The rich history behind and around tea around the world
No Deciphering Needed
The incident described in this post does not constitute a mystery. Even if it is a mystery, it needs no urgent deciphering. In 2004, the Japanese...
Tea in Kazakhstan, Part Two
One site passes on a recipe for traditional Kazakh tea that includes black tea, salt, and butter, with optional inclusion of pepper or sour cream (!?). A Wikipedia article for a related Mongolian tea describes that as made with either black or green tea, butter, and salt. The tea type naming included “Suutei tsai (Mongolian: сүүтэй цай, Turkish: sütlü çay) (literally “tea with milk”),” and the cross-referenced naming for Mongolian tea (tsai in Mongolian; shay in Kazakh).
Tea in Kazakhstan, Part One
An online contact mentioned plans to visit Kazakhstan--not in relation to tea--and it seemed interesting to do research related to an unknown...
More Inscrutable Tea Quotes
Tea is wealth itself, because there is nothing that cannot be lost, no problem that will not disappear, no burden that will not float away,...
Tea Holidays Throughout the Year and Throughout the World
Wow! The United States Department of Agriculture, or USDA, actually updates its Holiday Observances web page on a daily basis! Some of the National...
We All Love Tea, We May Just See It Differently
If we’re here as contributors, readers or both, it’s most likely because we are fans of tea. Chef Wemischner loves to be creative with tea in recipes. Ifang Hsieh enjoys traveling and finding new tea experiences. Michelle Rabin appreciates the health and relaxation benefits
World Tea Expo 2015
Air is the key to the success in tea business – this is what I learned on this trip. Air helps deliver the fresh tea in the water – which is the mother of tea. This may sound new to many in the trade, but it is the truth. Removal of moisture from green leaf is the manufacture of tea, whereas addition of moisture back is the brewing of tea. This whole process of moisture removal and addition is to give shelf life while keeping the desired
Flashback Friday: grow your own!
Curious enough – or serious enough – about Camellia sinensis to try growing your own? Even the thought of such a venture brings back fond memories of my father’s culinary adventures. The homemade root beer phase was a real hit with the neighborhood kids, especially since Dad bottled the brew in “stubbies,” or eleven ounce glass beer bottles.
Bihar: the untapped potential
When the Indian Tea Board declared four blocks of the Kishangunj district, namely Pothia, Thakurgunj, Bahadurgunj, and Kishangunj itself (from the far northeastern corner of Bihar bordering with North Bengal and Eastern Nepal) in 1999 as a non-traditional tea growing area
Mom, me, and tea
My mom passed away recently. She is on my mind every day. How does that relate to a tea blog? It’s an important part of my personal tea story. It was the end of a very long adventure the two of us lived together.
Off the cuff
Hypertension, a symptom-free malady, is responsible for many forms of heart disease, the devastating trauma of stroke, and countless deaths in this country. In an earlier and healthier time, hypertension was most common in the elderly.
The twists and turns of taking tea
Don’t you just love how our devotion to, and fascination for tea, amazingly seems to be never-ending? I sure do!
Sisters in tea: Siliguri and Lincang
There is no doubt of the fact that Yunnan is the natural apogee of tea in the whole world given the location of world’s oldest tea tree in Fengqing, and tea trade routes going back several millennia.
How oolong got its name
The old man sipped his tea. He had never grown weary of that flavor. His father had picked Oolong tea, as had his father’s father and grandfather. And his young grandsons would also one day pick tea just like his daughter did now. It all made sense in a
Natural tea farming – Part 3: running in the family
If big profits are not his motivation, what fuels Gao Ding Shi’s dedication to natural methods of tea farming? Indeed, Mr. Gao has great reason to be sensitive to this issue: personal tragedy.
Dongdasong
Dongdasong東茶頌 Translation and Analysis(1): Song頌, is a type of poem in praise of things such as nations, people or natural things. It might be translated as a Eulogy or Hymn. Thus, this title could be translated as Hymn in Praise of Eastern Tea.
Voices from the hut: Water for tea
Dawn breaks foggy and chilly. I’m not up particularly early and it is mid-morning by the time I am at the entrance to Jesmond Dene with Lexi the collie.
An historical event in the heart of Oolong country
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Global Tea Hut: Red Tea’s History
This is part two of “An Exploration of Red Tea.”
The Ming Dynasty saw many developments in tea processing, including Oolong Tea, Flower-Scented Tea and Red Tea. Later, in the Qing Dynasty, many of the teas developed during this age of innovation were evolved further.
Back Seven: Meet Rajah Banerjee
This post was first published on the T Ching blog almost seven years ago, on October 25, 2007. Please read yesterday’s post, by Rajiv Lochan, wherein the author establishes Banerjee’s influence on the tea industry even today.
Global Tea Hut: an exploration of red tea
You may be surprised to know that Red Tea is the most popular type of tea in the West. How is it that most Westerners drink Red Tea without ever having heard of Red Tea? Simple. It just isn’t usually known by that name in the West.
The Four Pillars
The Way of Tea as we rediscover and recreate it (or it us) must firstly pay homage to Nature, Heaven and Earth from whose unspoken center people and tea trees grow. Then through a vast and ancient mountain chain of tea wisdom
A brief history of boba
Two tea establishments in Taiwan claim to have invented tapioca milk tea the drink, not tapioca balls the ingredient.
