It all started one crisp October morning in 2003, when I discovered that a cup of coffee was not what pleased me anymore. So, it was off to a friend’s coffee and tea store where I purchased my first four ounces of Assam loose leaf. Of course, I had to add a tea ball infuser. [...]
The Company’s returning China fleet laden with eight milion pounds’ worth of tea, silk and porcelain found an imposing French squadron laying in wait at the mouth of the Strait of Malacca (where fifteen years later Sir Stamford Raffles was to found Singapore for the Company). Commodore Nathaniel Dance had the Indiamen calmly form a [...]
It was 6:00 A.M. on July 5. I was on my knees on the ground between a large RV (mine) and about eleven ceramic garden figurines. Including, but not limited to: a puppy; a voluptuous frog in a bathing suit; a spotted cow in need of milking; a rabbit in a sailor suit; a Dutch [...]
Here are the entries received from the tea haiku contest. The first comment on that post was just the incentive needed!
mado no soto
ha ga uzumakare
ocha wo nomu
outside my window
the leaves are swirling around
as i drink my tea
I took a little liberty in translation with the second line, the original meaning is ‘the [...]
I just finished the wonderful Matt Gross piece on Darjeeling in Sunday’s NY Times (Oct. 14, 2007). What a fine piece of writing! In it, Matt Gross repeatedly mentions Rajah Banerjee’s out-sized ego, but this is too facile and too easily misrepresents the man himself. People with less “patrician” self-assurance are simply incapable of pioneering [...]
I was invited to Hood River Valley High School to share some knowledge about, and taste, tea with a group of teens. These young people have asked for their own separate tea time, separate from the Tuesday Teas which have been so popular for the last five weeks. The Tuesday Teas began [...]
Tea was in demand everywhere as soon as it was introduced, Europe or America, Indians or Laplanders, commoners or quality, but England’s thirst for tea surpassed the rest. The first quantum leap in demand came after 1720 and has been linked to England’s expanding imports of sugar from the Caribbean. [...]
“Come out, come out, wherever you are
All you bright tea nerds who fell from a star”
Many are the parallels between tea and wine culture, but after browsing the T Ching Tasting posts in the Archive, I am thinking that the tea nerds have it over the wine nerds.
Both are extremely knowledgeable and capable of great [...]
Tea,
Whisper in my ear.
Leaf,
Tell me your thoughts.
What hidden things stir your veins,
on the tree in the still of night?
Fragrant watery breeze blowing from nearby stream
Teasing you with fingers that never touch.
But that is the language of nature:
Touching without limbs
Seeing without eyes
Breathing without moving
Singing without a song.
Secrets told in invisible languages
Leaf to leaf.
Harmonies sung without words.
Your [...]
On Thursday, September 18th in the prestigious building of the United States Department of Agriculture, in Washington DC, a very unique and diverse group gathered to hear scientific evidence pertaining to the Camellia sinensis plant. I was one of that group and one of the lovers of this plant. Camellia sinensis is the botanical name [...]
