The Power Behind the Throne

Hi, everyone.  You may be familiar with my Daddy, who usually does the "writing" on this site.  I say "writing", but even someone in pre-school can do better, really.  So, I thought that I'd prove it to you.

I'm Xiaohu, and for today, my Daddy's silly web-site is mine all mine, while he is in Japan, which is far away past China, where Mummy comes from.

I'm going to show you how to appreciate tea properly - it's all in the nose, ladies.

Now don't get me wrong - parents have their uses.  My Daddy, for example, is great if you want one of the spare rooms filled with tea.  His taste is OK, but he always come to me for advice.  I think that's only reasonable - he's an adult, after all, so we can't expect him to know all that much about anything.  He does try quite hard, though, and that's nice to see.

You just have to know how to keep your parents on a tight leash, as it were.

Step 1: the leaves

The starting point for picking a nice tea is to choose that which has the prettiest leaves.  I'm not really sure that my Daddy knows this, because of all his teas look the same.  I have a cherry tree in the garden with MUCH nicer leaves, for instance.  However, of all the teas upstairs, I went for this one: it's called Mingxiangyayuan Hailanghao Yuanshengxiang.

OK, the reason I really picked this tea is because it has a very difficult name, and my Daddy can't say it properly.  He can't even get the tones right!

Step 2: the colour

One thing that I like about Daddy's pu'ercha is the pretty colour.  It looks like autumn!  The more orange your tea is, the better it is, unless it's red, and then it's really really good.  Make sure you have plenty of orange crayons in your colouring set so that you can draw it properly later, when Mummy gets the drawing things out.

Step 3: the texture

Next, look closely at the thickness.  It should be like really runny fruit juice if you're doing it right - like the nice ones from that pretty lolly shop in town.  I like to put my tea into the tall cup.  Daddy keeps calling this "wenxiangbei", but, as I said, he gets all the tones wrong so I try not to listen to him.

Step 4: the aroma

Sometimes the smell of something tells you lots about it.  For example, my little brother usually smells as if he needs a new nappy.  You can tell when he needs his nappy changing, because he looks really pleased with himself.  I'm a big boy, though, and I don't wear nappies any more.

A nice tea, on the other hand, smells sweet.  Like the special kind of sweets that Granny gives me, which she says we mustn't tell Mummy about.  Sweets always taste better when Mummy says that we can't have them!

Step 5: the tasting

Daddy always says that "the proof of the pudding is in the tasting", but I only like rice pudding.  Actually, my aunty makes some nice puddings, which she says are "dianxin".  Aunty is a really good cook, and Chinese Granny (Laolao) says that Daddy always looks chubby after Aunty has come to visit.

Tea should taste sweet, like Granny's sweets.  Be careful, though!  It's hot!  You have to drink it very slowly, and I like to get my Daddy to blow on it to make it cooler.  (This is really just to make him feel useful - I could do it myself, obviously.)

Step 6: the HUIGAN

Daddy sometimes has friends here to drink tea, and after they have drunk their tea they start talking about huigan and chaqi.  They get very excited about it.  Uncle K. speaks Cantonese, though, so he calls it something else which sounds very funny.

Step 7: feed your qingchan

Wasn't it that old poet, Peppa Pig, who famously once said, "Every nice teaset has a dinosaur"?  That was the episode where Peppa's little brother, George, made a teapot which looked like a dinosaur.

We don't have a dinosaur in our teaset, but we do have a frog with three legs and horns, called Qingchan, which is close enough.  I always make sure I feed him some tea to keep him happy!  Daddy says that a happy Qingchan means your tea will taste better.

I'm tired now, and it's time for afternoon sleep.  Daddy will be back next time.  Byebye!