Rishi’s Organic Ancient Pu-erh Classic is a very nice, somewhat mild pu-erh. I would hazard a guess that even people who dislike most pu-erhs due to their earthiness would find it pleasant. At the same time people who are accustomed to drinking pu-erhs are likely to find it perfectly respectable as well. It’s a flexible [...]
The ideal scenario for buying pu-erh is to go in person to a Chinese tea shop and taste the teas to determine which you like before buying. The proprietors of these tea shops can be a useful resource for information on pu-erh, guiding you towards teas that they think you will like that are within [...]
Sometimes a full gongfu cha ceremony is beyond the scope of time or practicality or attention span. One method that I use at times like this employs two gaiwans. I use the first one to brew the tea. Then after the requisite steeping time, which is dependent on how many infusions I have already brewed, [...]
The cicada is quite a fascinating little creature, appearing as a symbol of longevity or immortality throughout the arts of China and Japan over the past several centuries. The accompanying photographs are of a yixing teaset that we sometimes use for brewing and serving pu-er. The tea pouring down over the pot was the initial [...]
More accurately, this very large and lovely green Southeast Asian fruit is not a grapefruit, but a Pomelo, although sometimes it is called a Chinese grapefruit. Like the grapefruit it is distantly related to, the pomelo is a very large citrus fruit with thick skin and membranes. Unlike the grapefruit we usually see in the [...]
I’m still off the caffeine most of the time, but I was able to sneak in a little treat last weekend during our backpacking trip along Ingall’s Creek on the east side of Blewett Pass. There were 9 of us in the group, and many of them have had the joy of gongfu tea at [...]
Last weekend we picked up a really fabulous cake of 2005 Yunnan Pu-ehr from New Century Tea House. We had obtained some pu-ehr tools a few weeks ago, but had no tea to use them on. We did a tasting of the 2005 in the store and were suitably impressed. One cake is quite a [...]
If you thought the bubble-gum description of the last tea review was weird, then I’ll warn you that it’s probably only going to get worse from here out. I recently pulled out my gongfu set and sat down with my housemate to try The Teacup‘s Pu’erh Xiao Tou-cha, and we had some very interesting adjectives [...]
Two small personal notes before I dive into the story for today: The husband and I were dawdling in the tea aisle at the grocery store last week, when he looked at me and told me that it was about time I got my tea at a tea store. I knew he was right, of [...]
