Conversation

Walked into shop in the local Chinatown that has a lot of vases, dishes. etc. Noticed some tea thermoses that were loose-leaf friendly and spent a lot of time comparing them. Was talking to a women who said the man who kept talking in Chinese was the new owner/manager. She translated back and forth. We started talking about tea. I mentioned I prefer black tea -- he didn't know the teas I named, and I wasn't familiar the teas he named. But there were packages there of 2-3 types of teas (big, flat rings of pressed leaves) that he opened and let me smell. I bought one of the glass thermoses. I showed him a sealed tea bag (Tazo Awake -- an ok black tea blend) I happened to have in my pack -- he didn't know it (I carry a couple around in case of tea emergencies). But then he pulled out his personal container of loose leaf tea, measured out a small amount for me to take home to sample. So nice! And it turned out the woman didn't work there, she was another customer. Tea really does cross cultures and there's something special about the connections it can lead to.