teakkurim

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 ...

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’...

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 ...

22 kislev 5782 a while ago , i wrote about what holds my leaves and my water for brewing. but what holds my leaves when they are hibernating between bouts of getting doused with boiling hot water? i live on a travel trailer. i am comfortable, it is warm, but it is still a trailer. in the summer, it can get very hot, and this is when i happily bring my tea inside my trailer to really soak up some heat. but int he winter and rainy times of the year, the trailer can only get so warm sometimes getting into the fifties at night even with my heat on. this means it is not a good place to store my sheng. i live on a five acres property where there is a main house, a tiny house (where my boo lives), a converted school bus (where i used to live), a newly built yurt, and this trailer i bought for myself. so where does my puer live? in my partner’s tiny house. that’s right, we don’t live together, but my tea lives with her. her tiny house, sided with cedar, insulated with wool, and snug ...