Hi.
Welcome to my blog. I hope you will join me for a cup of tea!
Welcome to my blog. I hope you will join me for a cup of tea!
All tagged gaiwan
A few days ago, I asked my Instagram community the following two questions. Do you wash your teaware? Do you wash your teaware with dish soap? I thought you’d be interested to hear what works for me.
Hello, tea lovers and welcome back to The Tea Squirrel! This is episode number three of my series on tea and mindfulness. Being present in the moment, enjoying the beauty of little things, being intentional with one’s thoughts and actions are all things that tea lovers can easily teach themselves by cultivating a tea ritual, however simple or elaborate. My goal for this series is to practice mindfulness more consistently and explore it in a creative way.
If you’re new here (welcome!), tea and murals might sound like a far-fetched duo to you. Well, let me explain. Pairing tea and murals is my quirky way of combining two passions in a mindful way and a good “excuse” (as if you needed one!) to explore neighborhoods through tea and art. I’ve been asked what the tea scene in LA is like. Right this way, ladies and gentlemen! I enjoyed the mural, I drank the tea and I’m showing you where to go in one of my favorite LA neighborhoods (oh, hello Culver City) if you want to do the same.
This time of year, we might get caught up in a great deal of stress and anxiety instead of enjoying ourselves and our loved ones and we might need a grounding inspirational moment to find balance again. I hope this collection of quotes and some of my most recent tea photography can help you ground yourself in your most stressful moments and inspire you to make a cup of tea for yourself or to share with someone else, because after all a mindful tea moment can be one of the most effective self-care strategies.
I had seen puer tea stuffed in mandarins before but I had never seen Korean black tea stuffed in a dried, hollowed-out yuzu. If you’re not familiar with yuzu, it’s a citrus fruit which is similar to a grapefruit and a mandarin orange in flavor. Check out this unique tea, let’s taste it together!
While tasting a 2018 Yiwu raw puer by Bitterleaf, I practiced my macro photography skills (I have a new lens, yay!) and mindfulness with some gorgeous sea shells I found along the coast on a beautiful beach in Mendocino, California.
Follow The Tea Squirrel on this Southern California tea adventure in the Los Angeles area. A unique tasting of Chinese Dan Cong oolongs (also known as Phoenix oolongs) awaits.
The inspiration for this blog post comes from fellow tea blogger Lu Ann of The Cup of Life, who basically invented this. It’s about “keeping track” of tea, because - as someone once said - “tea is more than just a beverage, it’s about noticing your own habits.”
No matter how much I try to convince myself otherwise, we’re still in the dead of winter. January has brought a lot of rain and grey, overcast skies to San Francisco and I cannot deny the intoxicating allure of bold, charcoal roasted teas. I let my imagination run wild and I picture myself in a forest of tall, majestic redwoods (that’s what we have around here), sitting by the fire and clutching a warm tea cup filled with fragrant Da Hong Pao.
Last week my friend and fellow tea blogger Mike (The Tea Letter) and I met for a gongfu tea session. Mike brought the tea, I brought the teaware and my camera. We had had tea together before at a tea house in San Francisco but this was the first time we got together with the intention to work on a “tandem” blog post. I’m glad to report that the input and inspiration I got from our tea session stretches far beyond that. This post has been particularly challenging to write, maybe because that input stirred inward reflection and assessment of my tea journey so far.
Last October, during my European trip, I got to visit Trieste, an Italian town that holds a special place in my heart. I had not been there in 5 years and I didn’t know what to expect. I had certainly not anticipated that I would find great tea.
Happy anniversary! The Tea Squirrel turns 1 year old tomorrow! Thank you for following along with this tea journey of mine, you make it worthwhile, dear tea friend! I raise my tea cup to you. Cheers to many more exciting tea adventures together!
The first time I had pu erh was a long time ago and I didn't even know it. Back then, the only thing I knew about tea was that I liked it a lot. One day a relative gave me a round colorful cardboard box with black Chinese characters. Inside the box, wrapped in paper, there was tuocha, a dome-shaped compressed tea, made of pu erh. I cannot describe the fascination this little box exerted on me. It might have not been very high quality tea but to me it was like a treasure. You had to grate the dome-shaped cake to make a cup of tea and this process alone had something magical to it. The tea was strong, intense.What is pu erh?
"Oolong" is a funny word. In Chinese it means "black dragon tea" and refers to a partially oxidized tea. This particular black dragon tea comes from Phoenix Mountain. I know, I realize this sounds like straight out of Chinese mythology. Misty mountains, remote tea gardens... Ok, now I am getting sidetracked!
