Teamaster Rie here checking in. Just kidding. (Give me another 2 lifetimes or so...) This weekend, I got to do one of the most exciting things so far in my tea journey: make tea completely on my own, from start to finish. Here's what happened: My tea family let me pick a batch from their old, 100-year-old tea garden, then let me take the leaves to Taipei to process them myself. No guidance, no oversight. Just me calling the shots. It's the tea equivalent of putting an intern in charge of a Michelin Star restaurant. - As much as I'm around the tea farms, it's not every day that I get to handle raw tea leaves. For people like us, making tea may seem romantic and fun, but for tea producers it's all business. It costs a TON of money to grow, maintain, harvest, and then process tea. We're talking $10k - $100k+ USD sometimes for a single day's harvest, after you factor in farm work, tea pickers, factory workers, etc. And a single decision can make …
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Being wrong all the time
Here's one big lesson that my collection of tea books never prepared me for: I'm constantly wrong about tea. (And I teach tea for a living!) I like having my facts straight, and I like getting things right. So when I got into tea, I studied it pretty obsessively. I took notes, looked up brewing techniques, and made sure I could name at least 20 cultivars of Wuyi oolong, cause I liked those. But the truth is, tea is one of those things that's never absolute. No matter how much we study, research, and memorize, there's always a "well, actually..." tagged onto the end. There's always someone who knows a little more. They can name 50 or even 100 Wuyi cultivars AND the years they were established. Even the experts get things wrong all the time. And you know what? That's OK. At the end of the day, tea isn't about memorizing facts. It's about using them -- and questioning them, if need be -- to brew better tea. Being right all the time is boring. Sometimes, …
Tea & travel conditions
Tea is not static. It's a living, breathing entity that reacts to changes in its environment. And just like people, tea reacts when it travels. Case in point: when I came to Taiwan this summer, I brought my favorite white tea with me, a 2012 Fujian wild white. It's pressed into a cake (like a pu'erh), and has a fermented flavor, so it's probably microbially active. More on that later. After traveling from bone-dry Las Vegas (30% humidity) to muggy, stormy Taipei (75% humidity), this cake is definitely undergoing some interesting changes: Dry leaves feel more moist, almost wetAroma is more potent now, especially the fermented aromaTastes more sweet and smooth, but lost some complexity, especially the high notesSeems to have lost some stamina: I get fewer steeps than usual It didn't take long for these changes to pop up. I noticed these changes within the first few days of arriving in Taipei. I brought other teas to Taipei too, but this tea …
Sometimes, I can be selfish about tea
Sometimes, I’m afraid to share my absolute favorite teas with other people. There are a couple reasons why: 1) I’m afraid that the tea will fall through for some reason. I’ll talk up a special new tea for weeks, then when I finally get to brew it for friends, it’s… Disappointing. Maybe it’s the water or the teaware I chose. Maybe I messed up the brewing. Either way, my friends don't love it like I do, and I feel a little crushed. (It’s natural for us to want other people to like what we like, I guess.) 2) I'm worried that the other person won't "get it". Too often, the thought crosses my mind that it’d be a waste to brew this awesome tea for a stranger who might not understand what I'm trying to share with them. This is especially true when the tea is particularly expensive, or if I have just a little left. More often than not, I find myself hiding away the good stuff out of fear or a little selfishness. Of course, there's a …
New Ways To Understand Tea & Health [2019 Edition]
Tea has a mighty reputation as a healthy drink, but is there science to back up those claims? In this article, learn about the latest research on tea and health, including some new ways to understand how tea affects the body, as presented at the 2019 UC Davis Global Tea Initiative. As far as drinks go, tea is always seen as the healthy option. If you're a tea drinker, you've probably had family members ask what teas to drink to solve this problem and that. They've seen all the miraculous teas on the market. Weight loss teas. "Detox" teas. Lose-20-lbs-and-also-cure-cancer teas. Tea's been put on a pedestal for all sorts of curative properties, but what research do we have to back those claims? While tea isn't the magical cure-all that the market wants it to be, science is definitely finding links between tea and better health. So far, we've found that L-theanine, an amino acid found only in tea, is linked with better mental performance, while catechins, one …
Silver Needle: A Guide to China’s Most Iconic White Tea
