Tea InfusiastThis post shares tasting notes for three delightful teas from Teawala. Read on for my thoughts on their Khiri Gold (black tea from Thailand), Rice Oolong (oolong tea processed with an herb from Thailand), and Ruby Red (black tea from Taiwan).
Looking for gift ideas for tea lovers and aren’t sure where to start? This post shares some ideas for tea-themed items. It is part one of a two-part series. (Post reviewed and updated on 11/24/23.)
If you have bought your ticket, please join us for our rescheduled “Sip & Listen” edition of Story of a Teacup on January 14, 2023! We will join together online, settle in, steep tea together, and listen to four members of the #CommuniTEA share a story about a special piece of their teaware. (This event was rescheduled from November 2022.) I’m thrilled to welcome Taniya from Yoga, Tea, and Poetry as our special guest for this event! Nazanin from Tea Thoughts and Jeff from UNYtea will be joining Taniya and me as featured storytellers.
The proceeds, ALL ticket sales, have been donated to a nonprofit organization in Chicago, Erie Neighborhood House. This organization supports low-income and immigrant families. Among the many things it does, Erie House has also been providing direct assistance in Chicago to hundreds of people who have been bused in from Texas under Governor Abbott’s inhumane policies against immigrants legally seeking asylum at the southern border.
Meet the potter who creates turtle tea pets that have brought so much joy to the tea community.
If you follow tea accounts on Instagram, you may have seen the handiwork of potter Michell Hovey. She created the ceramic tea pet, Herb, and a number of other turtle tea pets that show up in the Instagram photos of various tea lovers.
Do you enjoy loose leaf tea, bubble tea, rainbows, lots of purple, handmade jewelry, and fair trade clothes? What about a business with a front door that proudly proclaims the location an LGBT “safe space?” If you answered “yes,” then let me introduce you to Compass Tea in Luray!
This post provides impressions of four teahouses in Portland, Oregon. I visited Enthea Teahouse in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Portland, Smith Teamaker on SE Washington Street, and Portal Tea Company (previously known as Tea Chai Té) in Sellwood. I also spent an afternoon at the teahouse operated by The Tao of Tea inside the Lan Su Chinese Garden.
This post shares tasting notes for three teas from Tea Vivre. I have bought and enjoyed many teas from them. These impressions, however, are for three teas that they sent me for free. Per my review policy, I had no obligation to review unless I sincerely enjoyed them. I certainly did! Read on for my thoughts on their award-winning 2019 Bai MuDan, their Fuding Shou Mei White Tea Mini Cakes, and their Phoenix Dan Cong.
I appreciate that Tea Vivre offers both gongfu and western-style brewing suggestions on their website. I tend to alternate, as you will see below.
We need call out and push back against the cult of productivity. Too many spaces promote time scarcity and encourage us to behave as if we were robots. This cult is terrible for our minds, bodies, and creative energies. Two experiences recently underscored how relentlessly we can focus on productivity. This post identifies some pernicious aspects of the cult of productivity. It also shares ways to resist. Calling out inhumane elements of work culture (including those we have internalized) is important. Likewise, cultivating restorative personal practices like intentional tea sessions can help, too.
What can a tea pet add to your practice? So many things! I’ll focus on three here, and then share about a special tea pet, Herb the Traveling Tea Turtle, that visited me.
Would you like to learn two ways to make a tall glass of iced and sparkling matcha? A Matcha Fizz was the first sparkling tea I ever made at home. Now that spring is here and summer is approaching in New York, I’m making more iced teas again. I love sparkling teas in particular.
A Matcha Fizz is still one of my absolute favorites for a warm spring or hot summer day. And, it’s easy to make. This post will go over how to make sparkling matcha two ways. It will explain and compare the paste-concentrate method and the direct-powder method. The results actually surprised me!
