Tea time

Some friends invited me to join them at a "Tibetan tea tasting/ ceremony" in the former French Concession. A tea trader from Sichuan they had met somewhere treated us to a few choice teas (he has 300),

 

each dispensed in tiny cups over many pourings, each pouring a subtly different experience. It was in a quasi "secret" location tucked away behind a fruit stand. The photo at top is the view out its door.

 

These little blocks of a compressed Pu Ehr-like tea yielded the cup below, in perhaps its sixth pouring. Enthused the trader as we left (after 2.5 hours): we're only halfway, you could spend five hours with this tea!