By popular demand (eh, with the reader stats of this weblog, even one voice of demand is considered very popular), the tea featured this week is the babaocha, "八宝茶," literally means eight treasure tea in English. A lot of tea imbibers mistakenly believe that it is from the Sichuan or the Jiangzu area of China. Yet, truth be told, it is from the Hui Clan, an ethnic group now inhabiting the Ningxia region of China. It used to be something very exquisite and was only reserved for VIPs -- albeit it is getting quite ubiquitous of late -- plenty of upscale eateries nowadays hire at least one adroit tea waiter to pour guests the babaocha with a long-spouted teapot as a sideshow in the dining room. These tea waiters lived mostly by tips so they'll do all kinds of dazzling move to impress the guests, moves like "the spread eagle" or "the dragon asking for direction" are but a few that come to mind. That said, tip them next time rather than just give them your hands after they fill up your cup...
Served in gaiwan (porcelain cup with lid), the main ingredient for the babaocha is of course the tea. It could be of any variety but the jasmine tea is by far the most popular. The remaining seven ingredients usually are, sesame, wolfberry, raisin, walnut, flesh of longan, dates and Chinese rock sugar. For those with sweeter teeth, they can swap the walnut with the dried persimmon.
