We encounter so many things a day, from smells, thoughts, ambient sounds, what makes something memorable?
I think the short answer is consciousness, and in particular; Reading the atmosphere and being swept away by it.
I had an interesting night tonight, a memorable night. A guest came in as I was on the phone calling old customers about our upcoming tea dinner. We weren’t open yet, it was around 4:45pm, I greeted him, asked if he wanted to make a reservation for when we open. I took down his information and got back to the phone lines.
We opened up at 5:30 as usual, he was the first one in the room. He doesn’t drink alcohol, so I offered a pot of tea. He started browsing our list. I mentioned having created it, and thus knowing it quite well; should he have any questions not to be shy to ask.
It happens sometimes that someone leaves choosing the tea up to me, actually, it happens a lot (likely because our list is a bit intimidating) but anytime I have the opportunity to introduce Gyokuro to someone I jump at it.
It was a slow night, and pretty early as well. I had all the time in the world. I brought out the tetsubin, the binders of notes, and I explained to him the ‘5 W’s’ of everything going on. It seemed he was listening and genuinely interested, that’s enough for me. At the end of the day, gyokuro won’t be everyones favorite tea, but I’m glad he seemed ‘into it’
As dinner went on, I asked to see if he would like to try something else. He said yes, and I brought over some raw Pu’Erh. The 2007 Ban Zhang from John, and the 2014 Xi Gui from Cindy. 2 awesome Pu’Erhs that could make any connoisseur truly satisfied. There’s a big difference in price between these 2 teas though, and despite him basically giving me free reign to choose for him, it’s still a bit uncomfortable to bring out a $50 pot of tea without saying anything. I talked him through the teas at a basic level and he wanted to go with the Ban Zhang. We brewed it up Gong-fu style using a gaiwan, I think he had maybe 10 infusions, it could have been more. For tea like this you need that though, you need the time spent with the tea to ‘absorb’ its essence. Sometimes when people drink tea in the gongfu style, they have 2-3 infusions and leave. It’s not disrespectful or anything, but it’s such a wasted opportunity. I feel bad for them missing out on the experience they paid for but didn’t receive.
As a person who makes the tea, I couldn’t be more satisfied. At this point, I’m having an excellent service, but it’s just another night. I’m blessed to have nights like this several times a month, but at this point the building blocks for a memory are starting to form.
I don’t know if I wrote a blog post about the Ban Zhang when we got it, I probably did but it’s 2am and I’m shooting this post out before I go to sleep, so I won’t check. The story is that John (one of my special customers at Q) donated it to me as a trial ‘ultra premium’ tea for our tea menu to see if it would be feasible to sell, etc. and for me to try one of the ‘greats’ of the world. I think we’ve had it around a year and a half, and today it was sold in such an extraordinary way.
The customer felt a connection to the tea, and he reserved with payment in full, the rest of the Ban Zhang that we carry (we had a lot, and it isn’t cheap)
“When I come back one day, I would like to drink this again”
Until that day, whenever it may be, it will sit in the basement wine cellar. Realistically, this tea is going to be here for decades. We’ve started something tonight which changes the future for us, it’s a spin on the tea culture inside the restaurant that people need to be aware of. Now we have a VIP who could walk in off the street, and without having to pick up any list, could say “I’ll have my tea” — so fucking cool.
Reading the atmosphere, and being swept away by it. Everything that happened today happened because ‘no’ was not a factor. To my new friend, if you end up reading this. Thank you, meeting you was truly memorable.
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