Are Cast Iron Pots Really Useful for Brewing Tea?
Cast iron for brewing tea? Zhuping talks about selecting the best teaware for brewing green, white and yellow tea.
The Facts You May Not Know About Fair Trade Practices
Fair trade certification has always been pretty meaningless when it comes to China. With the new split between Fair Trade USA and the European FLO as reported by Dan Bolton in the World Tea News, Fair Trade USA has increased the gap between the original core values of the founders of the Fair Trade movement, and the marketing focused business that fair trade certifying has become…
Yunnan Black Tea and the Middle East
I first came to Yunxian in 2005 after a trip to Dubai. I was invited to Dubai to become a member in the newly formed Dubai Tea Trading Center. Dubai wanted to become the hub of tea distribution and was providing remarkable incentives for companies to set up business there.
Plagiarism and Tea Ecommerce
Last week a fellow tea entrepreneur emailed us with a question. We had never spoken before, so he wasn’t sure how to approach us about a very sensitive issue. He had been searching for a map of Shi Feng Mountain and noticed that some of our photos and content appeared to have been lifted from… // MORE
Leadership in the tea industry?
Since it has been a few years since I have attended the World Tea Expo, I was curious about any changes that the expo might have undergone, so I briefly interviewed several of the attendees that I happen to know. I know I would have been better informed if I had just gone myself, but… // MORE
Why am I writing this blog?
I was looking at our archives, and I have been writing something on a pretty regular basis since 2003. Of course it hasn’t been all me; there have been others that have contributed. In the beginning it was just monthly emails, and the actual blog didn’t come into existence until around 2005. Still, that is… // MORE
Jinggu, Cha Ma Shi Factory, and Old Puer City
Day 6 our Yunnan Tea Tour packed up our little bus and took off for Jinggu. The Jinggu area is the largest forested area in Yunnan, and rich with many unknown mountains peaks with older trees. I have spent a lot of time in Jinggu and it always seems like I could stay there year… // MORE
Jingmai, Shui Alcohol, and a Princess
I got an email yesterday from a friend who asked me what had happened to the rest of the Yunnan Tour blog postings. Well, I have been home just for a couple of days and am just starting to get back in the swing of things after recovering from killer jet lag. Better to post now… // MORE
Loud Insects and an Eight Hundred Year Old Tree
Our third day of our Yunnan Tour brought us the Nannuoshan one of the Six Famous Mountains of Xishuanbanna
A Cafe in Dali
I’m sitting in a cafe in Dali a long way from Yiwu where we were on the second day of our Yunnan tour.
Making Puer Tea Cakes, Enjoying Cha Guo, and Dai Minority Restaurants
I have a special love for Yunnan. It is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and one of the most interesting, especially if you are a tea lover, and it is filled with very friendly people who really enjoy life, and feel it is even more enjoyable if they have some guests… // MORE
Dealing with Tea Plant Myths
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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?
“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…
Cold Winters, Floods, and the Price of Tea
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…