Steep Stories

Author: lazyliteratus

  • You Say You Don’t “Do” Tea Blends, Huh?

    “I don’t really do tea blends.” It’s a phrase that I never thought I’d find myself uttering, but one day—a couple of years ago—I did just that. A blending outfit wondered if I would be willing to cover some of their wares, and I politely turned up my nose in e-mail form. As far as…

  • Reading Tea Blogs as History

    As of this year, I’ll have written about tea on the Internet—in some capacity or another—for eleven years. It boggles my mind that I’ve been at it for this long.  A part of me even wonders why I still do it. Honestly, not much has come of it. The blog itself really hasn’t changed much.…

  • The Travails of Moving Tea

    I think we can all agree on one thing: moving is a pain in the arse. Moving when you’re a tea drinker? Even more so. But I think I stumbled across the perfect way to do it this time.

  • A Tea Man on Tinder

    So . . . I joined Tinder last week.

  • What the Heicha?! A Shou “Puerh” from Fujian?

    Back in the spring of 2017, tea afficianado Nicky “Steady Hand Tea” Evers passed on a unique specimen. A Wuyi oolong from 2005 that was wet-piled, dried … and stored in Taiwan. It fell into no discernible category. The taste was “like” a Hunan heicha … with notes of cliff side roast. I compared it…

  • Darjeeling in Autumn

    I chose a weird time to talk about autumn flush Darjeelings. For one thing, it hasn’t been a typical year for the region. (An understatement, true.) But before I get into that, I should probably explain what I mean by “Darjeeling autumn flush”. Here’s a bit of a primer.

  • Should Sheng Cha Be Considered Heicha?

    In May of 2017, I asked tea peers on social media a simple question: Is Vietnamese sheng puerh style heicha a thing? At least . . . I thought it was a simple question. That query sparked a minor debate about the nature of heicha, and whether or not sheng puerh (or sheng puerh-style tea)…

  • A Tea Pairing from One Wuyi Artisan

    For those that have tuned in to my li’l corner of “the In-Tea-Net”, folks can tell I have an affinity for talking about where the tea comes from. I have focused a lot of text-space to estates, gardens, factories, and the farmers that supply their wares to them. Less frequent, though, are my forays into…

  • Making the Most of a “Meh” Year

    If I were to sum up 2017 in one image, it would be . . . Yeah, that about says it. The year wasn’t quite the dumpster fire that 2016 was, but it did have its ups and downs. Winter flew by like a brisk, cold nap. Spring reverberated with optimism and hope. And summer,…

  • A Custom Blended Christmas

    Christmas is usually my favorite time of year. But this year . . . I simply wasn’t feeling it. And it wasn’t for lack of trying. A week or so before the impending, I found a green bow on the floor of the parking lot at my work. It pretty much summed up how I…