Author: lazyliteratus
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Bai Ji Guan or White Rooster Crest
Seven Days of Seven Cups, Day 2 – “Bai Ji Guan or White Rooster Crest” Bai Ji Guan—translated as “White Rooster Crest”— earns its name from the color and shape of its leaves. They’re rather yellow and crest-like. According to legend, an old rooster died near a place called Hui Yan Rock. The locals buried…
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Seasoning A Boob-Shaped Yixing Teapot
Seven Days of Seven Cups, Day 1 – “Seasoning a Boob-Shaped Yixing Teapot” In December of last year, I shattered my boob-shaped yixing teapot. Yes, it was boob-shaped once. Not . . . accurately boob-shaped, but definitely figuratively. It had a whole story behind it and everything. (The story in question can be found HERE.)…
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Russian Tea Garden Profile: Host
Well over a year ago, I tried a green tea from a Russian tea garden that just . . . blew my mind. The garden—according to the vendor, What-Cha—was called “the Host tea estate”. I corresponded with the company owner for some time, and he informed me that he could find no information on the…
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All Four Doke First Flush Teas In One Day
Begin Doke Diary transmission. I’ve already written about the Doke tea estate in Bihar, India on several occasions. Everyone who reads this blog already knows my leanings toward it. That being, it’s my absolute favorite Indian tea garden. Yes, in all of India. But out of the countless tea profiles, taster notes, and lapses in…
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An Awakening on a Meghalayan Tea Cloud
I seem to be on a weird streak lately, talking about growing regions that shouldn’t exist. First, it was puerh variants in the hills of Thailand, then it was Kickstarter projects in India, and last week, it was mystery gardens in Russia. (I’m not done there, yet, by the way.) This week, we’re heading back…
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Russian Tea Garden Profile: Solohaul
A few months ago – as some of you have undoubtedly seen – I received samples from What-Cha. Many of them were from Russian tea estates in Krasnodar krai, specifically the Dagomys region near Sochi City. Yeah, the place where the Winter Olympics were held two years ago. I’ve written about Russian teas rather extensively…
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Times I Actually Left the Apartment for Tea
I don’t get out much these days. For tea or anything else. Not sure if it’s by accident or by design, but in the last couple of months, I’ve preferred to take tea at home. Perhaps it’s the allure of the natural light hitting my personal tea tray, or the sheer ease of never having…
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Journeys and Passings
In case anyone missed it, there was no update last week. Reason being, I was at a wedding in Southern California. (No, not mine.) That left very little time to write anything, and on said trip, I only had one minor tea adventure. It involved a batch of 2014 Second Flush Castleton Moonlight and a…
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A Kickstarted Kumaon White Tea Story
A little over a year ago I made the acquaintance of Raj Vable of Young Mountain Tea. We met up for lattes at Tea Bar PDX (where the above picture was taken), and he passed some samples on to me. Including an interesting Nilgiri black tea that I took a liking to. But that wasn’t…
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Several Cups of Kamairicha
Kamairicha literally means “pan-fired tea” in Japanese. I first tried it a year ago, and I dug it. I even wrote a poem about it. The less spoken about that, the better. Moving on . . .