Seven Cups Tea Blog - For the Serious Curious Tea Drinker

Dealing with Tea Plant Myths

By Austin Hodge, on May 19, 2011 in: Blog Posts for the Tea Curious

Does All Tea Really Come From The Same Plant? One axiom that is typically taught to new tea students is that “all tea comes from the same plant.” If these students continue to learn about tea and study Chinese tea in any depth, they will discover that this statement is almost as wrong as the… // MORE

The 11th Puer Tea Conference

By Austin Hodge, on April 26, 2011 in: Customer Favorite Tea Tours, Industry News

Seven Cups Founder Wins Award In Puer City I have been thinking about how I was going to write about this for a almost two weeks now. This award came as a complete surprise to me and I am still trying to get my mind around it. I found out about winning this award when… // MORE

Wuyi Shan National Park & the Rare Bai Ji Guan

By Austin Hodge, on April 25, 2011 in: Tribute Tea Tour

This is my last post from the Green/Wulong Tea Tour for 2011. The tour is still continuing for a few more days…

Huangshan and a World Tea Conference

By Austin Hodge, on April 23, 2011 in: Tribute Tea Tour

The first day we were in Huangshan a good portion of the afternoon was spent at a dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony for Wang Fangsheng.

Hangzhou’s Claim to Famous Tea

By Austin Hodge, on April 20, 2011 in: Origins Tea Tour

Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang, it was once the capital of China for a short period in the Song Dynasty, a favor place for our tea tour…

The Seven Cups Tea Tour Becomes Local News

By Austin Hodge, on April 19, 2011 in: Tribute Tea Tour

This morning headed to Moganshan to watch some yellow tea being made. It is the rarest of Chinese yellow teas. It is virtually unknown outside of Dejing country, which is about 30 minutes north of Hangzhou. In 2010 the tea had a surprising spiciness and I am hoping that will be present in this year’s… // MORE

Anji County & Deep Fried Larvae

By Austin Hodge, on April 17, 2011 in: Tribute Tea Tour

It is the second day of our tea tour and we are in Anji County. It is a lovely spring day but it was a little chilly when we left this morning from Changxing. I hope that if you are following our posts you check out the Google links at the top of the posts.… // MORE

Lu Yu Tribute Tea Factory Museum & Yixing Pottery Museum

By Austin Hodge, on April 16, 2011 in: Tribute Tea Tour

We started off this year’s green tea/wulong tea tour on a beautiful spring morning. Our first stop was the Lu Yu Tribute Tea Factory Museum. During the Tang Dynasty there were 20,000 people involved in the factory, and all of the tea produced was for the consumption of the court. Production only lasted for about a month.

Buying Gu Zhu Zi Sun

By Austin Hodge, on April 14, 2011 in: Blog Posts for the Tea Curious, Seven Cups News

Purchasing Tea: Gu Zhu Zi Sun This is the favorite part of my job: buying tea. Guzhu Zisun (Purple Bamboo Shoot) is a very special tea; it was the first tea to be distinguished as a tribute tea during the Tang Dynasty, and was produced under the watchful eye of Lu Yu, China’s tea saint,… // MORE

Lincang County Yunnan Black Tea

By Austin Hodge, on April 7, 2011 in: Blog Posts for the Tea Curious

A few days ago I was in Lincang County in Yunnan taking a short trip before the first tea tour begins as well as seeing about the Dian Hong black tea harvest. The good news is that a pre-harvest rain has come, thus avoiding a repeat of last year when drought conditions left the spring… // MORE

First stop to get to 2011 black tea crop

By Austin Hodge, on April 5, 2011 in: Seven Cups News

Kunming April 2011… I am hear to get a first had version of the weather, and visit Lincang county to see the first grow and assess the coming crop. Some of the best black tea that is produced in China comes from this area, and it is one of our best selling black tea

Qing Ming Festival | Honoring the Ancestors

By Austin Hodge, on April 2, 2011 in: Industry News

Qing Ming In Hangzhou April 2011. Yesterday was Qing Ming Festival in Hangzhou. The day was cold and rainy but the tea harvest is well underway: it started late but, unlike last year, there wasn’t a false spring that resulted in a damaging cold snap that destroyed the new growth on the bushes. Harvesting… // MORE

Late Tea Harvest Musings

By Austin Hodge, on April 1, 2011 in: Industry News

Guangzhou, Late Tea Harvest, and the World Tea Expo The spring is late in coming this year because it has been another very cold winter in China. Even here in the south it has been unseasonably cold. I have been in Guangzhou (Canton) for a few days researching changes to the Chinese export laws… // MORE

Brewing tea for hardcore tea drinkers

By Austin Hodge, on February 28, 2011 in: Blog Posts for the Tea Curious

I was prompted to talk about brewing tea by a Twitter conversation with @michaeljcoffey and @joiedetea. I am kind of a part time lurker in the social networking world, and I’m often surprised by the level of sophistication in the discussions about tea. I think that is really great, and am thrilled to see it. That… // MORE

2011 Tea Trends: Seven Cups makes a major shift

By Austin Hodge, on February 1, 2011 in: Industry News

First a disclaimer, there is no statistical evidence involved in this analysis of trends in the tea industry. What I am going to offer here is more like a farmer looking at signs in the environment and predicting the weather.

