Even being at the paradise of tea farms, my tea buying adventures are still very strenuous. Today, I have been mosquito food for maybe the entire village of mosquitoes already. I am also fighting the desire to suddenly pass out into sleep, whilst drinking some of the strongest tea known to mankind. Mr. Zhang and various villagers drop in to find out about some real information they are curious about but can’t get, such as how much cars cost in the U.S. An average automobile that costs $35,000 USD can cost $75,000 easily in China. The middlemen make a killing. Yet their income tax is something like 3%. What about that election next year, they want to know? As long as it’s not a Bush again, they mused. Why hasn’t the U.S. attacked North Korea if they are so against Communist governments? Simple, I replied, without any basis for my opinion. No oil there, and it’s a monarchy, not a Communist country. It’s impoverished as hell and it will implode anyway, the tea villagers reasoned. The conversation turned once again to Xi Jin Ping’s crackdown on the corruption. Government offices can no longer buy 1000 RMB a Jin teas for office consumption( about $180 a lb). The offices I know in the U.S. serve Lipton teabags at 10 cents each…. Well, the cultural exchanges at every farm are always very interesting. According to the villagers, no foreigners ever come there to buy these authentic, but expensive, highly prestigious Wuyi teas. They buy fake stuff from import companies. No one even goes there from Hong Kong, or Beijing, for that matter. I might as well be Alien Visitation. I am teaching myself to master the final hurdle, I told them – the strongest tea in the universe, Rougui tea. For that reason alone, I just travelled some 10,000 miles, fighting mosquitoes and possible purse snatchers along the way. Why not? What would I be doing in the Bay Area today otherwise? Go get tomatoes at the farmer’s market?
