teakkurim

6 shevet 5782 i don’t want to rub it in, but my water is really good. i am very fortunate and very grateful to pass by a delicious natural spring on my way to work every day. but this will not always be the case. one day i will move and then what? more importantly, i care about accessibility and want everyone to have access to great water. so what can you do if you don’t live by a natural spring? firstly, try to find out if there is one near you. it may be closer than you think. ask the hippies in your town or check out this website: https://findaspring.com/ also, if you cant get to a natural spring, there are things called ‘water recipes’ so you can make/enhance your water. yes, i am not joking. when i first saw this i thought that was the most ridiculous thing ive ever heard. it’s water, how can you have a recipe for water?! i now know it is a very valid thing. good water is more than H2O. spring water, the most esteemed for tea, is valued for a reason. there is something behin...

  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’...

6 shvat 5781   ive only recently started properly putting my teaware to ‘bed.’ i used to quickly wash my gaiwan out right after drinking my tea. i would wash it with my fingers and hot water from the kitchen sink and put it aside to air dry. i was surprised when i started to see tea stains. why would those appear? i washed it out immediately after using, how was it getting stained?   firstly, i am not opposed to tea stains. i do not believe if someone drinks from something that has tea stains they are any less of a person. i am not normally someone to be this persnickety about things like this. i am a grungy garbage princess, why should this matter to me?    my generic tea mug (that i bought at the salvation army ten years ago that i still have and still use daily) that i drink herbal tea out of every morning has hella tea stains. i definitely do not wash it every day, nuh uh. but i care about my gaiwan not having stains. that’s just the way i am. for now at least. ...

19 tevet 5781 i like to keep things simple. partly out of necessity and partly out of stress. less things means less to worry about and i, like many, already have enough to worry about.   gaiwan. cup. water. just the basics. but because i  am  not  ‘basic,’ there are a few twists.   my gaiwan is a nice, petite, white gaiwan. just like me.   it is 60ml and i bought it from Yunnan Sourcing for under $6 plus shipping. i am a delicate little bird, so i like the small size of this gaiwan so my tea sessions can be reasonable. id rather have two separate small sessions than one larger size one anyway so i can try different teas.   i actually have two of these small gaiwans. why? because i broke the lid on the first one just one week into owning it. the lid of my second one lasted not much longer. so now i have two gaiwan bowls and no lid, what am i to do? thankfully, the lid from one of my thrift store ‘Chinese’ style tea pots fits my gaiwan! yes, the lip has...