Spring 2017 Taiwan Pickings

Spring 2017 Taiwan Pickings

A friend wrote in to a post I’d written on Leaf of the East’s Facebook page where somewhat unfortunately I post most of my thoughts and experiences with respect to tea. The following copied and pasted question and answer are long enough to warrant posting...

Evan Shaw – Wood Fired Pottery

寶島, BaoDao, Treasure Island, is where I first met Evan Shaw, more than thirty years after he’d left the United States to study meditation in India. In 1974, one could still travel from Western Europe through Iran into the Middle East to the Far East without...

Tea as a Cultural Artifact

At times, making tea feels like trying to transfer hot water from one bathtub to another with your hands, making the transfer without spilling a drop and in time to allow someone to get into the second bath while the water is at least still warm. Yet this is the...

Paths with Heart

Up in the morning at 4:30 a.m. Up on the mountain in the cold rain and wind. Working in silence, self-reflection comes and goes, a reflection of intent and character. Sifting through the tea after it comes in from the gardens, again after it’s rested and...
Weather and Time

Weather and Time

Weather, time, earth, and skill of the tea maker are the four major factors which determine a tea’s character. To endure the time and weather with an end in high quality tea one must, like the QingXin Cultivar suggests, by way of it’s translation into...