teakkurim

  23 tevet 5782 as MarshalN says, changing your water is the cheapest way to improve your tea. i have been avoiding trying to compare water for a few reasons. the first is that i am scared to admit to myself that it makes a big difference. i don’t want water to have such a big impact because IF spring water is tons better, that means there is yet another hurdle to having better tea. my mission for myself, and this blog, is to enjoy tea at a reasonable price and to be accessible to a westerner who doesn’t want to drop a lot of dough on leaves or accoutrements. yes one could easily buy spring water from the gas station but buying bottled water makes me furious (because its wasteful and all the horrible practices of companies who are taking drinking water from poor people so they do not have access to clean water). and if one doesn’t want to buy spring water, where else can you easily get it? how many people live near a natural spring?! ummmm… i do… you do?! then why aren’t yo

12 tevet 5782 the reason i joined discord was to have a good platform to buy second hand tea. i soon discovered the world of trading tea and find it one of the most enriching parts of being on discord. it supports some of the values i care about most. it encourages sharing, building community, education through first hand drinking experience, and it create solidarity among tea lovers and provides other means of accessing tea besides retailers. if this weren't enough, a big part of the tea community i am finding is honest generosity. not always, but most of the time, when people send me things they always include a little extra something. this is a practice i love and try to do my self. besides some nice added gifts, i have come across some very generous individuals who have sent me small portions of tea that are out of my price range or aren't available for purchase anymore. i am guessing many of these people who are comfortable in their financial stability and have a good supp

   

1 tevet 5782 i don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the titles of my blog posts have some words that are hard to pronounce. yup, that’s right, they are Hebrew (well, Hebrew words ‘transliterated’ into the English alphabet…). i actually put a good amount of thought into what i want to title these blog posts. the Hebrew words are not the direct translation of the English blog post but they are references to something jewish be it a quote form the tanakh, chasidut, kabbalism, or aggadah. sometimes they’re just puns because i love puns (lots of jews love puns). in my ideal world people would google these words and try to figure out what the references are because they’re pretty clever and offer some nice niche insights into parts of jewish culture. so now that you’ve read this, come on, give it a try. don’t you like a little extra layer of word games and literary references in your tea blogs? feel free comment for hints if you aren’t able to find the connection. xoxo, atzei besamim