Month: May 2012

  • Orange You Glad I Broke My Pekoe in Portugal?

    I looked out the window today and thought to myself, I need a f**king vacation. Okay, everyone thinks that at one time or another, and I guess my long spat of unemployment last year was “kind of” a vacation. What I mean, though, is an actual break from it all in another place other than…

  • Defending a Discerning Palate

    A few nights back, I had a dream where I was asked by a vendor in Darjeeling to review some of their products. The box that came in the mail was huge; there were at least fifty 100g bags in it, along with other various Indian-ish tea apparati. The first bag I took out was…

  • Lady Burgermount

    I remember the first time I ever tried to pronounce the word “bergamot” in front of a bona fide tea professional. He instantly corrected me by saying, “It’s bergaMOT.” And here I was uttering the less pronounced, “bergamitt”. That’s the way it always looked to me. The mitt-mispronunciation has since left my lexicon, but I…

  • You’ve Probably Never Heard of this Tea Before

    One particular evening, a friend of mine and I were conversing over beers. (Isn’t that when the best conversations happen?) The topic of hipsterdom came up. Being residents of the greater Portland area, we were bombarded with them regularly. The “anti”-clique made P-Town one of its ironic bases of operations. Funny thing, though, no one…

  • Guan Yins, Tigers and Lords, Oh My!

    For context, READ THIS FIRST. For once, I thought I’d get a full night’s sleep. The work week had been murder, and for some odd reason, I couldn’t stay in bed for more than six hours. Well, this time I had an excuse. A loud roar jolted me from sleep. When I opened my eyes,…