my favourite way to drink tea is still the slow and more time-consuming way — with a gaiwan on a slow leisurely weekend morning when i have all the time i need. i’m actually rather new to ’gong fu cha’ tea, encountering it when Tao Tea Leaf opened up in Mississauga. i was too intimidated to go up and talk to the workers about all the large containers of tea they had lined up against the wall, but i ended up visiting their website, and discovered a world of Chinese tea that i was completely unfamiliar with, including the endless terroir of Chinese highlands, long lists of botanical varieties and the infinite intricacies of processing methods developed over hundreds of years.
