Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Feeling the Universe’s Misty Peaks
Ever hear the one about the young American wanderer who traveled Asia in search of meaning? Okay, that sounds like a lot of people. But this story has a twist. There was this guy who gallivanted about from place to place – from India to study with Yogis, to learning meditation further Eastward. The journey…
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Mid-Afternoons with a Matcha Maven
This story began – as many of them do – back in June, at World Tea Expo. I was pal-ing around with Nicole (Tea For Me Please) Martin, when she stopped in mid-stride. She insisted I make the acquaintance of a young woman. Said lady-person was Lauren Danson, the proprietor of an online matcha store…
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From Red Lodge Books to Odin’s Armpits
Toward the end of August, my mother asked for my aid in helping her drive from Wyoming to Oregon. One can hardly turn down such a request from their mother, but I added one condition. I would gladly assist…just as long as we made a stop through Red Lodge, Montana. The small town was a…
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A Tealet Potluck
Back in August…What? Yes, I’m still on August. There’s a backlog of blogs to get through. Quit yer whinin’, I have to do these in order! Ahem… Back in August a local tea event came to my attention. Local tea events never come to my attention. It may come as a surprise (or not), but…
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A Bourbon-Scented, Tea Seeding Saga
Back in June, one of the many wonderful things I came back with from World Tea Expo…was tea plant seeds. The Camellia Forest Nursery in North Carolina had donated some to the Tealet booth as gifts for passersby. Of course, I was one of those who jumped at the chance. Who wouldn’t want to grow…
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The Dog Days of Summer, Sipping Darjeeling
Over the course of the Summer, I was occasionally called upon by my brother and his wife to watch this li’l guy. Why does he have a cone on? I’ll get to that… Bro and sis-in-law were called away this time to take on the wilds of Canada with her family. I housesat and dog-sat…
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Three Words: Japanese. White. Tea.
This all started a year ago, and it’s all Greg’s fault. By “a year ago”, I literally mean a year ago! Like, last August. And by “Greg”, I mean the dude behind Norbu Tea. One fateful day, in August of 2013, I noticed he had retweeted something interesting. Alas, I’d seen the update too late.…
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Bada “Beeng”, Bada Boom
Well…this is embarrassing. The day I finally got around to trying this – after whittling down my significant tea backlog – three revelations hit me square in the sack. Revelation #1: I had already written taster notes for this tea. Revelation #2: I had already taken pictures of the tasting experience. And Revelation #3: Said…
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The Dark Side of Bancha
Bancha (literally translated as “ordinary tea”) is the redheaded stepchild of the Japanese green tea family. Whereas the topmost tea leaves are reserved for higher grade sencha, gyokuro and matcha, the older, courser leaves are reserved for lesser brews. They typically lack the flavorful kick of the top-tier leaves or the caffeine level. Left with…
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Three Roads to Fengqing
Fengqing is a county located in Lincang Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. The Almighty Wiki listed at least four different ethnic groups indigenous to the region, two of which I recognized as pu-erh producers. In the early 1940s, the Fengqing Tea Factory came into existence and was instrumental in the development of Dian Hong (Yunnan black…
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