Let me tell you about a guy who is, frankly, a bit of a lunatic. He’s veeeeeerrrrry fussy about the way he brews his beverages. Not just because he likes to control water temperature and water/raw material ratios etc, but because he completely refuses to make his drinks the way most people do. The cheap […]
With a tea event on my horizon, it seems like a good time to pause and consider how the COVID-19 pandemic has, and should, modify our tea habits. Good procedures are good procedures, so we should look to taking every precaution, even if, like me, you are lucky to live in a place where this […]
To me, America is like a great white shark. It’s sleek, it’s big, it’s an inevitable part of life, it’s at or near the top of the food chain, and, particularly in certain parts of LA, there’s an awful lot of very white teeth. And you could spend a lifetime studying it and not understand […]
“Tea is nought but this: first you heat the water, then you make the tea. Then you drink it properly. That is all you need to know.” – Sen Rikyu A week ago, the World Tea Expo’s 2017 “Best Tea Brewing Device” (and 2016 “Innovation Of The Year”) ceased sales, ending one of the most […]
Every week or so when I blather on in this blog about all manner of things, I get well-meaning advice that I should really be writing about our business and our teas, but generally I don’t unless forced to. This is such an occasion. We are announcing the closing of our associated business The Devotea […]
If you loved the movie Inception, then you’ll love the fact that I am going to go on a rant about a guy who went on a rant about an article. In it, he bought his own arrogance and prejudice to the fore, and hey, I’m comfortable with doing the same. In fact, I rarely […]
It’s two weeks since Lady Devotea and I left Canada, and this blog has been hovering over me. I just don’t want to admit that that particular adventure was over. Despite cranking up the heat and refusing to change the time back on some of my devices, I am unable to pretend to be in […]
When we arrived in Vancouver, we went through the usual travellers’ ritual of trying to have a nap, and then staggering out in a jet-lagged haze to look about. Rolling downhill to 4th Street Kitsilano, the first commercial premises we entered was an amazing fruit and nut shop. Really amazing. We bought stuff. The second […]
What does it really take to know a city? More specifically, can you get to grips with a city by visiting a representative sample of it? And is three restaurants, two Asian style gardens, a rose garden, a back yard and two days of continuous teas in seven different locations a representative sample? I say […]
I have always loved the expression The Curate’s Egg because, well, people say I’m a bit of a fence-sitter. Or, as I prefer to put it, not a fence-sitter. I like to consider all sides of a situation from all points of view before giving my opinion. Or you could I’m a fence sitter. But […]