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TBF: Real fake Anshun?
With its endless mountains, abundant rainfall and pure environment, China’s Southwest Guizhou (Gway Joe) province is a perfect location for growing tea bushes. However, despite a long history of tea...
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Pu Er to the People: Part 2
The people who grow and enjoy this tea in Yunnan are not obsessed with its age the same way that people in Southern China or the West are. They generally drink tea that is one or two years old and are...
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From the Archives: How to Break the Coffee Habit
Every day, new patrons come to our tea house looking for an alternative to coffee. Perhaps their doctor told them to cut down on their caffeine intake, or perhaps coffee wasn’t “working” like it used...
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Why Not Splash a Bit of Tea Behind Your Ears?
Artisanal teas are one of those bandwagons that just keeps getting bigger and better every year, so it should come as no surprise that the legions of admirers climbing on board are growing too. As...
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Global Tea Hut on Living Tea
In the first half of the twentieth century, the Japanese were in control of Taiwan and looking to develop the island agriculturally, exporting goods to help fund the rise of their empire; and tea was...
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Finding a New Vocabulary to Describe Tea
In teaching my baking students about how to pair specific desserts felicitously with broad categories of tea, I got to thinking about the difficulties of being precise or even evocative when using...
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Tea and Board Games
Reflecting on the day serenely with a cup of tea in hand is a great way to spend an evening, but that isn’t always what we’re looking for. Sometimes a little more excitement is needed. One of my...
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Interview with William Osmont of Farmerleaf, Part Two
This is the second half of an interview article with William Osmont of Farmerleaf, with more on Yunnan and pu’er related tea production. Read part one here. What tea aspects indicate that a pu’er will...
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Yunnan: a board game
Image courtesy the publisher Argentum Verlag Yunnan: A Game for Hard-Boiled Tea Traders is a board game created by freelance designer Aaron Haag and published by Argentum Verlag in 2013. The colorful...
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Pu’erh tea in the morning
Are you looking for a healthy morning coffee substitute? My customer, Kevin, substituted a 20-year-old pu’erh tea for his morning coffee. Each morning he brews two strong cups and meditates for 30...
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The surprising tea of Myanmar
When I was planning to visit Sri Lanka, many friends asked me to bring back some black tea for them. In the end, I changed my plans, deciding instead to visit Myanmar. When my friends heard of my...
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The evolution of tea – Part 1
Tea has come a long way from a single leaf plucked from a plant. Today, the tea plant is processed using six methods to become green, white, yellow, oolong, black, and dark (AKA post-fermented) tea....
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The inspiration behind my “Have Fun Teapot with Magneto-Bell Lid and Fuchsia...
If a beverage can be an inspiration, tea is mine. I need to explain why this is true. In February, the Arts Guild of Sonoma in California invited me to be a guest artist for their annual Repo Show, a...
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Ancient tea roads
The British brought tea to India (or started planting tea in India) no earlier than 1828, but tea has a history as long as 5,000 years, so certainly tea traveled in and around India for a long time,...
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The vastness of nuance
There’s something very special about being still and focused when preparing and drinking tea. Lucidity is the word in this case. In the moment, there’s rich detail: cups/bowls, leaves, pots, water,...
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China’s brown treasure – pu-erh tea
In China, Pu-erh is referred to as ‘Black Tea’ which can be a bit confusing to us Westerners as we use that term to refer to a specific type of tea that is definitely not Pu-erh. What we recognise as...
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Are you a “tea snob,” or do you just love great tea?
I wrote a post on my own little blog awhile back and decided to share it here where there are more eyes to see and possibly relate to it. What really is a ‘tea snob’? That is my question. Ladies...
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Never make a tea assumption!
Recently it has been my privilege to get to know a young woman raised in China. I mistakenly made the assumption that talking with her about Chinese teas would be a lengthy and fun part of our...
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K2K and Darjeeling
Kunming of Yunnan, and Kolkata of Bengal, are now declared sister cities. This adds another jewel in the crown of Darjeeling! Kolkata to Kunming – K2K – is a regional co-operation group under BCIM –...
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A serendipitous journey to the Ancient Tea Horse Road
A week ago, my husband and I took the train from Culver City to Exposition Park, home of the Natural History Museum. During the mere 7-mile trip, I anticipated the museum’s latest exhibit, Traveling...
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