You may have noticed that it has been quite a while since I posted any tea tasting or other tea comments. This has been in part because I am having so much fun with the drawing and in part because I have discovered quite a few excellent tea blogs which for quality of content and images are so outstanding as to put my slight offerings to shame…
Sooooo, if you, like me are really interested in tea, here are a few of these remarkable blogs which you might like to check out.
The Mandarin’s Tea is a beautiful and knowledgeable blog. Being focused on both the tea itself and the accoutrements makes for an attractive blend! (He also posts about cigars… not one of my interests! lol but the tea posts are great.)
A recent favourite of mine is a blog called Tea Obsession. It is written by a woman in L.A. who has a shop specializing in one particular kind of single-tree produced Oolong (Wulong). That’s quite a specialty!! She is passionately devoted to her tea and it shows in the writing.
Another beauty is The Half-Dipper. As I have been doing more reading on Puerh tea I now understand more of the references to various types of tea cakes and the factories where they are produced. Ah, yet another field on which one could spend a lifetime of study… which is why I’m recommending you to this great blog if you really want to learn some interesting things about tea and have your eyes pleased by wonderful images at the same time.
There’s even a live journal Puerh Tea Community for those very serious about Puerh tea. Following some of the comment strings is very enlightening – and makes it clear both how much there is to learn as well as how difficult it can be to get straight answers about Puerh!
And there are more! …but I think that will do for now. By-the-way, the above is a basket fried green tea ready for the water to be added. Don’t forget to let your water cool down after boiling to about 90 C in order to enjoy the best flavour for most green teas. These leaves have a particularly interesting flat appearance due to the special basket frying method of processing. The flavour was fresh but subtly smoky. I’m not sure that it will be one of my favourites despite the pleasant visual effect.
image and content (cc) 2009 Hilary Farmer
Green Tea Doodles 