teakkurim

16 adar 5781 after my previous post, i want to rebound with something more positive. instead of sharing my frustrations about a certain vendor, i want to give a shout out to a vendor i really appreciate.  LiquidProust is part vendor and part hobbyist.  LP is also one of the more modern tea vendors. he uses instagram a lot for promotion and has a discord channel (channel? thread? group? i don’t know, im out of the loop). although we are both millenials, he is way more modern where i am here writing a blog like its 2008. also, gotta give LP props for posting a beautiful shot of a Taco Bell taco with a Dayi 7542 cake in the background. i showed this to my boo and we were joking how its basically us; she is the taco bell to my tea. something i really appreciate about LP is how much he seems to genuinely care about contributing to the community of people in Amerika who love puer and  helping people learn about tea at affordable prices . keep an eye out in november where he of...

  as i wrote in a previous post , i contacted white2tea about an issue i had with their artwork. i did not hear back. i wrote a more formal letter and sent it to their website and instagram. i still haven’t heard back.   this is bothering more than i wish it did.   here is the letter i wrote:   i would like to ask you to change the art you choose to use for your censer white tea cakes.   as a jew, and a kohen at that, i think it is not fitting to have a picture of a kohen gadol (a jewish high priest) on a product that has nothing to do with the jewish faith or culture. additionally, it is upsetting that the artwork you chose is done by a non-jew.   as a company who talks about being dedicated to social justice issues, i think it would be good to choose different art for your future censer tea cakes. if you want to be extra cool, i suggest also putting a footnote on the pages for your current censer cakes saying that you will be changing the art and the reas...

9 adar 5781   recently, ive been ‘curating’ some puer samples for my coworker/friend. it is the closest thing i have to drinking tea with people during these pandemic times. plus, it’s something i really enjoy doing. im being methodical in the order i am giving them to her and im even including some fun notes. the first note is basic stuff about how to steep it or how much caffeine it has so she can get a decent cup out of it and know what to expect. then on the inside is a more detailed note talking about the year, origin, harvest, qi, etc. things i want someone to experience without me giving anything away. then they can use my notes to compare and contrast how they felt.   on thursdays, i have another coworker/friend i share tea with. i’ll bring in a tea from home and steep it fake-gong-fu-at-work style (i use a strainer, a smallish coffee mug, and use a high leaf to water ratio and do quick steeps. its somewhere between gong fu and western brewing). i give myself the first...

7 adar 5781   after posting all these pictures of snow, i thought i’d share something a bit warmer. here is me pouring tea in my friend’s back yard back from the end of summer in 2020. look how pretty my face is! it’s an aged white tea and it was really nice.      here’s to more sunny tea sharing with friends :)   xoxo, atzei besamim

3 adar 5781 i am writing a blog in 2021. this would make sense if it were 2004 and this was on livejournal, but it is not. if i truly want people to see this content, a blog is not the best place for it. i should be on instagram, snapchat, discord. i should be on TikTok making bad jokes about ThirsTeaTraps (it's a thirst trap joke) and getting 'tea drunk' to Maroon 5 (gag). (un)fortunately, that's not who i am. i dont like screens. i try be on the internet as little as possible. i have a flip phone. yes, i do, and ive never had a smart phone and i want to keep it that way. i want to be in the tea community and to have people read this blog, but i really dont like using social media. it gives me (more) anxiety. plus, screens make my head hurt. i do a little on reddit but that's as much as i can take. also, i dont like buying things online. i am lucky enough that i live pretty close to seattle and it is very easy for me to drive to a small handful of excellent tea sho...

1 adar 5781   i was very inspired and pleased by MarshalN’s post about blends. it hits on some of the main points on why it is hard to be a serious tea nerd in amerika. besides not having access to a certain portion of physical tea, we have limited access to the scaffolding of tea culture. part of the desire to age puer in the west is for enthusiastic hobbyists, but also because it is hard to affordably access fully aged puer in the west, so we might as well do it ourselves.    in China, aging is done by tea makers and tea sellers. besides aging puer cakes (bricks, maocha, etc), tea shops would have their own signature blends for their customers. a little bit from this cake here, a little bit of maocha there. some young sheng, some old sheng, and some ripe mixed in to balance it out. these blends were unique to each shop and very affordable. this sounds like something i would love especially as someone who loves cooking, experimenting, and creating.   in that same b...

