http://www.taiwanteaguy.com Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:14:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en At A Liang's recent Tea Lecture, we got to enjoy fresh air, lush mountain scenery, and of course, some gnarly nature! His friend's farm is home to all sorts of interesting critters. Two that stood out are featured here - if you're squeamish, skip this one! ;)   I arrived at their ... http://www.taiwanteaguy.com/2008/08/23/nature-calls/ 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 ... http://www.taiwanteaguy.com/2008/08/23/tea-lecture/ 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 ... http://www.taiwanteaguy.com/2008/08/23/tandem-gaiwan/ 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 ... http://www.taiwanteaguy.com/2008/08/23/farm-resort/ I really struggled with the decision to write this post - it's a hard thing to admit to the whole world one is getting older. I turned ?? on Friday, August 8th (let's just say I was born in the Year of the Horse, and you can go figure it out ... http://www.taiwanteaguy.com/2008/08/10/happy-birthday-teaguy/ I was talking to a friend awhile back about aged teas, and the fact that aging can be good for teas other than Pu-er (depending on a lot of variables, of course). I was having a hard time explaining how aged oolong is different, so in the end, I got out ... http://www.taiwanteaguy.com/2008/08/05/old-oolong/ 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 ... http://www.taiwanteaguy.com/2008/08/03/teapot-basics/ Well, the typhoon is pretty much over, although we've still got some rain falling today.  This typhoon was much stronger than Kalmaegi, which killed 20 people last week, yet so far only 2 deaths have been reported for this one. I think the preparation level was much higher this time ... http://www.taiwanteaguy.com/2008/07/29/typhoon-fung-wong-follow-up/ Fung Wang looks set to hit mid-Taiwan head on, so I've cancelled my private classes today and invited my buddies over for a tea party tonight! With any 'luck' tomorrow will be a day off as well. While last week's typhoon was mild but brought heavy rains, this storm is ... http://www.taiwanteaguy.com/2008/07/27/typhoon-prep/ Well, here we go again. Our last typhoon was a bit of a wash in our area - just some general rain, little or no wind, but central/southern Taiwan saw a lot of flooding & landslides, and 20 people died, which is quite a lot for us. Now, typhoon Fung ... http://www.taiwanteaguy.com/2008/07/27/typhoon-fung-wong/