Tea and Artifice

Tea and Artifice

If you have an interest in tea culture and high-quality tea, the questions of where and how your tea is made are probably important to you. Taken as a whole, of course your tea’s supply chain can tell you much about its quality. The history and culture of where...

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...

Cultivar, Terroir, and the Alchemy of Tea

“Which cultivar is this?” is a question I often ask when freshly picked leaves come in from the gardens. The idea of looking at cultivars as a determining factor for flavor profiles in tea of any color is something that came up again on a visit to one of Taipei’s...