One of the joys I get out of having a tea shop, probably the most enjoyable out of all is to spread Chinese tea culture. By saying this, of course not forcing everyone comes through the door to learn what I feel so special and endearing. However when some one truly is inquisitive about the world of tea, it really gets me excited. One of the girls who work here is very much into tea and the whole Chinese tea culture after exposing to it for the last few months. It's quite a sight to watch a blonde girl pouring tea and explaining it to customers with enthusiasm. Her friends also got into tea influenced by her. After a lesson on brewing techniques and taste training, the first thing after school on a Friday afternoon is to drink kung fu tea at my platform. It started with 3 then 4 then 8 then 12 boys and girls showing up on Friday afternoons, Saturdays, some times even Sundays whenever they get a chance, spending 3 to 5 hours at a time, going through 3 or more teas, buying and sharing the most high end teas. It's rather amazing, not quite as I expected before I opened the shop, but definite a good thing for these kids, it's a better and healthier addiction than drug!
PV, as most kids here say, "I just want to grow up to be a normal person", without knowing they will never be normal, living here is realistically not the norm of this society. 1/2 of the kids smoke and take drugs, mainly because they have too much spending money. Their parents are hard working business people whom have very little time to spend with their kids, materials are substitutions of love and time. My friend Ming (a PV mom) said to me "how are they going to live without good tea from now on or live anywhere else with no access of good tea? You spoil them!". I then said to her, I am glad I'll have access to good tea even if I don't run a tea shop later in my life. Despite what's available on the market, I know where to get my good stocks of tea, how fortunate is that!
Tea Habitat - locates in Los Angeles since 2007. whole sale, retail of specialty teas, hotel/restaurant consulting training, private event tea service www.teahabitat.com
3 comments:
Let's hope they don't find your site and complain about you calling them brats!
I don't usually follow tching, but I was reading their site yesterday and noticed this article:
http://www.tching.com/index.php/2007/10/24/afternoon-delight/
So there definitely seems to be something to this. Even though parents might not be wild about their children drinking more caffeine, I think it's a good thing to expose people to good tea early on (especially compared to Starbucks etc.).
And as far as being spoiled - yeah - that's true to a point, but I think if you teach someone how to brew tea well, and expose them to a wide variety of types of tea, they'll be able to make whatever they are brewing taste good. Also, I think access to good tea is only going to increase, given both the increasing popularity of tea and the growth of the inter-web.
They may not all end up with a lasting interest in tea (i.e., it may be a short-lived interest for some), but either way, I think it's a great thing for them to be exposed to, and hopefully it will be a lasting interest for some.
They are quite proud of it tho. In a way, it is a privilege to be one.
"Let's hope they don't find your site and complain about you calling them brats!"
--will
I just did. (And it has left me...IN DESPAIR) :P
Although I do like the term "brat,"... its a slight improvement of "kids these days," which is what I use.
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