Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Buying Tea in San Francisco Chinatown












I had a family vacation last year and we went to the USA in summer. It was a memorable trip with highlights like Vegas (buying a special deal where you can dine at a number of restaurants, unlimited food for 24hrs), Disneyland, Santa Monica beach as well as my fav city, San Francisco.


I like Frisco for number of reasons; wharfs, Sausalito, cable cars, steep hills, Mechanics Institute Chess room, great food and Chinatown. Chinatown here looked like old streets of Hong Kong. I saw stalls literally overflowing with fresh produce and everyone there was speaking Cantonese. It was really strange but the atmosphere captured the essence of an old Chinese street community. My family was delighted that the food here was pretty authentic in cooking style and it was a surprise that we had our most inexpensive meals there during our trip.


I had time to explore the shops, even stepping into a couple of grocery shops in Chinatown and snagging some pu erh. It was inexpensive. The $8.99 tea cake was a Hong Kong pu erh cake by Hung Cheung Tai Tea Co, while the $9.50 tea brick was by China Tutsu (aka CNNP). Both were ripe pu erh tea.


CNNP is a well known pu erh tea factory and this brick did not disappoint. I found the tea earthly and aromatic. I estimate the age of this tea to be around 3-5 years old. The Frisco humidity would have helped aged this tea. Pretty good, in my opinion.


Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the USA. One of my fav artists, Norman Rockwell painted a wonderful family reunion dinner. I wish all my American friends and readers a happy thanksgiving.

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