Category: Tea Features
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Virginia’s First Tea Farm
When you’re a tea nerd like me, sometimes the best way to find new discoveries is just to camp out on social media and . . . lurk. Facebook is the perfect place for this totally-not-creepy behavior because of the myriad of tea groups out there. Even some specifically geared toward the practice of tea…
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Sipping Mississippi
I waited way too long to tell this story. So long, in fact, others have already told it. Because of that, I have to approach this from another angle—a sipping angle. The Great Mississippi Tea Company first popped up on my radar in the spring (or was it summer?) of 2012. Where? On this here…
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Autumnal Assam Experiments
In January of 2019, I wrote about this garden. Latumoni. It was a 7-acre garden that bore the name of the small Assamese village it hugged against. Throughout 2018, their name was everywhere. Mainly because of their partner—and research station founder—Tea Leaf Theory. Through this operation’s efforts, and Latumoni’s care and hard work, the garden…
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Vietnamese Oolongs Made from Wild Assamica
Vietnam has an unfortunate reputation in tea circles. Not entirely undeserved. Like countries such as Thailand, one of the ways they’ve tried to establish a tea growing/producing identity is by emulating the practices of others. Their greatest influences—naturally—are their neighbors. In this case, China and Taiwan. From China, they aped the style of Yunnan shou…
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The Two Faces of Issaku
At the Portland Tea Festival in July (of this year, the time of this writing), Oolong Owl dragged me to a Japanese tea vendor booth. This was markedly weird for two reasons: one, the Owl rarely dragged—more like, prodded. Two: it was a Japanese tea vendor. I always assumed she was just a puerh stan.…
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Revisiting Castleton Moonlight
I think it’s high time I talk about the Castleton estate. Again.
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There Once Were Two Teas from Huiming
Sometimes, in my search for new teas to try, I get drawn in by mentions of particular producers. This is Wei Zhong He. I first learned of him through my dealings with Kevin Gascoyne (Camellia Sinensis Tea House’s “Darjeeling guy”), and he particularly caught my attention for one reason. He experimented with using Darjeeling first…
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The Tea Balls of Manipur
Earlier this year, a fellow tea blogger sent me information on an Indian tea growing region I’d never heard of. A place filled with old(er) growth, semi-wild assamica forests, which bordered Assam to the East. The state: Manipur. I knew nothing about this Indian state, other than the fact that it bordered Myanmar. That and…
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Sheng Puerh-Style Teas from Vietnam
Over a year-and-a-half ago, I wrote an article discussing the nature of sheng cha. It didn’t go over well. I used a Vietnamese sheng puerh-style tea from Son La province as a part of my thesis, and it also helped spark further discussion about how prevalent the process was in Northern Vietnam. Short answer: not…
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How My Brain Made Me Love Chinese Green Teas (Again)
Well, it’s spring again, and with it comes warmer weather. That’s how it is in the Pacific Northwest. I’m . . . not a fan. The reason? With warmer weather comes seasonal chronic migraines; a fun little diagnosis I received back in 2017. And it puts a heck of a damper on my routine tea…