Steep Stories

Category: Tea Features

  • Looking for Hui Gan in High Mountain Oolongs

    “This tea had quite a bit of Hui Gan,” someone said to me once. “Who’s Hui Gan?” I asked, thinking they were referring to a Chinese scholar. Clearly, I’d never heard the term before. Several people had used it in my presence, and I nodded as if I knew what they were talking about. Of…

  • Going Back to Bitaco . . . with Video

    About a year and a half ago (from the time of this writing), I wrote about Bitaco Tea—an outfit based near La Cumbre, Colombia. Their specialty? You guessed it. Colombian grown tea. I encountered their booth at World Tea Expo in the summer of 2015, and they passed on several samples of their wares. Several…

  • I “Heart” Doke

    I “heart” the Doke tea estate. No, I’m not ashamed to use the word “heart” instead of “love”. Especially today. Okay, I winced a tiny bit at the grammatical incorrectness of it (and the cutesiness of it) . . . but the sentiment still stands. And, given when this blog is going up, the cutesy…

  • Revisiting Russian Tea Gardens

    I’ve written a lot about Russian tea gardens over the last couple of years. But I didn’t think, for one second (at the time), that I was one of the only English language sources on the subject. That is, until I got a message from Thomas Tomporowski of Tea in the City, a vendor op located…

  • Green Teas of the Arakai Tea Estate

    One uneventful day, I was checking out the Arakai Tea Estate‘s Instagram feed, and I noticed this picture. Simply put, they were showing how their black tea was rolled. They also left a humorous anecdote about the foam that formed as a result of the rolling . . . and wondered (jokingly) if it had any possible…

  • Black Teas of the Arakai Tea Estate

    Two months ago, I wrote about two teas from The Arakai Tea Estate. They’re a family-owned tea garden/forestry farm situated in Bellthorpe, Queensland, Australia. I was notably impressed with what I tasted. Just as I was impressed with the garden owners’ ingenuity. Because . . . BIKE HARVESTER!!! Anyway . . . shortly after that…

  • Teas I Bought at the Northwest Tea Festival

    I spent a lot of money last October. A loooot of money. Like, “had-to-get-a-second-job-for-two-months” lot of money. The reason? Northwest Tea Festival. Train tickets, hotel stay, Uber rides, class/tasting prices, entry fees, and—of course—tea. I bought a few weird teas while I was there, and I thought I’d highlight some of them. Er, now that…

  • The Harendong Estate

    Four years ago, I “discovered” the Harendong estate. I put “discovered” in air-quotes because . . . it’d been there for eight years by the time I ran across it. Perhaps I should say, it was new to me. They had a booth at the 2013 World Tea Expo—under their Banten Tea brand—and the thing…

  • Christmas on FIRE!!!

    I’ll make this quick, I swear. Well, quicker than usual. I know you all have Christmas/holiday shopping to do, or something equally as holiday-y. But I have a cute li’l holiday blurb to get off my chest . . . so deal with it. At World Tea Expo in June, I tried THIS at the…

  • Japanese Style Green Tea . . . From Australia

    Australian Tea Week, Day 3: “Japanese Style Green Tea . . . From Australia” I received the subject of today’s blog from this fingergun-toting, doughnut-destroying badass. This is Naomi Rosen; no, she’s not Australian. But she could certainly pass for one. She’s the purveyor of Joy’s Teaspoon. Aside from selling some really good teas, she could also…