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Blind Spots (in the Western Market)
The west is a tiny blimp in the Chinese specialty tea market. Having had the experience of traveling and shopped for tea in Taiwan and Hong Kong it gives me some idea of how the market looks in parts of east Asia where tea culture is strong. There are some teas where the west does generally…
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Practical Brewing Nuances
There’s quite a bit to take into account when brewing. Most of us figure out how they work in our setup and fall into routines that eventually get filed away into muscle memory.. It can take being removed from our familiar home setups for us to really think and utilize improvisational gong-fu skills to bring the most out of a tea. Maybe, you’re used…
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Extending a Session — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #102
This episode, James talks about different ways to extend a session to get the most out of your best teas. Tea featured is 2007 Yangqing Hao Qizhong.
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Wistaria Pu’erh Mini-Report [April/May 2016]
Wistaria (website) is an iconic, Taipei teahouse. The building itself is nearly 100 years old and lived through its share of history. As a teahouse, Wistaria and it’s proprietor (Zhou Yu) have played an important role in the development of modern chayi (tea art) and tea culture in Taiwan. For tea folks or people traveling to Taiwan…
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Ripe Pu’erh Learning & Basics [Episode 170]
This episode covers the basics of ripe pu’erh and how to brew it and get started on this very diverse category of tea. Teas included are the 2014 Yunnan Sourcing Year of the Horse Ripe and a 1990s HK-Stored ripe.
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Brewing Darker/Older Teas Feat. 1990s Duoteli Liubao (FP) — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #99
This episode, James talks about how he’s been brewing some older and more mellow teas. Tea featured is a run of the mill 1990s Liubao from Fine Pu’er.
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Pu’erh Vendor Mark-Up Followup & Some Clarifications
Judging from the positive and negative responses in the comments and on facebook to the article published on vendor markup, I clearly hit a certain chord within our small little tea niche. I wanted to post a few quick follow-up thoughts and clarifications.. As some people have mentioned, what is a fair price for a…
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Raw Pu’erh Learning & Basics [Episode 168]
This episode covers the basics of raw pu’erh and how to brew it and get started on this very diverse category of tea. Teas included are the 2013 Xizihao Xuanxi, 2004 Jianshen Tuo, and 199 Yangqinghao Micang.
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Pu’erh Nerdy Q&A — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #97
Answering a few more of the pu’erh questions we didn’t get to in our Q&A episode.
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How Much is Your Vendor Marking Up Your Pu’erh?
No one wants to pay for unnecessary things, but even so very few of us know the actual cost of goods, or actual item cost that the vendor bought the tea for. We’re often left clueless about what their markup might be. There are inevitable costs of running a business that we as consumers don’t…