Tag Archives: Pu’erh

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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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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Time with Tseten – Tea Horse Road Trader

We sat in the dark gloom of his home, with a bit of lukewarm butter tea roaming around our hands. Another of the remaining legends of the days of trade and odyssey journey-making along the Tea Horse Road, Tseten was … 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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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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The Tea Sessions Latest Instalment – Masters Wear Flip Flops

Few have had quite the leaf influence upon me, as has Mr. Gao (aka Dr. Gao, Master Gao, or just Master). From his understated approach to communicating to his intuitive understanding of the vital ‘fry’ his has been a calming … Continue reading

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Interview with Tea Biz – Tea’s Precious Informality

A few thoughts shared in a recent interview with Tea Biz here. In the great rush of tea paraphernalia and in the increasingly creative marketing and usage of fantastical descriptions and flavour wheels; in a time when the ‘names’ of … Continue reading

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Tea Horse Road Chronicles – A lusty bit of Leaf Tribute

One of the most exquisite pieces of tea porn I’ve come ever across was this compressed mass of large leaf material, formed into seven gourds, sized in ever-descending size to form a large pyramid of vegetal fuel. It was also … Continue reading

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Tea Horse Road Chronicles – Tea and Bloodlines

On foot our team of four puttered and wandered west (often faintly lost) through the Nyanqen Tanghla mountains in Tibet towards Lhasa. Highlights seemed on some days to be every single breath and moment. On other days, the grind of … Continue reading

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