R.Y GOH: January 2014

TEA CHAPTER - A PLACE TO APPRECIATE THE TEA

January 26, 2014

Located at 9 & 11 Neil Road (opposite Maxwell Food Centre), Tea Chapter established on 1989 is a teahouse dedicated to serve premium tea that practices the traditional art of tea-making and its appreciation.

Tea Chapter has housed numbers of guests including the prominent visitors like Queen Elizabeth II.

Discovery of tea

Before tea tasting, Master Patrick Kang shared with us the history of tea. Over at there, I got to know that this legendary drink is reputed to have been first discovered by mistake in 5000 years ago by the Chinese Emperor Shen Nong. His first intention was to boil water to drink however the leaves of tea plant unexpectedly fell into his pot and out of curiosity he tastes it - and loved it.

Chinese tea is generally grouped into Black tea (红茶), Oolong tea (乌龙茶), Green tea (绿茶), Yellow tea (黄茶), White tea (白茶) and Post-fermented (黑茶).

Looking for tea-pot as a gift to someone then this is definitely the place that you are looking for. As you can see, there are so many varieties you can choose from.

Master Patrick Kang is ready to brew us our first type of tea - Longjing tea (龙井茶).

For a better taste, it must be drunk exclusively from small cups and enjoy the

pure, delicate and fresh floral fragrance.

Taste of the tea depends on the quality of the tea and temperature of the water. Master Kang carefully brew us LongJing tea as well as explaining the steps of doing it.

Filtering~

My favourite LongJing Tea.

Specially chosen by Master Kang this light LongJing Tea combined with muted fragrance and light/natural sweetness snacks to bring out the floral and sweet character of the tea.

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Huang jin Gui Tea (黄金桂)　

This is the premium variety of Chinese Oolong Tea.

Remember to wash your tea set before you brew you tea.

Using the tea leaf holder, pour the tea leaves into the teapot

( about 1/3 of the teapot).

Not to forget by heating the water to the proper temperature is also important when making tea. Master Kang then poured the tea into the tea snifers. We have to pour into the tea cup and then hold the empty tea snifers, rub it and smell.

Ready to enjoy the tea by cradle the cup with both hands while enjoying the tea's aroma before taking a sip. It is usually recommended to be drunk in three sips. The first sip should be a small sip followed by a bigger sip and the main sip which is the last sip is to enjoy the aftertaste of it. While enjoying the tea, we also got to try on their signature Tea Leaf Eggs.
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Jasmine Tea with Pandan Leaves

Jasmine Tea tends to be slightly bitter so Master Kang suggested to match it with pandan leaves so as to balance the flavour. You can try it at home as well if you are brewing Jasmine Tea (:

Jasmine Tea with slightly sweet scent of pandan leaves was matched with 软糕 (below show the steps of it can be done).

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软糕

Other than appreciating the tea, we also learnt to make some 软糕 using matcha powder and other ingredients.

Let's start off with the ingredients

1. Glutinous Rice Flour

2. Matcha powder (mainly used for cooking and not for consumed)

3. Water (Boiled and cooled) - 140g

4. Oil (It can be any oil but it is not advisable to use palm oil as it has a strong smell which will cover up the Matcha scent)

5. White Sugar - 100g

1. Mix the sugar and matcha powder

2. Add in the water and continue to stir it

3. Thirdly, slowly add in the oil and mix it

4. Add in the glutinous rice flour slowly and continue to mix it evenly.

After mixing and kneading, you should be able to achieve just like the picture above. Let it to rest for 15-20 minutes before you cut into the shape that you wanted.

It's simple and nice. No baking is involved , you just have to prepare the ingredients, mix it , cut it and you will be able to enjoy this snack with your friends and family.

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