1 adar 5781   im gonna be doing a few posts today because i am snowed in and might as well. one of the reasons i moved out to the PNW was to get away from the snow and cold, but here it is. i cant go anywhere and it's too cold for me to romp around much. but it does look very pretty especially on the property im on so i will be drinking lots of tea, eating soup/stew and reading a lot. on to the teas. after drinking my puerhshop samples, i am starting to learn how much difference storage makes. these teas were all dry stored and then dry- er  stored in the US in the PS warehouse (kept at room temp but at 45% RH). all 7 of PS teas i drank had a mineral/clay-like aftertaste that came out around steep 4 and held on til the end. i am guessing had to do with the storage. each vendor imparts their own particular storage taste, just like each house has its own unique odor…   i also learned about how my body feels about teas that are only slightly aged. a ...

1 adar 5781 (rosh chodesh) first, the first of the month of adar lines up with the Chinese Lunar New Year. Happy New Year to those who celebrate! (fun fact: the Jewish calendar has lunar months but has a solar year. i dont understand astronomy enough to explain what this means, but it's pretty cool).   on to the tea review. yes, i said tea review (which i dont enjoy writing), but this post talks more about my continued learning and what i am starting to pick up on more than a specific tea.   this is the last tea i wil be writing about from Puerhshop for now. ive had more but they weren’t worth writing about (that means you: 2005 yiwu zhenghsan, 2007 ronshen, and 2007 mengku big tree). this tea is called Yiwu King of Kings Anceint Tree from 2006. i have not had a ‘Yiwu’ before.  Yiwu mountain is one of the ‘six famous tea mountains’ within Mengla County in the Xishuangbanna prefecture of Yunnan. Xiashuangbanna is the southern most prefecture in Yunnan and is regarded as ha...

28 shvat 5781 this is my third 7542 from Puerh Shop. they have all been pretty similar. these are the only 7542s i’ve had. they are all from the same vendor and they have all been dry stored. they still brew a light orange despite being from 98 , 04 , and 06. so although they supposedly have some years, they still seem only mildly aged.    this is when i wish i had some tea people to talk to. what do other 7542’s taste like, how do these compare?    in regards to taste, they are not very impressive. theres not a lot of depth. theres not much of an after taste or hui gan. the mouthfeel is decent. drinks pretty smooth but not too impressive overall.   the qi seems similar for them all and it is what threw me off the most. i was expecting some hard hitting stimulation. maybe some sweats maybe some boosts of energy. i didn’t feel that. the qi for these teas seems clarifying (which felt good today because my anxiety is a little up right now). not what i expected. im ...

25 shvat 5781  it has been about one year since i was last in seattle before covid hit. here is a very fun story about my first time at Seattle Best Tea. enjoy!   this was my second visit to a real tea shop (my first can be found here ) and it was another well known one ta boot.   my childhood best friend was visiting me on the west coast for the first time and i wanted to show him what a real me kinda day in seattle was (ie: eat dim sum, drink tea, smoke spliffs, go to the free Frye museum, and hang out in capital hill).   first stop was Harbor City for dim sum and needless to say, it was great. the food, the setting, the staff. all great. we just had the normal pot of green tea that comes with the meal but i tried to hold back because i wanted to save myself for our fancy tea tasting.    (side note: one of the main reasons i don’t like cities is because there is nowhere to pee. i like to drink tea. i like to walk around. i like to hydrate. this all become...

23 shvat 5781   i love dan congs. i also love puers, but they are mostly a weekend tea for me, ones where i can commit to a good period of sitting with and enjoying the tea hopefully for many many steeps.   one of the reasons i love dan congs is because they can be finicky. i enjoy the challenge of trying to get the perfect brew each time; not too bitter but still containing the different layers of flavor. i also love pouring them because the leaves do so well in the gaiwan. the flavor profiles are also ones i love. im a fruit. i like fruity flavors.   i was excited to find One River Tea Cooperative on the internet. they focus on dan congs, they are a cooperative, one of the people who runs the business went to school in the town im living in, their packaging is cute, and their prices are good. most of all, they have a very affordable sampler pack (i love being able to try many things).   i will cut to the chase incase you don’t want to read this whole post. i was di...

21 shvat 5781 camellia sinensis is not the only ‘tea’ i drink. every morning i drink herbal tea when i wake up. depending on what time of year or how i am feeling i will drink different things. in the winter i like things that are warming and spicy to help generate some heat and give some fire to my digestion. during the summer, i usually wake up with my anxiety at an 11. boom, im awake, time to be anxious. when this happens, i like to start my mornings with some serious downer tea to help me calm down. i like to make my own blends but i also will drink bag tea, especially this time of year when i feel more ‘blah’ and want something convenient. when i go backpacking or camping i love spending my morning by walking around and finding some things to make tea with. i will boil water, make my ‘forest tea’ and sit by some water and pray or sing while i drink my tea.   i love tea because it is a plant. i love interacting with plants. i especially love plants i can eat, drink, or make me...