I love tea and my definition of what counts as a tea-related post is pretty wide. Expect to see tea reviews, reviews of books about tea, and even posts about afternoon tea.
Recently, I was drinking a rather inscrutable tea (i.e. a tea where I don’t get the notes I’m supposed to get) and that got me reflecting a little on my tea journey. As you can probably tell from my tea reviews, I don’t get the most exciting things from my tea tasting sessions, but I… Read More Tea 101: 3 Tips To Improve Your Tea Tasting Abilities
Just before 2021 ended, I saw this post on Instagram from Hachimanjyu (more about the farm here) on a new tea that they were bringing out: Basically, they had a lot of tea flowers blooming this year, so they decided to blend them and make a limited edition flower black tea! I’ve never tried a… Read More Tea Review: 花こうちゃ (Flower Black Tea) by Hachimanjyu
I’ve continued drinking more sencha (I mean, it’s not like I want to stop) so here’s another installment in this series on Japanese tea cultivars. There’s not a lot about the Yumewakaba out there, for reasons I’ll explain soon, but here’s what I could find. What is the Yumewakaba cultivar? Unlike the Yabukita cultivar, which… Read More Tea 101: the Yumewakaba cultivar
Hi friends! It’s time for another SustainabiliTEA profile and today, we’re going back to Japan to talk to Yutani Tea (their Japanese name is 城州ゆたに山口製茶処), who is on Instagram as Ohbuku Valley. I spoke to Yamaguchi-san (山口), who was born in Yuyadani (湯屋谷) in Uji, Kyoto. His family has been making tea for over 300… Read More SustainabiliTEA: Yutani Tea
I have been drinking the teas sent to me by the NPO Agriculture Support Team in Saitama and I noticed that they’ve started producing teas made with the yabukita cultivar, which I didn’t see when I bought the teas from them last year! The yabukita cultivar is actually the most common tea cultivar in Japan,… Read More Tea 101: the Yabukita cultivar
So, I was going to start this post by talking about how long it’s been since I posted about my trip to Basel and the London Tea Co, but I checked that post and apparently I did not write anything about tea in there. I’m not sure what past me was thinking, but I probably… Read More Visit to London Tea Co. + 2 Tisane Reviews
If you’ve been following this blog for the past two years or so, you’ve probably heard me mention Infused by Henrietta Lovell as a tea book I really enjoy (I’ve also recommended it to quite a few people offline as well). So today, I’m really excited to bring you the SustainabiliTEA profile of Rare Tea… Read More SustainabiliTEA: Rare Tea Company
Hi friends! I wasn’t really planning to buy any fukubukuro (lucky bags) this year because I’m not living in Japan anymore, but I was talking to my friends about Karel Capek at the end of last year and one thing led to another and we ended up getting one of the fukubukuro to share! (I… Read More What’s in Karel Capek’s 2022 Fukubukuro?
Hello friends! Welcome to the first SustainabiliTEA profile of 2022, and I have another awesome farm to introduce to you today! I talked to Lochan from Jun Chiyabari, a family-run tea farm in East Nepal about how the farm is run and what their ethical and sustainable efforts are. Introduction: Who is the family behind… Read More SustainabiliTEA: Jun Chiyabari
Hi friends! For the first tea post of this year, I thought it would be interesting to crack open the Yutakamidori Black Tea that I received from the NPO Agriculture Support Team in Saitama. Well, to be honest, the packaging for this tea was a bit damaged when I received it, so I knew I… Read More Tea Exploration: Yutakamidori Black Tea