After visiting Sanxia, Jessie and Erin took me to their hometown Yingge. Yingge is famous for ceramics. There are plenty of high-end ceramics stores. Unfortunately, taking pictures was not allowed in any of them.
We went to a pottery DIY (by the way, “DIY” is a term used frequently in Taiwan in its English spelling), where I learned how to make a bowl.
Later, we went to a tea store, where its owner invited us on a couple of cups of tea. “A couple of”, because the cups are very small and the Taiwanese tea ceremony consists of multiple rounds. First, the leaves are put into a very small teapot, boiling water is added and put away after 40 seconds. This is to wash the leaves. Then, boiling water is added again and infused for 50 seconds. The infusion is then put into the small cups. The leaves are infused 4-5 more times.
The DIY pottery
It’s also popular for children
And I also tried my best
And this was the result
Erin is much more talented though
Small teapot with tealeaves for infusion…
… from which the infusion is poured into another, bigger teapot…
… from which it is served to the small cups of the ceremony participants.
