I generally scoff at combinations involving tea and alcohol (or food, for that matter), but I sometimes make exceptions when I’m feeling inventive, and as long as no really high quality tea is harmed in the process. The particular cocktail shown in the photos is shochu with jasmine pearls infused into it. The drink does [...]
I anticipated that Puerh Special Grade, a loose leaf pu’er from TeaSource, would brew into a nice liquor after I smelled the intense sweet aroma of the dry leaf. I was not disappointed. In general, but especially in the initial steep, it was very malty, almost like graham crackers or Ovaltine. It opened up more [...]
John Rocco, author and illustrator of the recently-published children’s book Fu Finds The Way, contacted me a few weeks ago, alerting me to the existence of his book. After previewing the book on his website – including watching a trailer for it (When did books start having trailers?) – I really liked the look of [...]
A number of very generous and respectable tea companies, including Imperial Tea Court, Jaya Teas, Tea Classics/Hancha Tea, Rishi Tea, Eco-Prima Tea, The Meaning of Tea, Den’s Tea, and Teaism, have donated tea, tea-related products and other items to an auction and event to raise funds for the work that HandReach.org is doing with its [...]
One thing that I find interesting about nearly all of the portrayals I’ve seen of Lu Yu, the 8th century Chinese writer of the Cha Jing (茶經, “Classic of Tea”), is that they are so consistent in style. He is almost always seated and shown with a teapot to one side of him on an [...]
Weekend before last, at the Second Annual Northwest Tea Festival, Marcus of Teahouse Kuan Yin gave me a very unusual fang cha pu’er to try. (“Fang Cha” are single cup or mug sized, square, flat pu’er cakes.) I was told that this curious little square block of tea was made with a coffee bean in [...]
After a discussion about the reliability of a story about tea leaves being dried in a Chinese factory by driving leaded-gasoline-fueled trucks over them, thus contaminating them with lead, I decided to find out the source of the information. I easily found the same quotation of a statement made by William Hubbard, the former deputy [...]
If there’s one figure in history that those of us entrenched in Chinese tea culture have to hold in high esteem, it is the 8th century scholar Lu Yu (陆羽), often called the “Sage of Tea,” and sometimes called the “Saint of Tea.” His best known work, the Cha Jing (茶經, “Classic of Tea”), is [...]
I have written before about the greatness and convenience of Chinese tea thermoses. I use a Chinese tea thermos nearly every day on the way to work, either a glass one or a Yixing-style clay one. One of the necessary accessories for these thermoses – especially the glass ones – is something to transport the [...]
Some people call the human figures, animals and mythical creatures that hang out on the tea table receiving a bath of water and tea during a Gongfu Cha session “tea toys.” I prefer to call them “tea mascots” myself because that term seems to be pretty easy for anyone to figure out if they’ve ever [...]