The Canadian Tea Guild and Single-Origin Chocolate Pairings

By Austin Hodge, on January 21, 2011 in: Seven Cups News

We were visited today by Carol Ann Savage, one of the founders of the Tea Guild of Canada. She brought some great chocolate with her. They are single origin chocolates made by Soma Chocolate’s in Toronto. The source the cocoa beans themselves.

New Year’s Musings on Tea

By Austin Hodge, on December 31, 2010 in: Blog Posts for the Tea Curious

Amazingly enough, I am sitting here on New Year’s Eve with all of my work done. It feels great. Everyone else has gone , their work done as well. I am drinking some remarkable puer, Da Xue Shan Sheng, a green puer that was transported for one week by mule…

Dahongpao, A New Chinese Tea Bubble?

By Austin Hodge, on October 21, 2010 in: Industry News

“Since the middle of last year, the report says, prices of certain types of Da Hong Pao have increased tenfold. According to one expert interviewed by CCTV, the wholesale price for mid-range varieties of the tea has risen from between 200 and 400 yuan to around 4,000 yuan per kilogram, with retail prices reaching 20,000 yuan or more…

A Fisherman piece beside a yixing pot with a red filter

Cold Winters, Floods, and the Price of Tea

By Austin Hodge, on August 2, 2010 in: Blog Posts for the Tea Curious

It is just about that time of year when we start asking ourselves why we started a tea business in Tucson. The monsoons are hovering in the evening, sparing a drop or two, providing just enough humidity to stop evaporative coolers from working. Today it is raining hard and roofs all over Tucson are leaking…

2 Years, Too Much: Perspectives on the U.S. Tea Industry

By Austin Hodge, on June 30, 2010 in: Industry News

I was asked many months ago to write about my experience with the tea industry for this blog; I have had so little time and it has taken me a long time to put my thoughts together… even now I am not sure I have done the best job, but this is more or less the story of what happened with my blog, authori-tea.com.

A Game Changing Book About Tea

By Austin Hodge, on May 28, 2010 in: Industry News

There are few books about tea that add to the discussion about tea in any meaningful way, but Mary Lou and Robert Heiss’s new book, ‘The Tea Enthusiast’s Handbook’ is one of them…

Gu Zhu Zi Sun (Purple Bamboo Shoot)

By Austin Hodge, on May 25, 2010 in: Industry News

In the Gu Zhu Valley rests the origins of documented Chinese Tea Culture, for it is the place where Lu Yu managed the Emperor’s tea factory during the Tang Dynasty. He did so for twenty years while he wrote the first book about tea and tea culture…

Early Spring Green Tea Arrivals

By Austin Hodge, on April 30, 2010 in: Seven Cups News

I am a green tea lover, so there is nothing that gives me more of a thrill that the arrival of the first green teas. For the last two years I have been here in Tucson waiting like everyone else for the tea to arrive…

Harvest in Anji in Early April 2010 Bai Cha

By Austin Hodge, on April 26, 2010 in: Seven Cups News

Seven Cups was the first to import Anji Bai Cha five years ago. It is a rare green tea that was lost for eight hundred years. When ever you hear about white tea being mentioned during the Song Dynasty, it is Anji Bai Cha, which means white tea…

Huangshan & the Invention of Display Teas

By Austin Hodge, on April 16, 2010 in: Customer Favorite Tea Tours, Tribute Tea Tour

Huangshan is one of those places that for millennia has drawn Chinese artists. It is also a center for tea culture. The area was instrumental in the development of modern tea making techniques that developed during the Ming Dynasty.

Oldest Longjing master in Shifeng peak_preview

Before the Harvest in Hangzhou

By Austin Hodge, on April 13, 2010 in: Customer Favorite Tea Tours, Tribute Tea Tour

I’m behind on posting for the Green Tea Tour. Please forgive while I catch up. The tour stayed in Hangzhou for a couple of days and sent these photos back. The tea was just beginning to be harvested because of temperatures way below what is normal for this time of year. Hangzhou is the modern center of Chinese Tea Culture.

The Ancient Town Nanxun

By Austin Hodge, on April 5, 2010 in: Customer Favorite Tea Tours, Tribute Tea Tour

Just south of HuZhou is the ancient town of Nanxun. It is a small town that is built around the canals that crisscross the area below Tai Hu. Life on these canals is prehistoric….

Mo Gan Shan & Rare Female Tea Makers

By Austin Hodge, on March 30, 2010 in: Tribute Tea Tour

Yellow tea is rare, but the rarest is Mo Gan Huang Ya. The fifth day of our tour was visiting Mo Gan Shan where this tea is made. Mo Gan Shan is next to the city of Deqing about 30 minutes from Hangzhou. Also it is rare in China for the tea maker to be woman. Wang Qiang Zhen is one of the very few women that is master tea maker…

Jiangsu Province, famed Bi Luo Chun, & Dong Ting Mountain

By Austin Hodge, on March 24, 2010 in: Tribute Tea Tour

Our little band of travlers made it to Jiangsu Province today to visit the gardens where Bi Luo Chun is grown. Bi Luo Chun is one of the most prized Chinese green teas. The growing area is small and this tea is often faked. The real thing however is spectacular.

Song Dynasty, Anji Bai Cha, & Song Hui Zhong

By Austin Hodge, on March 23, 2010 in: Tribute Tea Tour

The tour today was in Anji. Anji Bai Cha is one of the great green teas. Bai cha means white tea in Chinese but this tea is green. This tea was the favorite of the famous Song Dynasty emperor, Song Hui Zhong.