A Tea Addict's Journal

Entries from January 2025

An old ghost

January 20, 2025 · 5 Comments

This is the 19th year this blog has been in existence, which, frankly, is a long time, even if the past few years it’s more of a ghoul and less of an active blog. The reason I still pay for hosting to keep all this up is because, every so often, people would tell me that they’re going through the backlog and finding interesting information in it. I know how annoying it is to have a resource online just disappear on you, especially in this age of social media where everything goes away eventually, so, this site stays up.

It does also mean that there are lots of what are now skeletons on this blog, memories and impressions of places and people that are no more. I was in Yongkang a couple days ago, and passed by this storefront. It’s a dead shop, obviously, but I remember it as a teashop I visited on a few occasions the last time I stayed in Taipei for a while, back in 2007 when I would mundanely post every day about what I drank that day. The shop was called Hui Liu, and at the time was a vegetarian restaurant/teashop. I think I even bought some tea there, a couple ounces. Even by the end of my stay in 2007, I had stopped going to Yongkang for tea – it’s too touristy, with prices to match. These days I visit there mostly for the food, and for spaces where you can sit down and brew tea with friends.

But it did trigger a couple memories of how it used to be like there, and I dug up the old post of me talking about it. I was rather eager to learn more back in the day. Funny thing is, I don’t think I ever went back to either Yetang or Hui Liu. Yetang, from what I can tell, is still open. Hui Liu closed I think in 2018, replaced by some other place which has also now closed, as you can see in the photo above. I should really go back to Yetang and see what it’s like now. The owner, from what I can gather, spends most of his time in the mainland teaching tea these days. Hui Liu, on the other hand, is now just a memory.

Categories: Teas
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Pay attention to the others

January 11, 2025 · 7 Comments

Yes, I’m still alive. Not sure how many of you will see this though.

Today I went to a tea producer’s house to chat with him here in Taiwan. He showed me a bunch of teas he made while we talked about the state of the industry, etc. Aside from drinking some pretty interesting teas, one thing stood out to me – he’s constantly watching what I’m doing with the cup.

This is I think something that is underrated for a lot of people who don’t often gather for tea, and for those of you who tend to drink alone. The person doing the brewing for a group tends to overly focus on their brewing – I’ve done this in the past too. I’m watching myself, thinking of what to do next, talking, etc, and forgetting that there are other people drinking. I’m still pouring, but I’m not really paying attention to their drinking, when in fact, they’re giving you hints.

How fast are people drinking the tea? How are they reacting? The person I was with today was watching me like a hawk – one of the teas he brewed was a tea he rescued from some production problem. It’s not great – it’s fine, but clearly muted as a tea. The tea he brewed previously, a black tea using qingxin oolong, was great. So the moment he noticed that I was drinking the new tea a lot slower, he went back to the black tea – which lasted a good while longer. We never drank the rescue tea again – and I’m not even a customer. I was just there for the conversation. Now, having said that, I smoked plenty of second hand smoke today, but there was no way around that.

When doing a gongfu session with folks, you don’t have to brew every tea to its natural death. Some teas are not so great, or not to the taste of those who are present. Be happy to just give up on a tea and move on – rare is the tea that gets better with more infusions. If by cup 3 or 4 it’s not good, that’s it. It’s done. If someone’s not drinking, maybe re-make something that they liked previously. Part of being a good host is to notice these things, and to give the guests something they like. It’s the little things that count.

Categories: Teas
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