It's not every day you get an invitation to slurp, but tea master Patrick Cui insists. An uncompromised swig is the best way to appreciate the beautiful alchemy that happens when hot water reawakens fine dried tea leaves. Cui, who hails from Beijing, and his Chinese South African wife Norma, own Norick Interiors in Sandton. Among the antiques and chinoiserie Cui has created a tearoom. In this refuge he shares his love for Chinese tea tasting - something that began as a hobby20 years ago."Doctors told me I would have to start taking pills for high cholesterol. But a friend told me about the benefits of drinking tea to lower cholesterol, so I bought my first teas and a tea set and started brewing it," he says.A change in diet and a healthier lifestyle helped, as did the tea and the ceremony of brewing it, Cui insists. A modern-day Chinese tea tasting is an invitation to pause. It's a meditation of ritualised effort that involves boiling water to the right temperature for a specific tea, judging the water to tea-leaf ratio, the patience of a perfect steep and the final presentation of what is proffered in a tasting cup."In Chinese we say tea washes the spirit. It's not something that just enters your stomach, it also enters your mind," says Cui."People always say they are busy, but they are busy for others. Tea can calm you down because you are drinking it only for yourself, your focus is on yourself. Some might say it's selfish to take this time, but if you don't take the time for yourself, you'll never know how to make time for others."Cui has tasted more than 100 teas and prefers to drink the fragrant leaves according to seasons. Oolong teas from Taiwan and the Fujian, in China, are among his favourites. He describes them as pure, strong, fresh and fragrant. "It goes into my heart; you follow the taste," he says.Though he does sell teas, Cui's tastings are an introduction to teas from his personal collection. Serving them is about conversation, sharing and rapport. Cui's selection can include non-fermented green tea that produces verdant brilliance in a teacup with an almost sweet aftertaste, to rolled jasmine tea leaves that unfurl in perfume and visual spectacle in a glass teapot. There's also tit kwun yum, which Cui presents in a slim smelling cup designed to highlight the tea's fragrance first.Cui says choosing favourite teas comes down to health considerations guided by Chinese principles of balance and harmony - yin and yang. It's also about a personal preference that is revealed a little more with each sip you take.Tastings by appointment.011-444-5606, norickjhb@norickinteriors.com..