To A Tea

A look into how one company is transforming traditions and bringing tea culture into the 21st century.

- Joie Goh

AS A MODERN WOMAN living in a multicultural world, with a penchant for all things historical and quaint, I have consumed tea in myriad flavours and multiple ways. With my Cantonese grandmother, I sipped bitter bo lay (or pu’erh) black tea in bustling dimsum restaurants. Kneeling on tatami mats, I painfully endured pins and needles in my legs while an elegant retired geisha delicately whisked thick, frothy matcha with all the grace and speed of a slow-blooming flower. At home, while watching reruns of Regency chick flicks like “Pride and Prejudice” and “Sense and Sensibility”, I nibbled on scones and drank Earl Grey to fully immerse myself in the era of bonnets and balls. However, the most common way I’ve partaken of the beverage is the careless dunking of a single tea bag into my office mug, to be refilled over and over again with hot water throughout the day until no discernible flavour remained.

However, at a TWG Tea Salon, an original and contemporary tea ceremony is practiced. Far removed from my experiences of drinking tea, which have ranged from whimsical to slapdash, this ceremony is devoid of sentimentality or cultural beliefs — in fact, it’s less of a ceremony and more of an experience, and it’s centred around the whole reason why anyone would drink a cup of tea: the flavour of the beverage itself.