Steep Stories

Author: lazyliteratus

  • The Tea Vlogger in “American Vandal”

    On September 20th of this year, I received an intriguing text from a fellow tea-brother: I’d never heard American Vandal, nor was I aware that it had two seasons. My Netflix-fu was neophyte status at best. If it didn’t have the word “Marvel” in front of it, or could be easily searched in the anime…

  • The Real Tea

    In the late-aughts (meaning: 2000-2009), my tea journey paralleled another hobby. YouTube. Since I worked the graveyard shift for most of the first decade of this century, I devoured a lot of content on that once-brand new streaming site. Even up to the present, this quiet addiction still percolates. Sometimes, it even cross-pollinates with my…

  • The Smoked Darjeelings of Niroula’s Tea Farm

    In November of 2012, I accidentally “created” a smoked Darjeeling. I say “accidentally” and put arbitrary air-quotes over “created” because . . . that’s only kinda what happened. One fateful day, I put a sample of Risheehat first flush—enclosed in a do-it-yourself tea bag—into a tin of loose Lapsang Souchong. Totally not thinking of the…

  • The Ruckus over Ruan Zhi

    Ruan Zhi—or “soft stem”— is a particular cultivated variety (or cultivar) of tea plant originally hailing from China, before making its way to Taiwan, and then migrating further along to Thailand and Myanmar . . . I think? I say “I think?” because, well, information is not all that clear about the cultivar’s origins. As…

  • Going to Gopaldhara by way of Boulder, Colorado

    Gopaldhara is a tea estate in the Mirik Valley in the Darjeeling district of the Indian state West Bengal. Like many such tea estates in the region, it began its life in the late 19th century. Plotted and planted by a bunch o’ Brits. It derives its name from the original owner of the land,…

  • 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…

  • Tangents at World Tea Expo 2018

    This year, I went to World Tea Expo in Las Vegas with a mission. To hustle.

  • Two Teas from Arunachal Pradesh

    Of all the states in India, Arunachal Pradesh is one of the most mysterious and mystical. I’m not exaggerating. A cursory research glance turned up nothing concrete in regards to an agreed-upon “history” prior to the 1900s. The rest is conjecture, subjective, and vague—depending on who is relating the info. Even the official border between…