WOW! This tea is sensational It’s light and peppery on the tongue, and yet has a full-mouth feel that has an odd similarity to fragrant soap. Except that if this is what having your mouth washed out with soap is actually like, I wish I’d sworn more as a kid. But to fully explain, I need to […]
Yet another sample chapter from my forthcoming book for your comments, arguments and abuse. Don’t be gentle with me. Earl Grey used to be my favourite tea. It no longer is. That’s a positive and a negative. As I left my teens behind; I started drinking a variety of teas. Shocking as it might seem […]
(As I have been writing my book and not had much time to blog, once again here’s a chapter from it. Please comment as it really helps!) China! The spiritual, and actual, Home of Tea. Since the invention of tea; China has been many things. Ruled from within, ruled from without. A Communist Worker’s Paradise; […]
AGAIN, A SMALL SAMPLE OF FICTION FROM MY FORTHCOMING BOOK. PLEASE ENJOY AND COMMENT: January 3rd, 1902 Mr Thomas Sullivan, Esq., Tea Merchant New York, New York, United Stated of America My Dear Mr Sullivan I trust you are well. Your instinct, Sir, will be to dispose of the letter as the ravings of a madman. I […]
Chairwoman? It’s enough to make me apoplectic. It seems that this idea of political correctness is everywhere, and so often completely incorrect. It’s like a new, more socially acceptable form of mathematics where Π is equal to 10, because it’s a lovely round number. Too bad if bridges fall down. In the politically correct stakes, it’s often gender politics that masks the politics of ignorance. […]
I spent the afternoon yesterday in The Oriental Tea House on Little Collins Street, Melbourne. I had a jasmine lychee tea ball with two steepings, and then a Long Jing. I’d spent two hours immediately previously at the Hopetoun Tea Rooms where I’d consumed a Bard’s Tempest and a Congo Bongo: the latter because it’s a favourite, the former because my friend Verity (@joiedetea) urged me […]
Those of you who awaited each day’s gripping recounting of my search for decent tea in Thailand last June might well expect similar tales of deprivation and heroism whenever I travel, and as we’ve slipped away to Melbourne for a few days, you may be breathlessly awaiting the sequel to those heady days. An earlier […]
I’ve been enjoying the great Assam estate teas from Mokalbari ever since I ordered one on a whim from Vivek Lochan at Lochan tea. This morning, I had cause to visit the Mokalbari website, and I like what I saw. Not for the profile, nor the tea descriptions, nor the press bits, nor the packaging – actually, I do […]
The number of people on Tea Trade that I would LOVE to have a cup of tea with is high. The additional number that I wouldn’t object to having a tea with can be defined by this formula: The Total Number on Tea Trade minus the first group minus one. Yes, just one. I’m afraid that if […]
(Note: This article is from my former blog and was published in April 2010. It is being added as a bonus in the book I am writing, so I thought I’d share it here. At the time, I also made a video inspired by the same essay, which is here: The Devotea and George Orwell In 1946 George Orwell wrote A Nice Cup of Tea. […]