teakkurim

s ivan 7 5781 just the other day was shavuote, the jewish festival of weeks, one of the three pilgrimage holidays. this holiday celebrates the barley harvest. the barley was planted at the end of Passover and now it is ready to reap. a common teaching is to talk about the transformation of seed to plant and concurrently the transformation of wheat into bread (lots of metaphors there since this is also the day that, mythically, the torah was revealed to the Israelites at mt sinai. transformation for this collection of wanderers into a nation and the transformation of information into mature knowledge which the study of torah is supposed to encourage).   this is similarly the time when spring puer is being picked, processed, and pressed. there are definitely some nice connections to be made in terms of thinking about the transformation of raw leaf into tea and the transformation of puer overtime as it ages and evolves.   shavuote is about celebrating, appreciating, and learning. with pue

sivan 4 5781   it has been unreasonably gorgeous this past week. sunshine, temperatures in the 70s, and flowers, flowers, flowers everywhere. when it gets like this i get invigorated by the sun. i wake up with energy and with that energy comes lots of anxiety. this is when i start chugging the downer herbal teas (mixes of chamomile, lemon balm, lavender, etc etc). i already feel naturally animated and i don’t crave caffeine let alone want it to fuel any anxious energy. all this to say that i have barely been drinking tea these days. when i do, i am casually brewing some loose leaves in a cup and i am not sitting down for a gong fu session of puer.    this is the time of the year where i try to spend as much time outside as possible. i have less desire to drink tea and when i do, i am looking for something that is not super stimulating, and doesnt require lots of precision.   i have dipped back into trying young unaged puer to see how i like it. since i don’t need a lot of caffeine at t

iyar 29 5781   i finally felt good about paying a chunk of money for puer. usually i feel constant economic and political dread when participating in capitalism; especially when buying something that comes from super far away). but this time, my purchase finally aligned with my values. i bought tea from a stranger on reddit (aka: mrmopar).   why does this make me so happy you ask? this is who i want to give my money to- someone who is doing this out of the joy of their heart. they are not running a business. they are not trying to meet certain margin goals. they are someone who enjoys helping fellow western puer fiends have access to good, hard to get puer, at a good price. it’s like that friend of yours who would sell you weed at the buddy rate because they were only dealing to cover their own cost of smoking.   from this person’s reddit posts i could tell i liked their style, i liked their taste preferences, and i also liked the content of what they would post. additionally, they hav