I recently bought a new teapot for my travel set (the former pot cracked from a slight jar – the case dropped about 3 inches – after previously surviving falling and being dragged behind my motorbike at 30mph, falling out of a car, and being kicked and bumped repeatedly). I was in Miaoli visiting Aaron, [...]
Last week saw a new arrival in the tea room. Aaron emailed to say my water pots were finally ready, so I went down to pick them up and drink some tea. They turned out better than I expected, and I’ve spent the last week getting used to it and experimenting with my water.
I got started in tea through Chinese calligraphy, and now I’m finally getting back into some brushwork after a few (too many!) years off. One of the great things about tea drinking is how well it fits in with other activities – reading, painting, watching TV, playing chess, even blogging or web surfing! I find [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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.
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.
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 [...]
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 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. [...]