Steep Stories

Category: Tea Fiction

  • A Wild Mountain Tea Mystery

    Editor’s Note: The following article is inspired by real events. I say “inspired” because . . . well . . . obviously a lot of it is totally made up. It should be pretty obvious which bits are pure B.S. Anyway, enjoy. (This took weeks to put together.) ************************************************************************** Chances are, you’ve probably never heard…

  • “All’s Fair in Love and Wolves” – An Open Letter to the Tandem Tea Tasters

    “All’s Fair in Love and Wolves” – An Open Letter to the Tandem Tea Tasters   To my dearest Tandem Tea Tasters – Rachel, Jo, Nicole, Darlene, Jackie and Julia… I regret that I was unable to attend last Sunday’s Tandem Tea Tasting, and I equally lament that I never got to make the real(-ish)-time…

  • Everybody Hwang Cha Tonight – Gamnong Style

    Previously on Steep Stories: Our fearless (or rather, fearful) protagonist was whisked away to an underground, dwarven tearoom in Darjeeling – one that was overrun with dancing snake-people. The crisis was averted by a well-placed Hindi movie musical number…oh, and splendid tea was had in the interim. Afterwards, the pajama’d thirtysomething, a gnome, and an…

  • A Dwarven Dance in Darjeeling

    A month had passed since I came to the startling realization that I wasn’t going to review tea anymore. Days had passed when I realized I didn’t have a job anymore. Mere hours had crept by before I remembered that I wasn’t wearing any pants. Of course, I was still in bed when I pondered…

  • A Tiger in the Taiga

    It was, for the most part, a normal Sunday night. That is, if you consider coming home with a full body-ache normal. My work week had taxed me (both mentally and physically) yet again. Not something I ever wanted to be routine…but such is life. Typically, after a long night’s work, I came home, poured…

  • The Revenge of Finbarr’s Persian Princess in 1910

    This review is actually a sequel of sorts. To read its predecessor – for context – go HERE. Don’t you hate it when you wake up in the morning and end up in another time period? So do I. As far as I know, it’s only happened once – today. I found myself awake at…

  • Guan Yins, Tigers and Lords, Oh My!

    For context, READ THIS FIRST. For once, I thought I’d get a full night’s sleep. The work week had been murder, and for some odd reason, I couldn’t stay in bed for more than six hours. Well, this time I had an excuse. A loud roar jolted me from sleep. When I opened my eyes,…

  • The Tea Trolley

    “What is it?” asked a passerby. “What does it look like?” said a grizzly, overalled Brit sitting on a bench. “A train,” was the American’s curious response. “Not like any I’ve ever seen.” “That’s because it’s not a train,” the Brit said gruffly. “It’s a trolley.” And indeed it was. A curious contraption to boot;…

  • Oolong Way from Gnome (Part 1)

    Thed was on a cloud…and he wasn’t happy about it. Gnomes weren’t meant for flight, especially zooming over mountain ranges at wind-wispy speeds. Cloud-travel was air elemental territory – not for earth ones like him. Yet he found himself flying on a magic cloud with five unlikely companions. Three of them claimed to be demons.…