Packing tea

Packing for the move means packing my tea. The move isn't until January, but I've started early, using the extra time to catalog what I have, a task I neglected to keep up with in the past few years.

It's been a trip down memory lane--and a trip down "I don't remember" lane. My local tea friend helped me pack and catalog the first day, and at least five times I couldn't remember buying something, or where I bought it, or if someone gave it to me. For other teas, it took a glance to remember I owned them; but in the intervening years I'd forgotten I had them. As my tea ages, so does my brain.

So much tea

I've come across teas from my first trip to China, the result of days of scouring Maliandao tea market in Beijing. And teas from my second, longer trip to China, bought with MarshalN and our tea friends Liu Bo and Action Jackson. Teas bought with Scott in Kunming, Sebastien in Guangzhou. Teas purchased on trips to Tian Shan and Jiuxing tea markets in Shanghai, accompanied by Thomas from the hostel, where we were trapped over Chinese New Year because the trains and buses were all full. I remember eating way too many red bean cakes.

Who knew packing could be so nostalgic?