I have just recently become the Seattle Tea Examiner, which is a very good thing, and will lead to me writing more articles that are shorter, regional and/or related to specific times or events, which is not generally the way I write about tea. It will also force me to document the more fleeting tea-related [...]
We have received a couple of very complimentary mentions in lists of tea blogs recently. I mention them here, trying to avoid that unclean feeling that results from self-promotion. But we’re in really good company, so I feel justified in bringing the lists, and thus the other blogs that appear on the lists, to your [...]
Katrina, the founder and editor of Tea Pages, is assembling an anthology of writings about tea called Tea Memories. Published and unpublished writers are encouraged to submit pieces 800-1800 words in length between now and June 30th for possible inclusion. The theme of the anthology is direct personal experiences in which tea was a vital [...]
My copy of the Kyoto Journal’s special tea issue, number 71, arrived a couple of days ago and I was immediately impressed with what a wonderful job they did putting it together. The issue is beautifully designed cover-to-cover and it makes optimal use of the perfect-bound book-like format of a magazine. It is more than [...]
We’ve been expanding our online visibility in various ways that you are invited to participate in: You can follow me on Twitter. My tweets sometimes read as strange, overly-verbose haiku because I set a rule that every one of them, including replies to other people, had to be exactly 140 characters, the Twitter limit. This [...]
Organic Rou Kuei Oolong from auraTea is a wonderful and unusual tea. It is a darker oolong with pretty long red leaves. The dry leaves emit a nice woodsy scent, foreshadowing a nice tea liquor. The brewed tea has a rich flavor that tastes almost like it has been roasted, like mesquite coated in molasses. [...]
Seattle and the surrounding Puget Sound region are in the midst of some atypically harsh winter weather. The mix of steep hills and icy streets has severely restricted transportation. This has had a pretty dramatic impact on most people and businesses here. One of the ways that this strange weather has affected me is that [...]
Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have very high standards for water quality; however, while the water that comes out of the tap is safe to drink, that doesn’t mean that it tastes good. If you put even the hardiest fresh-water fish in water straight out of your tap it will die. It is the [...]
As a person who likes to drink tea, I find myself unwilling to give up having a pleasurable cup of my favorite beverage just because I am not at my own house. After all, I think, how hard is it to get a decent cup of tea? Well. The answer it seems, is very. You [...]
About three years ago I discovered a lovely China Keemun at the Perennial Tea Room in Seattle: Red Peach Keemun. Keemun is one of my favorite black teas and the one I drink most frequently; it is smooth and tasty (sometimes smoky, sometimes fruity) and has the unusual trait of being delicious both cold and [...]
