teakkurim

5 iyar 5782 i have not been posting regularly on here because...drum roll...i started graduate school. ta dah. i am on my way towards getting a teaching degree. not only that but i am working while doing graduate school, so all of my free time is taken up by homework.  in addition to spending my time on homework, i will probably continue to post even less as...another drum roll...the weather starts to get nicer, yay! that means more time outside, less time indoors, and way less time with screens (no offense computer). more time outdoors means more tea outside. i am blessed enough to live with a patch of woods behind my trailer. i spend a lot of time in those woods; walking around, singing, doing tai qi, praying, and now, drinking tea. i pack up my bag loaded with; drinking vessel, tea, lighter, kindling, wood fired camp stove, and water. then i trudge on down to nestle myself between cedars, ferns, and a tiny lil creek. i love working with fire, tending fires, and cooking with fires. t

recently, i have been experimenting with making some non-traditional kugels. i didn’t grow up eating many kugels (some, but not many) and i haven’t made any until recently. they’ve been great to add into my weird diet that tries not to eat too many grains, is gf, dairy free, and legume free. it’s nice to make a big ol’ kugel and have it to easily heat up and add to my meals throughout the week when i don’t have as much time or energy to cook. this recipe i made up takes inspiration from one of my favorite dim dum dishes (which is the reason i feel it is reasonable to post on this tea blog). i love those crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside daikon cakes served with many dim sum meals. the real daikon cake, Luo Bo Gao , is a lil too complicated for my daily meal prep, so i made this rip-off kugel version that’s a lot quicker. *i don’t measure when i cook, so these measurements are approximations, but i think it’s still pretty spot on ingredients: -one large russet pota

16 adar II 5782 i am excited that my relationship to qi continues to evolve ( past posts on qi ). just with any practice or activity, the more i relate to chaqi, the more i gain. this does not hold to the isolated activity of ‘gong fu cha.’ the more we experience life, the more we can relate the world we are encountering and it’s generative lessons to any practice and vice versa. the more i consciously interact with chaqi, the more i learn to interact with qi in my other encounters. qi is not a one way street. yes, a tea has qi, but we as the tea drinkers can change how the qi interacts with us. one aspect of this is the classic example of how your mood can alter your experience. if i am having a grumpy day and feeling rushed and stressed out, i may interpret the tea as ‘energizing.’ but if i am calm, relaxed, and intentional when drinking my tea, i might feel the tea as more calming and not energizing at all. but here’s where the kicker comes in ‘hey, teakkurim, if one’s mood is what

21 adar 1 5782 a discussion that has been happening on discord lately (and im sure many times before i joined the server) is about judging a tea based on how well it will age and how well it will be 10+ years from now. classically, puer was only considered puer when it was at least 20-30 years old. and although i am not into strict fixed definitions, i recognize the reason for this distinction/delineation. 90%-99% of the 'puer' i drink (and same for many others in the west) is 'semi aged puer.' why do i only drink semi aged puer and not the 'real stuff'? well dear reader, i would if i could. trust and believe. although the semi aged tea i drink is very good, they do not yet have that markedly aged taste or feel yet. there is a certain something that truly old/aged cakes have that is distinct. i will happily write more on this subject once i have more of those teas (wistful sigh) most of this 'real puer' is very expensive these days. all the more so in

5 adar 1 5782 i am starting to settle into my tea habits. i have gained a good sense of what i want to drink and when. ive also started to gain a sense of how i want my tea budget to look. both of these things are a couple of the main goals for me on this blog. i now know that too much sheng is rough on my stomach. this is especially true for younger shengs. i don’t want sheng to be a daily drinker for me (maybe an aged huangpian or something decent and affordable and aged that works well for cow drinking. when i first started my puer journey i was hoping to ride the wave of the shouletariate and to have shou be my go to daily drinker while saving my budget for more fancy teas to be reserved for the better quality aged sheng. this hope was momentarily derailed by an experience with a fancy shou wrecking my stomach. but after drinking a lot of tea, and then drinking some more tea, i am back on the road to settling into that goal and being happy with it. i will write a future post about