Steep Stories

Author: lazyliteratus

  • The “Heritage” of Assam

    I’ve covered Assam before, and the many tea gardens that lie within the Indian state. To date, though, I don’t think I’ve focused on tea factories in the region. So, this post will be something a little bit different. But let’s start at the beginning. World Tea Expo, 2014: it was my second such tradeshow.…

  • White Teas from Vietnam

    In the fall of 2015, I found myself reading a tea blog (instead of writing one). Fellow tea geek Amanda Freeman used to keep one of the more prolific tea blogs in the community, and—at times—I suffered from a bit of professional jealousy. Often, she’d run into weird and strange teas before I did. And…

  • Lazy Gongfool Tastings: Nan Nuo Shan Sheng Puerh

    Hiya. So, I decided to try something new. I have quite a few new teas to get through that don’t particularly fall within the parameters of my regular blog. That being, they don’t have much of a story to tell. Okay, they probably *HAVE* a story, but it was not one I could spin. I…

  • A Tea Leaf on the Wind

    In the hierarchy of tea businesses, monthly tea subscription services are like man-buns. Unless you have a really good reason for starting one—or your name is Toshiro Mifune—it is usually best not to. Since 2014, there has been a veritable surge of tea start-ups, and the route they’ve all chosen? You guessed it, the monthly…

  • A Mabian, Sichuan Tea Flight

    This may come as a surprise (to no one), but I’m a bit of a lurker in the tea community. Various social media groups exist celebrating our beloved beverage and the many facets therein. On Facebook alone, I keep a keen eye out for interesting posts by some members of these groups. Particularly if someone…

  • A Series of Single Origin Tea Sonnets

    In the Spring of 2017, I met this eccentric chap.

  • Puerh? I Barely Know Her!

    A couple of days ago, a fellow tea acquaintance asked me for some advice on puerh. Naturally, I provided it, based upon my own subjective experience. But I also had to preface something. I was not the most . . . uh . . . mature, sophisticated, or “learned” person on the subject of puerh.

  • Ten Days without Tea

    If I were to sum up this summer in one word or image, it would be . . . Yeah, that’s apt. Sure, there were good things that happened over the course of those three months, and I’ll probably get around to writing about those some other week. But there’s one thing I have to…

  • Tea, Coffee, and the Arakai Estate Terroir

    The family Collins, purveyors of the Arakai Estate, have had a busy year. Which is a bit of an understatement.

  • Tea Grown in Peru

    Spoiler alert: there’s tea growing in Peru. I know, that’s not a surprise to anyone. After all, the country is considered the 28th largest tea producer in the world. However, until last year, it was completely new news to me. But let’s begin with where I began in my pursuit for Peruvian tea.