From cooking to a tea plantation!

From the cooking school and lunch we piled back on the bus and back towards Guilin. About 20 minutes outside of Guilin we stopped at a tea plantation and research center. The first picture is of "picked" tea shrubs. The second is of newer shrubs that are presently being picked. they pick about 4-5 times a year. Interestingly, many different types of teas come from the same plant. The type of tea depends on whether you use the shoots, small leaves or bigger leaves. All the girls put on picker hats and we did a group picture! After the tea has been picked it is put in the bamboo trays to dry for several hours. Then a bunch of the leaves are rolled in a flat bamboo round tray for about 1/2 an hour which takes oil out. after that is is put in this heated bowl - you can see this big greenish bowl in which this lady is taking the leaves and turning them over and over. the bowl is hot. She asked us how hot we thought the bowl was. She was using her hands to turn it over and over so some of us didn't think it was that hot and others thought very hot - it was about 440 degrees F --wow - very hot. We were amazed how she did this without burning her hands. the tea is then dried some more. After that we were taken into a tea room where we were taught how to properly smell and taste the tea, hold the cup, pour the tea - all using these different pots depending on what type of tea it was, how it was tasted, etc. The kids enjoyed the smelling, but not the tasting. I only liked one kind. After that - guess what...(have you noticed a pattern here) we were taken to a tea shop where we could buy any of the four teas we tasted along with beautiful pots, sets, etc. Mom and Eva - you guys made out here! One of the teas we bought which is a compressed tea blend that can keep 40-50 years - yeah right, if kept in a cool dry place ...and we thought the stuff went bad in months! We all bought a little something and we headed back to the city of Guilin where we ended up back at the lovely Sheraton and we lucked back into another suite! yeah. This night was to be our last night as a large group - we were all leaving for different locations to do orphanage visits. If you have been reading this blog from the beginning, you know that we have already completed Ben's orphanage visit and we would now head to Changsha for Hannah's - but first a final dinner with our group!