Steep Stories

Month: May 2014

  • Dating, Darjeeling, and Drought

    This might come as a big shock to a lot of you, but I don’t do a lot of dating.   For the record, it’s mostly my fault. I don’t put much effort into looking, and I’m in no real hurry to start. That and I’m perpetually broke, I don’t take wonderful care of myself,…

  • Gongfooling Around with Charcoal and Bourbon

    Imagine my [NOT] surprise when I saw this on J-TEA’s Facebook one day a couple of months back. A brand-spankin’ new Buffalo Trace bourbon barrel from Kentucky. Okay, perhaps a little background is in order. Back in December, I wrote about a new bourbon barrel-aged pu-erh put out by Eugene-based tea company – J-Tea International.…

  • The Zen of Using Yuzu

    According to the Almighty Wiki, yuzu is a citrus fruit native to East Asia, which may be a hybrid between sour mandarin oranges and Ichang papeda (whatever that is). I first learned of its existence when “researching” Korean jarred teas. Sometimes, yuzu was used as an ingredient – along with honey – to create a…

  • My Day as a Warrior Tiger Monk

    I was first contacted by Temple Road Tea back in late-March. They were a relatively new outfit specializing in Taiwanese high mountain oolongs. The foremost oolong they wanted me to yack about was their Tiger Monk Roasted Oolong. My first inclination was to decline because…roasted oolongs weren’t really my thing. That and I really didn’t…