Steep Stories

Tag: Oolong

  • Tea and Tubas

    I picked a helluva month to quit drinkin’. Okay, not “quit”, per se, but definitely a self-imposed sabbatical toward beer. A beerbatical, if you will. Over the last couple of years, I’d naval-gazed my relationship with alcohol. Sure, I didn’t overdue it often, but questionable decisions had been made. That and it was no longer…

  • Three Teas, Two Trips, and One Garden

    Over the course of the summer, I saw repeated updates that frustrated the hell out of me. Tea drinkers, far and wide – from California to New York – were taste-testing a new, Oregon-grown oolong. The folks behind Minto Island Growers had finally soft-launched their own outfit, dubbed Oregon Tea Crafters. They commissioned a gentleman…

  • An Excellent Different Beach House Tea Party

    The Road Trip Sextet, Part 4 – “An Excellent Different Beach House Tea Party” For Part 1, go HERE. For Part 2, go HERE. For Part 3, go HERE. I think I mentioned in the prior entry I only allowed myself one day at World Tea Expo this year. It wasn’t for lack of things…

  • Gongfooling Around with Charcoal and Bourbon

    Imagine my [NOT] surprise when I saw this on J-TEA’s Facebook one day a couple of months back. A brand-spankin’ new Buffalo Trace bourbon barrel from Kentucky. Okay, perhaps a little background is in order. Back in December, I wrote about a new bourbon barrel-aged pu-erh put out by Eugene-based tea company – J-Tea International.…

  • V-Day Tea Day with Mum

    I think I’ve mentioned my mother’s in town for a couple of months, right? Unlike some thirtysomething males, I actually like having my mother around. No, not because she buys the food. In fact, I insist that she not do so. However, there are times when she offers that even I can’t refuse. This time,…

  • Oolong for the Old Otaku

    I have always had a fascination with Japan for as long as I can remember. The first seeds of wonder were planted by early-80s dubbings of Robotech, and continued on well into my teens and twenties with samurai films galore. One could even say my otaku (read: fanboy) brain was hardwired to like everything Japanese…

  • Smoked Tea with Friends

    Days like this are frustrating. One casually glances around at different tea vendors, and then…it happens. There is a particular tea that catches the eye and doesn’t let the gaze turn away. That was my reaction to Norbu Tea’s Jin Xuan Xiao Zhong. (Try saying that name three times fast.) The extensive bio said everything…

  • Talks with a Tea Fairy

    Over a year ago, I came in contact with a particular gal through another gal. (And I just like using the word “gal”; I don’t care if it sounds old-fashioned.) Tea MC Tiff – who I’ve mentioned on a couple of occasions – made a trip to Kyoto, Japan and visited the Obubu Tea Plantation.…

  • Ceylon and Thanks for All the Oolong

    Let’s travel back to a more innocent time – November of 2011, to be precise. It was around that time that I finally found a purpose for this here tea blog. My goal was to track down unique teas, unusual blends, and/or teas with fascinating stories behind them. To commemorating that unusual sense of focus…

  • Into the Wild…Arbor

    I’m still in the midst of a bit of an oolong kick. It “mostly” started because I was attempting to whittle down my backlog of unique teas. However, for some reason, the oolong-ing just…stuck. I do have my guesses. They make me feel really good. And not just “ZOMG-IMMA-CAFFEINE-MACHINE!!!” good – like, “Zen” good. A…