Month: December 2019
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Steeped in Selah
2019 was a very weird year for tea. Or rather, a very weird year for how tea was covered in the press. And by “press”, I mean, mainstream media, not the usual tea or beverage-centric haunts that won’t hire me that cover tea. I’m talking about The New York Times and Thrillist, just to name…
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Sipping Mississippi
I waited way too long to tell this story. So long, in fact, others have already told it. Because of that, I have to approach this from another angle—a sipping angle. The Great Mississippi Tea Company first popped up on my radar in the spring (or was it summer?) of 2012. Where? On this here…
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Autumnal Assam Experiments
In January of 2019, I wrote about this garden. Latumoni. It was a 7-acre garden that bore the name of the small Assamese village it hugged against. Throughout 2018, their name was everywhere. Mainly because of their partner—and research station founder—Tea Leaf Theory. Through this operation’s efforts, and Latumoni’s care and hard work, the garden…
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Vietnamese Oolongs Made from Wild Assamica
Vietnam has an unfortunate reputation in tea circles. Not entirely undeserved. Like countries such as Thailand, one of the ways they’ve tried to establish a tea growing/producing identity is by emulating the practices of others. Their greatest influences—naturally—are their neighbors. In this case, China and Taiwan. From China, they aped the style of Yunnan shou…