Some Tea With Me
A blog about the deep world of tea, featuring tasting notes, experiences, and instruction.
“Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence… It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life.”
– Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea
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Engagement Cha Xi
Yesterday my excellent friends Ben and Sarah joined my fiancée and I for an outdoor tea session to celebrate our upcoming wedding. The weather cooperated and we spent around four hours talking, sipping, and taking pictures. Now normally when I get together for a long tea session like this one, we blast through as many
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Ways to Pour a Gaiwan
First I should say, do you know what a Gaiwan (蓋碗) is? Literally, it means “lidded bowl”, so there’s not a lot of confusion. Sometimes it’s also called a “Gaibei” (lidded cup) or “zhong” (Cantonese, if I’m not mistaken). They are made in different sizes and materials, but generally are between 100-200ml and made from
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Keemun from the UK
Keemun Mao Feng Darkly sweet, like a deeply ripe blood orange. An aroma of very dark chocolate with a touch of cinnamon. There’s a subtle dryness and roughness at the end that is typical of some Qi Men teas. Qi Men (aka: “Keemun”) tea (祁門红茶) is a black tea (“red tea” in China) made in
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Bai Hao Tuesday
My friend Andrew is visiting Bai Hao tea fields in Taiwan as I write this, so it’s small magic that my fiancee, when asked to choose a tea, picked out my bag of 2012 M. Xu Bai Hao (東方美人茶) that I picked up several months ago in Montreal (courtesy of the fantastic folks at Camellia
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Da Hong Pao from Shanghai Shop
Rich golden orange liquor with a sweet pumpkin taste and a gentle roast in the aroma. Fantastic. Such good Da Hong Pao. I bought several Wuyi teas when I was in Shanghai and I haven’t had this one in a while. Clearly I’ve been missing out! Thankfully my fiancée picked it from our tea cabinet
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1970s Bao Zhong
When we were wandering around Pinglin (坪林區) in Taiwan looking for exciting Bao Zhong to taste, we only found a couple of places that piqued our interest. The first was a small family shop right next to the bus stop and was where we spent most of our time. That’s another story. The second, though,
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2012 M. Xu Bai Hao
What a delight. The taste of honey and street roasted chestnuts. A full body and dark orange color that are as comforting in Spring as they were in Winter. This tea is Bai Hao or Dong Fang Mei Ren Cha (東方美人 – Oriental Beauty). I picked up this bag from Camellia Sinensis a few months
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2012 Ping Shui Ri Zhu from Shao Xing
Today’s tea was a gift from a tea factory I visited in Shao Xing (绍兴), Zhejiang province, somewhat near Hangzhou. We had traveled to the factory to learn more about the production of Zhu Cha (珠茶), more commonly known in the West as Gunpowder green tea. Zhu Cha is often considered a lower-quality style of
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2013 Yunnan Mao Feng
A fantastic fresh Chinese green tea from Stone Leaf. My fiancée describes it as “like pesto”, and she’s right. There’s the salty, the sweet, the nutty, and the green. The aroma is gently, according to my tasting chart, empyreumatic: kind of toasty, but certainly the fresh vegetable taste carries most of the weight. We had