Archive for the 'My Tea Life' Category

Tea Lecture

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

A couple of weeks ago, A Liang held a tea event in Maokong at his friend’s farm (see Farm Resort for details). Most of the participants were teachers or professionals with a strong interest in tea. The day began with a hike from Jen Jr University to Chr Nan Temple (one of the stops on the [...]

Tandem Gaiwan

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

A Liang was recently asked to organize a hike & tea lecture for a group of tea enthusiasts, and he asked me to help out by brewing tea for the guests. Of course, I’m always up for some brew, and love working the gaiwans for him, but there were around 40 guests, and it was quite [...]

Farm Resort

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

Aliang’s friend has a great place up in the hills and I got to visit them a few weeks ago to help A Liang with a tea lecture he organized. They’ve got a small farm, which means they grow a lot of their own vegetables and stuff, but aren’t really a commercial producer.

Teapot Basics

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

A friend asked me to pick out a nice, simple basic ’starter tea set’ for him the other day, so I thought I’d share a little about buying teapots with all of you. Regardless of the price range or skill level of the user, there are a few important features of the pot to check out.

Random Teapots

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

I had a question the other day about the types of tea sets common in Taiwan. Here are some photos I took at a couple of teashops lately that provide good examples. Some people go for basic sets with a pot and cups, others like full matching sets, and hard-core fans usually by separate components [...]

Pinglin Road Trip

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

I recently got a new ride (see picture) and needed to take it for a test ride, so I decided to head out to the Baojong tea capital of Taiwan, Pinglin.  This is the town that held the Baojong Tea Festival, and also has ‘the largest tea museum in the world’, or at least Taiwan. [...]

Pinglin

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Pinglin is the baojong tea center of Taiwan, and I recently rode through there on a bike trip (see Pinglin Road Trip). I plan to do a more in-depth report on the town in the future, but here are a few pictures for now. The town is a lot like small rural town in the US. [...]

Oolong tea drying

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

On my recent Pinglin Road Trip, I was lucky enough to drive by some locals drying some fresh-picked oolong leaves in front of their home. I stopped and chatted with them a little, and they agreed to let me take some pictures of their tea.

Aaron’s pot

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

In addition to warm hospitality, interesting conversation, and great tea on my recent trip to Miaoli (click HERE), I also came away with a new teapot. Aaron felt that since I’ve been getting into Tie Kuan Yin teas, he let me bring home a pot he used exclusively to brew this type of tea. For [...]

Ultimate Travel Set

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

I’ve mentioned in other posts about the benefits of setting up a space to have tea at home, and how preparing ‘gung-fu’ tea in a relaxing atmosphere is a great way to unwind at the end of a long day. However, it’s also very rewarding to enjoy your tea while camping in the mountains, hanging [...]