Category Archives: Tea

Tea – After an all night 7-hour tea session (and the ensuing rapture) in a Taiwanese teahouse, my own ‘tea fix’ was fixed. Asia’s great green commodity has (like few other luxuries) soothed, fed and stimulated. Tea holds a vital role as one of the few constants in my life – a constant that only becomes more satisfying with time.

Expedition Update – Departure for Nepal

The concept of a ‘departure’ has all changed since Sebastian’s arrival into our little orbit. Now a departure isn’t simply an exciting bit of stimulant rip…now it is thing tinged with a bit of regret knowing he won’t join on … Continue reading

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New Pot, New Pour, and New Pourer…but not a new Tea

A far too long gap of absence from posting, but life burbles onwards in no particular order and that often dictates moredoing than anything else. In these months past, my son, Sebastian, finally decided that it was time to ‘own’ … Continue reading

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New Year, New Projects, and Some Tea

Tea, Television, and Time Continue reading

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Seiji Ito’s Clay – A Tokoname Blue

First day in Japan and already a day ‘late’. A day late in meeting a man who has been crafting clay from Tokoname into tea vessels for decades. Upon arrival to Tokyo and dealing with the restless charm of jet-lag … Continue reading

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Lobsang – On Water in the Himalayas

A morning of brittle cold that brought the eyes to a standstill in Darlag, southern Amdo. Lobsang watches while his two sons source ice from a nearby ‘lake’ to bring home to boil for morning tea. Lobsang asked me whether … Continue reading

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Tea Pot Travels – The 90 ml in Europe

The second selection is a 200 gram cake of Spring 2021 Naka old tree (100 + years). A bit of brilliance it is on the palate. Fresh and almost throbbing with ‘qi’, it counts among my ‘teas that cannot disappoint’. The region’s ability to provide random bits of sumptuous unbridled strength on the palate and in the blood isn’t always a given…but it usually is. It is one of the regions that, with careful hands and consistent raw materials, can provide an offering that satiates and restores my very core. It is too, a tea that can ‘cut’ through a palate of pungent cheese without a problem. I know this well as the two are frequent partners on my palate journeys. Continue reading

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Dolma, the Titan

Over the course of a decade of repeated visits to a nomadic community and little Dolma’s clan near Litang, I would continuously be in awe of the ’nomadic ways’ of doing simply anything. Moving up to a half dozen times … Continue reading

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Leaf Journeys, Leaf Ageing, and the Heights

It was upon the months’ long journeys along the Tea Horse Road that the big-leafed ‘assamica’ material and eternal panacea, tea, would transform and morph from a simple green tea into an almost compost-like blend that many Tibetans began to … Continue reading

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A Tea Comes Around

The joy of a bit of time-hit leaf beauty. Age hasn’t always been something I’ve ever been convinced matters in any tea. Age of bushes, of trees, or even of the producer maybe, but age of the cake or how … Continue reading

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Pomo – The Girl Who Could Do It All

‘Cheshi’ in the early morning in her family’s nomadic camp of Shin’zhu’gong at close to 5000 metres. I continually messed up her name, though I spent weeks with her and family. She patiently dealt with me until she reminded me … Continue reading

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