I once spent three weeks in Britain living on tea alone. I was there to learn the Queen’s English at the Bell School of Languages, and boarded at a private home. Dorothy, my landlady, lovingly reassured my parents as they took their leave that she would make me something “really … Continue reading
I came to ceramics late in life. My first love was teapots – porcelain with a shino liner, woodfired for three to four days to build up ash, and cooled for a week. The aesthetics were Japanese – the forms were not.Then I started making tea cups because the users … Continue reading
Second in a series on the teas of Taiwan.Oolong or semi-fermented tea is neither green nor black but in a class unto itself. In discussing China oolongs I describe the process of repeatedly rolling, oxidizing, and firing the leaf until it is done. Clearly, new-grown leaf could not withstand the … Continue reading
Guest Contributor Kate Dumont (KD) recently caught up with Chris Cason (CC), co-founder and tea sommelier at Tavalon Tea. Chris oversees Tavalon’s Voice as editor-in-chief of his tea blog and has over ten years of experience working with loose leaf teas.KD: Where were you born and where do you live … Continue reading
When the gregarious manager of the HanShanSi Vegetarian Restaurant in SuZhou, JiangSu Province, China brought a pot of tea to our table and specifically pointed out it was “bamboo tea”, I snapped a picture of the slim dancing tea leaves close-up. The decorative plant “lucky bamboo” then came to mind. … Continue reading
There’s been talk about the weight loss potential of green tea and Oolong tea for quite some time. I can’t say I ever bought into it however. I was amazed to read a recent Web MD post that stated that adults consume about one-fifth of their daily calories from their … Continue reading