Category Archives: Tea
The Tea Sessions – A New Column with Outpost Magazine
Given the span of time and efforts to immerse in leaves and the lives connected to tea, there aren’t many more satisfying additions than starting up a tea column (in joyous collaboration with Outpost Magazine). These pieces will comprise ‘The Tea … Continue reading
Tea Horse Road Chronicles – Other Tales and Sight
Not all stories of the Tea Horse Road were ones of grand expanses, snow caps, or buzzing tea sessions. A friend from the Yi minority invited me to visit his grandmother who had tales of her own to tell. She … Continue reading
Tea Horse Road Chronicles – Fields vs Forests
Blankets and ridges of green stimulant leaf lie in rows near Puerh. Here the leaf is entirely industry. Gorgeous industry, but still industry. Local Hani, Han, Yi, Lahu, and Dai pluckers shimmy through the humid air to pluck, pluck, and … Continue reading
Tea Horse Chronicles – Tea’s Value
“Tea is our everything. I don’t know where it comes from but we take it every day in the morning, afternoon, and night. Our children learn to make it when they are young but we must help them get the … Continue reading
Tea Horse Road Chronicles – A Gathering of Women
Nomadic women of Ganze gather on a grassland to take part in a horse festival. It was through and over such high grasslands that the Tea Horse Road moved towards Dzogong, Chamdo, Lhasa and beyond. Nomads and their lands were … Continue reading
Tea Horse Road Chronicles – He Said, She Knew
This ‘moment’ was more accurately a series of moments and most of an afternoon, with an old muleteer and his wife. We interviewed the gentleman who lived near my home in Shangrila and he began (and ended) our chat with … Continue reading
Tea Horse Road Chronicles – The Coming Snow
The Coming Snow. A nomad tucks in amidst a coming snow storm at 4200 metres near Litang, western Sichuan. The Litangba (people of Li’thang) were revered and feared along portions of the Tea Horse Road for sometimes opposing reasons. Not … Continue reading
Tea Horse Road Chronicles – The Little One
In the coming weeks a trip back into the characters and moments of our journey along the Tea Horse Road (the first documented western journey along the magnificent highway through the sky). The first segment then begins here. — We … Continue reading
White Tea Trials on the Big Island and the Memory of a Mentor
Perspective, the genius and inspiration of Mr. Gao, and a Hawaiian grown white tea Continue reading