It's All About Tea

We see these questions pop up a lot: What is the difference between sencha and matcha? And, if matcha is powdered green tea can I just grind up some sencha at home? We will try to clarify some of these concepts! (Read more)

“Black Tea” as it's called in the West, or "Hong Cha" ("Red Tea") as it is called in Asia is well-known as an afternoon tea for it’s mellow and sweet flavor. According to legend, the Wuyi Mountains in northern Fujian, China, is where black tea was first developed. One legend tells of passing soldiers using covered piles of tea leaves as mattresses, thus bruising the leaves and creating oxidation, which gives black tea its dark color. (Read more)

Today a chasen (bamboo whisk) is undoubtedly one of the most indispensable parts of Chanoyu (Japanese tea ceremony). You might walk into a modern coffee shop or tea cafe and see the baristas preparing your matcha by shaking or blending the matcha powder with hot water (and possibly milk), but to many matcha lovers out there this is simply despicable. If you are present at a Japanese tea ceremony, you will not expect for your matcha to be whisked with anything but a chasen. (Read more)

We all know of Chado (the way of tea) or Chanoyu, which refers to the traditional Japanese matcha tea ceremony. But how many of us know that Senchado (the way of sencha) was a thing as much as Chado at a time? Although now sencha is drunk in much more casual settings, most commonly in the comforts of one’s home or perhaps at a sushi restaurant, it started off as a more or less a ceremony quite similar to gong fu cha. (Read more)

If you are only starting to get into the vast and somewhat mysterious world of pu-erh, chances are you’ve been purchasing samples. The samples are an excellent way to get acquainted with the tea and see what you like before investing in a whole cake. An entire pu-erh cake can be pricey, but it is well worth it if you found one that you want as it will last you for many months, if not years, and in many cases only gets better with age.

After you have purchased your first cake or brick, the next step is breaking it into a size suitable for one tea session. For this, we use specially designated pu-erh tea needles. Learn about how to properly loosen and break pu-erh tea. (Read more)