I've spoken of Bada Forest in Pingtung, Taiwan before in a previous post. Well, I got to visit it again a second time. This time we had the chance to enjoy some tea in a forest of Mahogany trees.
I don't mean we sat there and dipped some tea bags in a mug and called it 'tea time'. I mean we did the whole Tao of Tea (茶道). The word Tao (sometimes spelled Dao) means "the way" or "the philosophical concept". I couldn't recall all the different steps, but it was something similar to the Gongfu Tea Ceremony. If you're too lazy to click on that link, there's basically complex procedures for:
- Preparation of the Tea
- Brewing the Tea
- Serving
- Aroma Appreciation (smelled very good!)
- Appreciation of the Tea Leaves at the end
- Clean up!
Now for one of my favorite parts: Snacks!!
The snacks available from the vendor in the forest:
- Dried Shitake Mushrooms
- Dried (another type of) Mushrooms
- Dried Roselle Flowers (google image them! they're pretty!)
- Dried Okras
- More dried snacks!
I can't describe how yummy these were. They were crunchy and didn't really taste like what they normally taste like (well, I don't really know what Roselle Flowers taste actually but still).
The Rowdy Chowgirl says
What an amazing experience! Thanks for sharing!
Tina says
It was a great experience! Drinking some tea, in a beautiful scenery like that.. thanks for stopping by!
Carine says
The whole process looks so precious. I love it!
Tina says
It was a very interesting process to learn about, and the fact that we were enjoying the tea in the forest was another bonus!
shermangerherd says
Love Taiwan!