Steep Stories

Month: June 2015

  • The T Project Grand Opening

    The T Project Grand Opening – Teashop Adventure Week Several months ago, I stopped through Northeast Portland to stay a spell at Tea Bar. And it was . . . crowded. As a self-professed introvert, I don’t do well in crowds. If I’m with peers, I mind them less. But if alone, crowds feel suffocating.…

  • Drinking Duck Shit

    Sometimes, I think the ancient Chinese are trolling us from beyond their ancestral graves. How else do you explain an oolong that is – essentially – a poop joke? Yashi Xiang (Duck Shit Fragrance) Dan Cong is an oolong hailing from Guangdong province, China. I first learned of it from fellow weird tea friend, Greg…

  • Whiskey Smoked Tea

    Whiskey Smoked Tea – The Tea-Totaler Trilogy, Part 3 This is a parable about poor impulse control. I was having a conversation with Mizuba Tea’s Lauren Purvis about experiments regarding matcha, smoke and wine. She asked me if I’d seen a recent article posted by The Japanese Tea Sommelier. I’d heard of this blogger before,…

  • Booze Teas for Boob Teapots

    Booze Tea for Boob Teapots – The Tea-Totaler Trilogy, Part 2 Around the year, 490 BCE, in the ancient Chinese kingdom of Yue, there was once a beautiful woman who was offered as tribute to an invading king. The woman was so marveled for her beauty, it was said that fish would forget how to…

  • Cheating at Tea-Totaling

    Cheating at Tea-Totaling – The Tea-Totaler Trilogy, Part 1 In December of last year, I gave up drinking. The reason? A missing hubcap. I hit a curb while driving a wee bit sauced. No idea where said hubcap went. My theory’s Narnia. My poor car was the impetus for what (originally) began as a year-long…