WEE WEI LING
Tea Collector

IF neurotic Hollywood celebrities (so often photographed with Starbucks cups in hand) personify the coffee-swigging set, then the equivalent of the tea camp on the other end of the spectrum must be Wee Wei Ling: with her modulated speech and graceful movements, the executive director of Pan Pacific Hotels Group seems to have the same soothing effect on people as a cup of hot tea.

Perhaps that's what years of drinking the brew does to you – after all, Ms Wee, who is in her 50s, has been a tea lover since her university days, when she used to go through mugs of English tea on a daily basis.

"I loved it; that was when I discovered that I'm a tea person," she says, in between sips of Chinese tea from a dainty cup – which, it's worth noting, she's holding the correct way (that is, the thumb and index finger holding the rim of the cup, the middle finger supporting the base, and the fourth finger curved outward).

"Coffee is just too bitter for me although I enjoy the aroma, but tea has both a nice fragrance and flavour that linger in the mouth. It also has many health benefits. If I have a sore throat, for instance, I drink mao yan mei cha – which is a type of tea that's not available here but my physician gets it for me from Beijing – and the sore throat clears very quickly."

Back in her uni days, "people tended to treat tea as a normal beverage and were not so fussy about the quality of the tea consumed", notes Ms Wee.

But these days, with appreciation for the beverage boiling over, tea drinkers have become more discerning, with many building up tea collections of various varieties and vintages, not unlike a wine collection.

Ms Wee herself has a collection of "about five to six" categories of tea, each of which encompasses several sorts of a particular variety. For example, in the pu erh tea category, she has "seven to eight" types of pu erh of varying ages and origins.

"One that I bought recently is a collector's box that cost $100-plus and was produced for an international tea convention in China," she shares.

Do such astute purchases translate to a good investment in future, if tea is anything like wine? Ms Wee relates a story that seems to indicate that it might: not too long ago, one of her friends purchased a brick of raw pu erh (the most suitable type of tea to buy if you plan to store it for some time) that was between 40 to 50 years old for more than $1,000.

In regard to her own collection though, the tea lover emphasises that "I buy and keep to enjoy". "I think it's like wine, you have to buy what you like, not buy with the intention to invest," she says. "And getting the more expensive ones doesn't mean that the taste will suit you.

"Tea is also like antiques and art – the value is quite subjective. If you like it, you'll pay more for it. And if you keep it for your future generations, they might not appreciate it. So if you want to collect, begin with your own preferences; in my collection, I only have teas that I like."

What Ms Wee does consider a good buy is tea that is of a high quality. And that's something which buyers can be assured of if they get a reliable tea merchant.

"If you have a reliable tea merchant, he can give you all the right recommendations and tell you when, say, the weather's been rainy and the tea is not good," she says, adding that some reputable Chinese tea merchants are Zhong Hua Pai Lau Shu Yuan Cha, Yi Wu Zhen Shan Lau Cha, Xia Guan Tao Cha and Yunnan Qi Zhi Bing Cha, all of which are in China.

"But if you don't buy from the right merchant, you could end up not getting what you pay for – dishonest suppliers often mix tea varieties and years and pass them off as better quality blends."

Once the tea is acquired (provided it isn't of the pu erh variety), it should be drunk as soon as possible, advises Ms Wee, as teas have a storage life – the popular long jing cha (dragon's well tea), for example, should only be kept up to six months.

"People always think you can keep tea because it's dried, but that's a misconception. The longer you keep it, the less fragrant it is and the flavour would have changed. The storage conditions must be right, too."

The brew itself aside, Ms Wee also collects various tea-culture peripherals as they enhance the whole experience and make it "fun and visually pleasing".

She shows us a few: there are adorable clay tea toys – a tiny frog perched on a shell, a laughing Buddha, cherubs reclining on a lotus leaf – that are meant to be doused with the dregs of each cup of tea so that they take on a shine; gorgeously painted teapots in all shapes and sizes; and wide, delicate cups of egg-shell-thin white porcelain that the tea lover says are best for holding pu erh as they set off the clarity and colour of the tea nicely.

All are bibelots that would look good just sitting in a showcase, but for Ms Wee, there's no question about what to do with them. "You must enjoy them as part of the tea experience," she says.

[email protected]