Author: lazyliteratus
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Agarwood Puerh, and the Tale of Two J(G)e(o)ffreys
At the 2012 Northwest Tea Festival, I met this guy. The man in my crappy photo is Jeffrey McIntosh. Granted, his version of spelling “Geoffrey” is not the original—as mine is—but no one is perfect. However, he does hold the distinct honor of being one of the first people (younger than me) to blow my…
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Kuding Cha
About a year ago, I was called upon by a tea vendor to write about tisanes made from holly species. Various caffeinated infusions have been made from holly plants—guayusa, yaupon, and the granddaddy of ‘em all, yerba mate. But in my research, I ran across a beverage made from a holly plant . . .…
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Aged Oolong from Thailand
In all my years of writing about tea, there’s one subject I don’t think I’ve touched upon in great detail. That being: Aged oolong.
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Cups, Crossroads, and the Way of World Tea Expo
It was the last day of World Tea Expo, and I seemed to have lost my “Way”. That’s how I felt that morning—kinda lost. Rousting out of bed was difficult, as per usual. But today was particularly hard. Last days of anything usually are. To kick the tiredness to the curb, I went from zero-to-“wake-the-hell-up”…
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A Tea Pairing in the Sky
Let me tell you a little about my “Tea Uncle”, Austin Hodge. Why is he wearing a Zhong Shan Zhuang, and how did someone convince me to wear a suit? I’ll get to that.
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The Power of the Pitch at World Tea Expo
World Tea Expo, 2016, Day 2 . . . started early. Really early. Okay, maybe not that early, but it felt early. Sleep was a rare commodity that week, thus far. I immediately hit the Teas Etc. booth and grabbed an oolong to refuel. If I was going to spend the morning attending core panels,…
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Niu-Gu, FaceTubes, and Matcha Wrestling
A month ago, during a tea-‘n-matcha-fueled dinner pairing, a university educator asked me this: “What do you do?” “I’m just a tea blogger,” I replied. She sort of tilted her head, confusedly—like a Saint Bernard. Then asked, “Why?” The follow-up question caught me off-guard. I was both hurt and offended by it. Not because she…
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The Return of the Fellowship to World Tea Expo
Returning to World Tea Expo this year felt like a scene right out of Return of the King. You know the one—where all four battle-weary Hobbits came back. Everything was the same . . . but they weren’t. That’s how the first day of Expo felt to me. This was the first one to be…
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A Fly on Tea Journey’s Wall
The idea for Tea Journey Magazine came about the way most great ideas do . . . at a party. I wasn’t at this party, but I wish I’d been a fly on that wall.
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Tea-Fueled Las Vegas Tourism
I needed a vacation. And I needed it as soon as possible. That was probably why—when I planned it—I decided to leave for Las Vegas four days earlier than I really needed to. The original intent was to go down just for the days of World Tea Expo. Well, I decided to tack on a few…