Silver Needle is a classic white tea from China, but also one of its most misunderstood teas. In this article, get to know Silver Needle and learn how to identify and brew it with confidence. Silver Needle Common Names: Silver Needle, Bai Hao Yin Zhen, 白毫銀針 Profile: Crisp, energizing character with fruity, floral and sun-dried hay notes Region: China (Fujian Province; Yunnan Province) - Silver Needle is one of those teas that you can really fall in love with on first sight. It's a gorgeous tea, with beautiful, downy white buds that sparkle a little in the light, and in the early days of my tea journey I was infatuated with it. In tea terms (and real life terms, too) I was young, dumb, and easily impressed, so when I saw my first Silver Needle at a Teavana I was doomed. It came with a hefty price tag and a backstory that involved emperors, monks, and secluded mountain monasteries in China, and the salesfolks did me in good. It seemed too cool, too rare to pass …
Where to Drink: One Day in Seattle
Tea lover visiting Seattle? You’re in luck. Seattle may be famous for its coffee, but it's also got a kickass tea scene that's one of the best in the country. In this post, enjoy a one-day tour through some of my favorite tea spots in Seattle. When it comes to good tea shops, most of us would be happy to have just one or two in town - but not Seattle. The city has about a dozen seriously good tea shops, many of them in the same neighborhood! It's a good thing there are so many, because tea shops are kinda like ramen shops. When you have just one ramen shop in town, that poor store has to cater to everyone. Odds are, the ramen will be decent, but not fantastic. But when you have a whole bunch of ramen shops in one place - or tea shops, in this case - the magic starts to happen. You get a healthy competition that allows each shop to develop its own unique style, serving up the stuff they truly know and care about. Seattle's like that - a city full of specialized tea …
Tea Design: How To Create Beautiful & Practical Tea Sessions
I’ve been creating pretty but practical tea sessions since 2012. Good tea design has helped me better share tea with thousands of people, both online and in-person. In this post, learn how to design a memorable tea session for you and your guests while getting the MOST out of your tea. It’s a common misconception that flowers and fancy teaware is a distraction from the tea. If we’re serious about tea, why bother with a pretty tea table? Tea design is more than just having a pretty looking table, though. When done well, tea design can be a powerful tool, helping us bring out the absolute best from a tea. We can extract as much flavor, aroma, and texture as possible, and create the best possible experience too. On the other hand, the wrong design choices can completely ruin your tea! In this post, you’ll learn how to start creating practical AND beautiful tea sessions, with three things to consider: Tea Teaware Decor When these three things …
Seasonal Tea Arrangements: Spring
It’s May, and now, deep into Spring, the sunshine filtering through the window is even hinting towards summer. And for the time-honored tea traditions of the world, the tea table changes too, along with the seasons. In China, spring means the arrival of fresh green tea, just picked in March and April. Green teas are at the peak of their beauty and flavor now, and people often bust out the glass teaware to show off such gorgeous teas. It’s mesmerizing to watch the young leaves “dance” in a tall glass or tea pot. Over in Japan, the tea rooms for chanoyu are showing their spring colors, too. Chanoyu, often called the Japanese tea ceremony, is intimately tied with the changing of the seasons, and everything in the tea room is chosen carefully for the time of year. For example, heavy tea bowls are replaced by thinner, cooler ones when it’s warm outside, and any floral arrangements will always showcase the appropriate flowers for the season. Students of chanoyu spend years …
Matcha vs. Monster Energy: Which Is Better For Long Car Drives?
When it comes to staying awake for those long, solo car drives, energy drinks reign supreme. Well, at least in the marketing department. Just walk into any random gas station or convenience store in America. You’ll find racks of 5 Hour Energy, a branded fridge of Red Bull, and all sorts of other sugar-free, low-carb, max-intensity, and creatively-flavored options. Basically, if you’re taking a road trip, they want you to: (A) buy gas, and (B) pick up an energy drink for the road. They’re also (C) not really trying to sell you tea. I mean, I don’t think the veteran truck drivers of the world are hauling tea in their cup holders... Where energy drinks promise to deliver the kind of high-performance energy boost you need for long drives, tea is for relaxing and winding down, right? With one important exception: Matcha. Matcha is the heavy-hitting, supercharged, Incredible Hulk of the tea world. It’s different from most other teas because, with most teas, we’re just …
