Michiyo, a friend of mine, gave me a pack of Chinese tea yesterday. She went to Shanghai last week and bought the tea there for me because I had asked her.

     The tea is Kuding Tea. It was at the karaoke party at the beginning of this month to have tried the tea for the first time. Naoko, the pub’s owner, recommended drinking it at the party. She had a trip to China last August and bought the tea. According to her, the tea has detoxification.

     Some of the participants including me at the karaoke party tried the tea. All of us couldn’t drink when we raised our glasses to our lips first. It didn’t smell like tea at all, but smelt like passing behind a fish shop on a hot summer day. Nevertheless, I sipped the tea.

     It tasted really bitter! Maybe it was the bitterest thing I’d ever had. But slight sweetness spread inside my mouth after drinking. Hmm…strange taste…I got interested in the tea at that time.

     So, I asked Michiyo to get the tea for me if she could find in Shanghai. “One stick for three to four people,” she replied when I asked her how to make the tea. “Stick? Not spoonful?” Yeah, I got it when I opened the box. Tea leaves were plied. It smelt like wood creosote, not like fish.

     After making the tea, it smelt like bacon and tasted bitter! But I liked the tea somehow!