I thought it would be fun to tell a semi-embarrassing story about myself, and my endeavors into the different kinds of tea and preparation methods. I should mention I have a very high sensitivity to everything that goes into my body, and I have an especially sensitive stomach. I am also very 'obsessive' about things when I first discover them. So when this story takes place, I was doing a lot of experimenting with the teas that were available to me in my local area.
I happened upon a large box of oolong tea at the thrift store, of all places. The box had been opened and the package pulled apart slightly. But most, if not all, of the tea was still there, and kept fairly fresh. I took it home as my first oolong tea, and experimented with preparing it cup-by-cup, and the 'kung-fu' method. For those not familiar, the kung-fu method is a method of preparing oolong tea of a more gentle and subtle flavor so that the flavors can be experienced in a slightly higher concentrated infusion. It is done by filling your teapot up to half with oolong tea, pouring on the hot water, and infusing for 30 seconds before pouring off. Then, the process is repeated with a longer infusion time, such as 1 min. Then again, and as many times as it will hold flavor, the process is repeated, each time increasing the brewing time. It is an excellent way to prepare oolong tea if you want a lot of flavor, especially if it is a high quality oolong of very delicate flavor, and you are feeling impatient.
Several days later, I was in a local Indian-type grocery store and looking at their selection of tea. They had a decent Darjeeling that I had tried before, but I noticed a large bag of tea that strongly resembled the oolong tea I had been drinking. I was excited because I couldn't find this tea locally anywhere, and the bag was really large, maybe a pound, and was cheap! The bag did actually say "green tea" on it, but I thought to myself that surely it was oolong tea, but for some odd reason they had it marked 'green'. Convinced that it was oolong tea, I bought it, took it home, boiled up some fresh water and got busy preparing my teapot with a nice handful of my newly found supposed oolong tea. I allowed it the 30 second infusion that is normal for the first infusion of kung-fu style tea, and poured into my teacup. I blew at my first sip and cooled it enough to where I could actually have a taste of my Indian Grocery store bought... so I thought... but it's not... oolong tea. And when I took in my first big drink, my eyes lit up, mouth watered and I knew then that the label was right! This was no oolong tea, this was a strong, loose gunpowder style green tea, and green tea does not taste good prepared kung-fu! Several minutes later, I could feel the antioxidants shooting through my veins, pushing poisons and all sorts of uncleanliness out of my body. It felt horrible, even though I'm sure it was a grand detoxification process. It tasted terrible, and I could never bring myself to drink that tea again.
I have stayed away from green tea, for the most part, because I enjoy other tea's flavor more. But I have realized that green tea does not do my body good. Maybe it is too strong in antioxidants, or maybe its the astringency, but every time I drink green tea, it makes me sick, so I have to stay away from it. Looking back, I can laugh at myself, and I can still feel that green tea plunging its way through my toxified body. I still enjoy kung-fu style preparation, but with real oolong tea ONLY!
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