FooJoy Oolong


This is one of those teas that I just shouldn't have bought. I had wanted to try and Oolong. Cash was tight and I bought the cheapest Oolong in the grocery store.

I can't recall now how long ago I bought it. One year? Two years? More?

It doesn't matter, the tea was ancient when I bought it. How do I explain the taste?

Do you have a really bad chinese restaurant in your town? The one where the servers say "Gracias" Ok, you're at that restaurant. You order the "Chinese Tea" in hopes that it might scald off your taste buds before you try this unintentionally asian fusion style meal? This is that tea.

I keep this tea around to remind me why I'm willing to pay good money for tea. It is a better value for money to buy a good tea that I'll drink then a bad one that I won't.

You have seen nothing like marriage for increasing the love between two people.
-Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 921 (source via wikiquote)

Kalahari Reserve
Red Tea


How to sell me tea.

After my unsolicited email the other day I started wondering, "Why do I buy tea from the places I do?" I think most people would have a hard time understanding it, but not the lot of you who read this.

1. Be available. I buy a US $3.50 chai latte once or twice a week from Starbucks or Brewed Awakenings because they are on the way to the places I go. I gave Mighty Leaf a try because I could buy it where I practice Tai-Chi. I paid $1.50 for one bag of tea, a cup and some hot water.

2. Get a Blogger to recommend you. I spent $40 for one tin of tea based on one blogger's recommendation. It was so good I went back and ordered two other types for $20 a tin. $80 in revenue just from getting a mention in Oswego Tea.

3. Be the hip spot in Portland. I buy a few ounces of tea from Tea Zone whenever I'm in the area. I'd like to someday say that I've tried all of their varieties.

4. Have a web site AND one of the above 3 I've searched on google and yahoo for different varieties. I found some very cool looking sites with beautiful tea. I didn't buy from them. I am far more likely to buy from the Tea Zone and its web site that looks like it someone's kid put it together.

That is how to get me to buy your product.

Queen: The Archbishop of Canterbury is very naughty boy, whose bottom I had to smack, for relieving himself in the pond.
King: That was a long time ago.
Queen: It was last Thursday.
-BlackAdder (sourced via WikiQuote>

Tea Zone
Ti Kwan Yin


This is the one good tea blog, so naturally I write about many good teas.

I love Darjeeling. I don't know why, but I just love a good Darjeeling. I love the way the leaf looks before I pour in hot water. I love to take a big sip, hold it and love the way it heats up my gums. It is the classic tea.

I love Red Tea or Rooibos. It has a sweet taste and is naturally caffeine free. I know its not really a tea, but I just love it anyways.

I love Lapsang Souchang. I love its smoky, piny taste. It reminds me being young and camping in the pine forests of Northern Florida. It has a depth of taste that is just unbelievable.

I love Gunpowder tea too. I love the smaller caffeine kick of a green tea as I go transition from early morning to afternoon.

It doesn't have to make sense. I love tea. This is the one good tea blog.

"Shoot me again! I enjoy it! I love the smell of burnt feathers... and gun powder... and cordite. I'm an elk! Shoot me! Go on!! It's elk season! I'm a fiddler crab. Why don't you shoot me?! It's fiddler crab season!" -- Duck Rabbit Duck sourced from wikiquote

A person from Kasora sent me a nice email below asking me to add a link and they'd send me some tea to sample.

If its particularly good tea I'm sure they'll get plenty more links. On the same hand, if its particularly bad tea I'm sure they'll get one more link from me. ;-)

-Tom

P.S. Here's the email:

Hello Tom, hope you don't mind me sending you this email. I've been
emailing all day, and I'm starting to get a little squirrely. Plus, I
just realized I have no idea how to spell "squirrel". Is it one "r" or two?
Two "l"s? I got now clue. Clearly I need more tea. Anyway.

The reason I'm writing to you is that we are currently contacting
bloggers like yourself, who write about tea, to inform them of our links rewards
program here at Kasora Special Reserve Teas (www.kasora.com). It's a
way for bloggers like yourself to help us grow AND sample some of the
world's greatest teas in the process. All you do is post a link to us
somewhere on your blog (it can be in an entry if you like), mention us by name, and
then email us letting us know where it is and what physical address you'd
like your reward sent to. We take care of the rest, and in no time at all
you're enjoying some of the finest teas in the world, for doing what you
already love doing--writing in your blog.

If you'd like to learn more, and see the teas we have available, just
go to our website and click "link rewards".

Thanks for your time, hope we're sending you free tea soon!

Hudson Bedell
Kasora Special Reserve Teas
www.kasora.com

Mariage Freres
Buddha Bleu



I was so excited to open the box with my two new teas in it. I love the black tins that Mariage Freres uses. I opened up the Buddha Bleu first. It is a beautiful tea with large pieces of tea leaf and blue cornflower. I don't know if the picture really does it justice. It also has a smooth feel to it that is hard to describe.

I've had about a dozen cups of it so far. It has a light, fresh taste. It does have just a bit of a fruity taste, but not enough to make one thing that it might be a future celestial seasonings product. It is just an excellent green tea.

I recommend it as an afternoon or evening tea. Its taste is very clean.

The human race will begin solving its problems on the day that it ceases taking itself so seriously.
-Principia Discordia (sourced via wikiquote)

The Tea Zone
Organic Gunpowder

I must confess that the first time I tried Gunpowder tea I was unimpressed. To me it seemed to lack any real character. It paled next to a smoky lapsang souchong or an aromatic Earl Grey.

My tastes have matured. This is a very tasty green tea. It is my favorite of the greens so far.

I got an order of new teas in this week. Mariage Freres' Buddha Bleu as well as their Marco Polo. I am anxious to try them.

The proverb answers where the sermon fails, as a well-charged pistol will do more execution than a whole barrel of gunpowder idly exploded in the air.
-William Gilmore Simms (via BrainyQuote)

Kalahari Highlands Honey
Red Tea (Bagged)


It is Sunday afternoon. My four year old girl has snuggled up against me to watch Charlotte's Web. She chose this movie at Wal-mart out of a selection of hundreds of kid's movies. It makes me ask myself why? Why not a newer movie? Why not a more advertised movie? I think it just goes to show what a good story with well thought out characters can do.

Mmm. Red Tea. Those South Africans may have gotten a lot of things wrong, but this one thing they got right.

The only saving grace of the present is that it's too damned stupid to question the past very closely.
H.P. Lovecraft (source via wikiquote)

The Tea Zone Organic Gunpowder
Loose Green Tea

I've been a busy boy -- sorry for the lapse.

I brought two old favorites to my work: Tazo Awake and Nature's Bulk Darjeeling. They were ok and getting me through my day.

Today I brought in Gunpowder. The first sip reminded me why I love tea so much. It was such a pleasant taste and so different from the black teas that I enjoy most days. I was just incredibly pleased with it.

Virtue is nothing else than right reason.

-Seneca