lip top 10: unconventional ways to enjoy tea
What? You only drink tea? Soft. Here are ten ways you can enjoy tea that aren’t exactly conventional.
1. Picked by Monkeys
I’m serious. For a mere £14, you can purchase a 57 gram bag from here of rare tea picked by ‘specially trained monkeys in a remote mountain rehion [sic] of China.’ According to the website, the practice began ten centuries ago when a monkey, seeing the difficulty experienced by his master in trying to pick some tea off a steep mountain face, climbed up, picked it, and brought it back down to him. However, my doubt for the veracity of this story grows each time I find a new typo or grammatical error on the website’s blurb for the tea.
2. Pickled
Yep, you don’t just have to consume tea as a liquid; you can slide it down your gullet in a solid form. It is considered to be a national delicacy in Burma and historically was a symbol of peace between warring kingdoms. It can be eaten on its own (usually as part of a spread that includes nuts and fried garlic, kind of like our version of a cheese platter), or as part of a salad.
3. With Tapioca
Known as Bubble Tea, this drink originated in Taiwan in the 1980s. It can be drunk hot or cold, and can be flavoured with a million and one different things, with the tapioca balls sitting in the bottom. You could probably liken it to a frappe.
4. With Yak Butter
This is a Tibetan drink, called Po Cha. It is made by boiling tea leaves for half a day, skimming the leaves, pouring them into a cylinder with salt and yak butter, then shaking the cylinder. It’s the consistency of a thick soup, but the best part is the colour. It’s purple!
5. As a Hallucinogen
In Brazil, the hallucinogen Ayahuaca is brewed with tea. It originates from a jungle vine that grows in South America. The vine by itself was used by Amazonian Colombians for both divination and healing, although I’m willing to bet the kick they got out of it was far better than its healing qualities.
6. As Washing Liquid
This happens in Chinese Tea Restaurants, or Cha Chaan Tengs. In the same way that water is provided in most Western restaurants when a patron enters, tea is provided to those who enter a Cha Chaan Teng, and some patrons choose to wash their utensils in it. I can honestly say that this one surprised me.
7. In a Gruel
The word ‘gruel’ isn’t too appealing, so I’ll use its correct term, Lei Cha. It’s a tea that is mixed ground herbs, nuts, seeds and grains. It’s generally drunk for breakfast in Taiwan, Malaysia and parts of China. See? It doesn’t sound so bad when you put it like that.
8. To Tell the Future
Known as tasseography, the art of reading tea leaves has been around for at least 500 years, and involves brewing a cup of loose leaf tea, draining away the liquid and then examining the shapes left behind in the sodden tea leaves. These shapes symbolise different things. Like any method of fortune telling, there’s no scientific proof of its veracity.
9. To Create Texture in Art
Why not? See how here.
10. In Your Hair
I did a bit of reading on this, and it sounds to me a lot like every shampoo that is advertised. You know, the ones that contain essential avocado oils with the freshness of cucumber, plus the added vitality in some newly discovered scientific compound that is named just to sound impressive. Caffeinated tea does contain tannins, which are said to thicken the hair shaft and tighten up pores, which helps prevent the loss of hair. Black tea can also be used as a hair dye, but you need a ridiculous amount to achieve a decent effect.
(Image credit: 1)
