Baked Green Pea Tea

This blog is called “Writer.Traveler. Tea Drinker” and I’ve talked a lot about writing (and our new book), traveling (and living in China) but I have been remiss lately in writing much about tea. Today, I want to change that.
A student told us that her hometown had a special tea. “It has carrots, peas, peanuts, bamboo and seeds.” Would you like to have a try?” Heck yeah we’d like some!
So a few weeks later she had a whole package for us and she explained how to properly make it. She translated the name of the tea to ‘Baked Green Pea Tea.’
First, in a special bowl/cup, you add green tea.
Then you add the baked peas, carrots, peanuts and bamboo. The bamboo is soaked in some sort of brine before being dried so it is very salty. A little too salty for my taste, but an important part of the tea. The peas are dried on a special screen on a brazier/stove kind of thing and the carrots are cut up and dried outside by the sun. Even before we added the veggies and peanuts to the tea we sat there munching on them as they make a tasty snack just by themselves. Our students grandmother dried the peas and carrots for this batch. In fact the student made her grandmother out to be a real tea addict saying she drank a dozen or more cups of this tea everyday.
Then you add the hot water.

Now, I know what your thinking. “That’s not tea, that’s soup!” And if you didn’t think it already you will as soon as I tell you that after you drink the water you eat the peanuts, carrots and peas (leaving the tea leaves of course). I had the same thought and told her so. But she insisted that it wasn’t soup, but  tea and well, it’s her tradition, not ours. So it’s tea, people.
But were not done yet. There’s one more step…
…sesame seeds! You coat the top of the soup..er, I mean tea, with a layer of sesame seeds. Then you slurp away and chew all the bits and pieces. Like I said before, the bamboo is really salty and makes the whole thing a little too salty tasting for my taste. But if you drink the tea quickly after the water is poured it isn’t too bad. Since the peas are dried over a fire they have a nice smokey flavor. It also smells nice and warming.
This tea seems to be a specialty in only her hometown. We told a few other Chinese people about it, and they had never heard of it before. It seems like a real local thing. We love when our students share their local customs with us.