Steep Stories

Month: July 2018

  • Sheng Puerh from a Secret Wild Tea Garden

    Glen and Lamu of Crimson Lotus Tea are one of my favorite husband-‘n-wife puerh hunter duos. Up until 2016, I only knew of them, and the good reputation they’d garnered over five years as trustworthy sellers of Yunnan’s favorite export. However, over the last couple of years, I developed a bit of a quixotic, after-hours…

  • A Tie Guan Yin Flight from Taiwan

    Tie Guan Yin is one of the most interesting takes on oolong ever developed. Despite its ancient-sounding name—invoking the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Guan Yin— the “Iron Goddess of Mercy” only dates back to the 19th century. Hailing from Anxi county, in Fujian province, China, this complicated style of oolong originally began its life as a…

  • A Taste of the Tea Studio

    Sometime in early spring, my tea-centric social media feed blew up with images of this: My first thought was, Wow, that is one SWEET mansion! A modern-looking building, decked out with many windows allowing for natural light, smack-dab in the middle of a tea garden? It was as if someone drilled into my brain and…