Happy New Year! I hope you had time to relax over a nice cup of tea! I started off my 2016 with a cup of Nuwara Eliya tea from Sri Lanka which I picked up last New Year whilst there on holiday. It was my third trip to this beautiful island formerly known as Ceylon – the home of Ceylon tea.
Sri Lanka’s Hill Country, part 1: the train ride Read More »
Well, we’re just a couple of days away from Christmas and I’m looking forward to my first traditional Finnish Christmas. After several years in China and a distinct lack of Christmassy stuff, I’ve immersed myself in all that Helsinki has to offer.
In a land of coffee drinkers, how happy was I to come across a newly created Meetup group – Helsinki Tea Tasting. Last Sunday I joined four other tea enthusiasts for some Sheng Pu’er tea tasting kindly hosted by Tarmo. We tasted four from his Sheng Pu’er collection before I reached my tea drunk limit.
Helsinki Tea Tasting – Pu’er Read More »
This summer, after 6 and a half years living in Shanghai, I left China for Finland. From the birth place of tea to a nation obsessed with coffee… in fact the Finns are the largest consumers of coffee per capita on the planet. So, number one on my ‘must do before I leave’ list was a final trip to Shanghai’s Tianshan Tea Market.
Farewell Shanghai Tea Market Read More »
Being a tea lover and having lived in China for over 6 years, a pilgrimage to China’s National Tea Museum was really somewhat overdue. The museum is nestled amongst the tea gardens of Longjing, near Hangzhou, so also a perfect place to relax over a glass of freshly picked Longjing tea.
China’s National Tea Museum, Hangzhou Read More »
A few years ago I did a pottery workshop and made possibly the ugliest, most useless tea pot in the history of all teapots. However it’s still part of my collection, and serves as a reminder of the amazing skill and years of dedicated practice that goes into making a beautiful pot. So of course I was very interested to see a master in action in Yixing. We visited Ding Shu Zhen, a small village and the original home of Yixing tea pots, which still houses many small scale pottery workshops.
Yixing teapots, part 2: a master at work and a teapot buying guide Read More »
As well as drinking tea, I also love teapots. Yixing in Jiangsu province is home to the famous Zi Sha (purple clay) teapot, and only a short train ride from Shanghai. So it would be rude not to! All I knew of Yixing’s famous pots were the purple-red smooth round teapots. On my weekend in Yixing, along with my trusty tea adventurer Jasmine, I discovered a vast array of weird and wonderful Yixing tea pot styles.
Yixing teapots, part 1: teapot styles and old masters Read More »
On our third and final day we headed to the Tie Guan Yin Tea Culture Park in Anxi. The first thing you notice is the rather large and magnificent tea pot fashioned out of shrubbery with a dragon’s head for a spout.
Tie Guan Yin: Tea Processing Read More »
Tie Guan Yin, 铁观音, Iron Goddess of Mercy, or just plain old Iron Goddess. Probably the most popular oolong in China. And quite right too. In a quest to find out more about this famous oolong, my friend, Jasmine, and I set off one October weekend to the source of Tie Guan Yin – Anxi in Fujian province.
Tie Guan Yin: a Trip to Anxi Read More »
