It's All About Tea

For many of us, the world is going through unrest. It is easy to get overwhelmed with stress, anxiety, and loss of stability. Our daily reality is constantly plagued by war, inflation, COVID, street and school violence, or social division. The mere thought of those disasters can be hard to bear. It puts our minds and souls under constant pressure.

In times like these, the simple action of drinking tea with mindfulness can be a remedy at hand. Let's explore how drinking tea for focusing evolved from ancient times to nowadays in China's most important religious movements. We will also learn ways to take advantage of those practices to quiet the bustling thoughts, achieve mindfulness, and shift to a better state of calm and gratitude. (Read more)

"Washing tea" ( or rinsing tea) is a well-known expression for everyone who enjoys drinking loose leaf tea in a traditional way – f.ex. Gong Fu Cha style. We call "washing/ rinsing" the act of pouring out the very first brew of tea. Its purpose is to literally "wash" the tea leaves.

Washing tea has become an essential step in the tea ritual. Some people go to the extent of "washing" even the most gentle and delicate teas, like green tea. What good does it bring, though? And is it really necessary? Let's find out what stands behind the custom of washing tea. (Read More)

Following up from last time, here’s the second part of our blog post, dedicated to storing and aging Pu-erh tea. We talk about the phase of transitioning from wet to dry Pu-erh. We explore the advantages of dry over wet storage and give an answer on whether wet storage is good or bad after all.

You will learn the two essential factors that guarantee effective storage for your tea cakes. You will also understand how the shape influences the storage. Finally, you will learn the best ways to store tea at home, depending on its shape and quantity. Let’s dive in! (Read more)

Pu-erh is among the most fascinating and controversial topics in the world of tea. Today, we will speak about a major aspect of the Pu-erh tea production cycle: aging or storage.

There are two primary schools of thought: wet storage and dry storage. Let's explore their differences and the way they affect Pu-erh tea quality. You will learn the nitty gritty of both ways to store your tea and how it affects pu-erh tea's quality and transformation. (Read more)

In this chapter of "Tea with friends: the story of..." we sit down to chat with Vincent Liu. A startup entrepreneur, Vincent has returned from the US, where he finished his education, back to his roots in China to follow his newfound passion for Chinese tea. 

During the process, he managed to tour several famous tea-producing regions, introduce local artisan teas to the public, and create the world's first tea app! (Read more)