Tea Sage Hut: Global Tea Hut’s center in Miao Li, Taiwan
Baisao was an eighteenth century tea sage whose bright spirit illuminates our tradition in more than name alone. A Zen monk for most of his life,
A word or two about tea bags
The period from 1904 to 1908 was a bellwether one for tea in the United States, or for those with more traditional tea-drinking habits, the beginning of the end of the practice of enjoying properly prepared tea…
Sipping to save
Sri Lanka has achieved another ‘first of its kind’ tea. Ethically and environmentally friendly tea products are gaining momentum the world over.
Chabbesey . . .
Destiny takes you to places. On 28th June 2014, we landed on a parcel of land where we closed the missing link between India and China. Xiao Juan of
Independence and tea
Every country that has been occupied by another – and gains independence and self rule – has some sort of commemorative ritual honoring the breakaway event. In North America, our neighbor to the south celebrates
A rosy, peachy summer
Summer’s around the corner, and though I’m not much of a flavored tea kind of guy, there are a few scented varieties that captivate me, particularly now. Take Chinese congou, most usually a large leafed black tea scattered with fragrant rose petals.
Reassurance that the tradition of a proper afternoon tea is here to stay
June is quite a busy month for me … and it’s not over yet! In my role, I’m constantly getting calls about sponsoring this event or that charity.
Long Beach and Queen Mary
For me, the Queen Mary was not a haunted ship. Instead, it was a boon, where I became an American celebrity wearing a golden sherwani, escorted by the red haired Tealet fairy, Elyse Peterson.
Zen and the Japanese tea ceremony – continued
Starting from being welcomed by merchants, that fact that Wabi tea was accepted by samurai seemed to have played a more important role for the development of the Japanese Chanoyu.
Zen and the Japanese tea ceremony
My last post asked the question: what do you think about the critiques which assert that the relationship between Zen and Japanese culture – introduced by D.T Suzuki in his classic work of Zen and The Art of Tea – is largely a product of the invention of tradition?
Dong Fang Mei Ren
Actually, it’s a funny story. It happened in Taiwan during the Japanese Ruling Era. It is said that there was a tea farmer who was very lazy and did not take good care of his tea.
Kenya tea party: a photo essay by the Teaguy
The team that taught the tea farmers how to make hand crafted tea. From left to right, Paul Bain, Ian Bain, Grayson Bain, Buddha Dev, Brendan...
Lost in translation – Three tea names that should not be translated
Translating is hard work, particularly when the translation is from an eastern to a western language (or vice versa), where grammar, structure, vocabulary, and usage are totally different…
Phoenix Mountain Single Tree Oolong
During April in North Guangdong province at an altitude of 4,500 feet, 100-year-old Oolong trees are harvested for their young shoots, which are then oxidized to 45%, fired under medium heat, and meticulously crafted all along the way. These single-branch cultivars…
Mineral springs
Free Trade makes an entrepreneur ready for war. I learned this costly lesson visiting Harrison, Mineral Springs, and Lebong tea estates.
2014 spring harvest: the race is on
Every year around this time, tea lovers frantically contact their tea brokers, favorite online tea retailers, or local tea friends to see how they can get their hands on the freshest tea of the year: the First Flush.
Only in Canada, you say? Pity.
Growing up in Canada, Red Rose Tea was definitely the tea of choice from the time I was a child.
Famous people drinking tea
I like to do ‘series’ on our Facebook page, and the current one is photos of famous people drinking tea. When I started searching, some devotees to tea were expected; some were surprising.
Ten thousand miles without a cloud
Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud was the title of a book which recounts the steps of a woman retracing the footsteps of Huang Shan, the monk who took Buddhism from India to China during the 8th century.
Earl Grey: a classic with a long history
Earl Grey may be my favorite flavored tea ever. You either love it or hate it. My husband can’t stand Earl Grey. It’s like chai in that way. There seems to be no neutral ground.
UNBAG the green tea Kit Kats! Uji Matcha celebrated
In The New Yorker article entitled Flipping Supreme, the owner of Unique Hype Collection, an NYC retail establishment, recounted one of his business ventures:
More morphine than tea, but still worth the visit
Assuming that the prominence of the word “tea” in the title of the Hammer Museum’s new exhibition, Tea and Morphine: Women in Paris, 1880 to 1914, suggests that it is given equal weight in this installation would be a mistake…
Pillar of tea research: Mr. Zhang Tianfu
If you ask students of Chinese tea to name who they regard as the most influential person in the tea industry, one of the names that turns up most frequently is likely to be Mr. Zhang Tianfu (张天福), commonly known as The Pillar of Tea Research (茶学界泰斗)
The classics of tea: the modern tea sage, Wu Jue Nong
“If Lu Yu was the God of Tea, I think it would not be an exaggeration to say Mr. Wu Jue Nong is the modern tea sage” – Lu Ding Yi, Former Deputy Vice Premier of China
The alchemy of tea
Merriam-Webster defines alchemy as: “A medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy aiming to achieve the transmutation of the base metals into gold, the discovery of a universal cure for disease, and the discovery of a means of indefinitely prolonging life.”
Bone China
Merchandise, none other than teas and bone china ware filled the gift shop at the Diana: Legacy of a Princess exhibit on the Queen Mary.
The demise of Tongmu Lapsang Souchong – part 4
Cheap tea will not become a thing of the past in China. However, there is a rising desire for better quality tea that is beginning to drive the market trends.