Category: Tea Musings
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Tea-Fueled Las Vegas Tourism
I needed a vacation. And I needed it as soon as possible. That was probably why—when I planned it—I decided to leave for Las Vegas four days earlier than I really needed to. The original intent was to go down just for the days of World Tea Expo. Well, I decided to tack on a few…
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When Life Gives You Shit, Drink Rummy Pu
I have no words for how shitty this weekend was. Okay, not true. I have 1,551 words. Geez, that’s a lot.
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Keep Calm and Gaiwan On
In 1939, the United Kingdom officially declared war against Nazi Germany. Punctually early, as was the British way. In order to keep public morale high, the Ministry of Information designed and distributed posters to strengthen British resolve in advance of wartime peril. One of which was this: It was a very British slogan.
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A Guy and His Gaiwan
Back in 2009, I didn’t like oolongs. In general, anyway. There were some specific ones I liked, but most of them were off limits. I even explained this to Tony Tellin, lead blender extraordinaire at Smith Teamaker, when he was working the tea bar one day. He said, “You’re probably not brewing them right.” He…
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Seasoning A Boob-Shaped Yixing Teapot
Seven Days of Seven Cups, Day 1 – “Seasoning a Boob-Shaped Yixing Teapot” In December of last year, I shattered my boob-shaped yixing teapot. Yes, it was boob-shaped once. Not . . . accurately boob-shaped, but definitely figuratively. It had a whole story behind it and everything. (The story in question can be found HERE.)…
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Times I Actually Left the Apartment for Tea
I don’t get out much these days. For tea or anything else. Not sure if it’s by accident or by design, but in the last couple of months, I’ve preferred to take tea at home. Perhaps it’s the allure of the natural light hitting my personal tea tray, or the sheer ease of never having…
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Journeys and Passings
In case anyone missed it, there was no update last week. Reason being, I was at a wedding in Southern California. (No, not mine.) That left very little time to write anything, and on said trip, I only had one minor tea adventure. It involved a batch of 2014 Second Flush Castleton Moonlight and a…
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A Kickstarted Kumaon White Tea Story
A little over a year ago I made the acquaintance of Raj Vable of Young Mountain Tea. We met up for lattes at Tea Bar PDX (where the above picture was taken), and he passed some samples on to me. Including an interesting Nilgiri black tea that I took a liking to. But that wasn’t…
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A Zombie Tea Blend Story
I remember the first time I learned of the existence of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It was 2009, and I was perusing my local Powell’s. Back then, genre fiction was mostly dominated by steampunk and supernatural teen fair. This mash-up of period piece and horror tropes came at just the right time in literary…
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Russian Dark Tea
Russians love tea. Like . . . really love tea. Even the British and Irish look at the Russian love affair with tea and say, “Would you kindly tone it down?” I learned of this secondhand when I was doing research a couple of years ago on tea grown in Russia. Not exactly sure how…