All tagged The Tea Squirrel
My tea journey is about the journey itself, not the destination. I don’t know where I’m going exactly but I know that every cup of tea, whether shared with someone or enjoyed alone, every encounter and conversation over tea, each and every tasting note and photograph I take are worth my undivided attention. So here I am, amplifying my sensory experience of tea by drinking tea, two teas, side by side, in wine glasses. Pure bliss. My senses are alert, my mind is not scattered, I’m here now and I don’t wish to be anywhere else at any other point in time.
If you’ve seen my previous posts about tea chocolate, you know that I am obsessed with bean-to-bar chocolate maker Fossa from Singapore and their single-origin tea chocolate bars made in collaboration with tea curator Pekoe & Imp. I was able to find two bars I had not tried yet, Duck Shit Dancong tea chocolate and Himalayan Royale Tips Hongcha tea chocolate.
I came across a tea-infused chocolate bar by bean-to-bar chocolate maker Fossa from Singapore. It is infused with Honey Orchid Dancong Oolong from China. Read my thoughts and tasting notes.
I came across the recipe for a mocktail called A little bit Russian by Julia Bainbridge. I had heard of Julia Bainbridge before, she’s a writer and the author of Good Drinks, a recipe book on non alcoholic drinks. A black tea concentrate is shaken with coconut milk, simple syrup, bitters and ice, then strained and garnished with orange peel. I tested out this recipe to see if it would meet my tea-centric expectations and slightly adapted it to make the tea flavor shine.
After 5 years of tea blogging and countless other tea-related topics to research and write about, I had felt a bit of fatigue and lack of inspiration when taking tasting notes of tea. Luckily, I was determined to dig deeper into the process and found a better way, as well as a much needed creative spark. Read on to discover: The benefits of tea tasting notes. Taking my tea tasting notes to the next level. My tips and tricks for easier tea tastings. How I used Teawala’s Tea Tasting Journal. My tasting notes.
You might be familiar with cold brewing tea but have you tried ice brewing it? I’ve only ever seen ice brewing applied to Japanese green teas and I was curious to experiment with it, which is why I decided to test this method for different tea types from different origins.
After drinking caffeinated teas for most of the day, I find myself craving something refreshing later in the afternoon or to enjoy at sunset. I invented this thirst-quenching, insanely flavorful iced herbal infusion/mocktail by total chance. Picture yourself on a tropical vacation and that is exactly what the pink drink à la Tea Squirrel tastes like.
Today I’d like to share with you some of my favorite tea creators, tea bloggers and tea podcasts. Some are new discoveries, some have been inspiring me for years!
Today I want to talk to you about one of my favorite caffeine free tisanes (infusions not from the camellia sinensis plant). In the afternoon and evening, I usually switch from caffeinated beverages to caffeine-free ones. There is as much variety in the herbal tea realm as in the camellia sinensis world and I love discovering new flavor profiles. Soba cha, also known as roasted buckwheat tea, comes from a type of buckwheat that is related to the one that is commonly used in the kitchen.
That is the question that I asked myself while holding a nondescript pouch I had just retrieved from the back of my tea cabinet. It was still sealed, unlabeled and had a long code handwritten on one side. I knew exactly what it was. A micro-lot Korean green tea I had purchased at a tea tasting two years ago. Unintentionally, I had been putting off opening it, waiting for the perfect occasion. Honestly, my first response to the question “can you age green tea?” would be a resounding “no”, but I was about to find out firsthand anyway.
Because I haven’t been able to travel in over a year now (thank you, pandemic) and I miss traveling more than anything right now, I thought it would be fun to round up all the best tea experiences I’ve had around the world. Honestly, I’ve had more than 7 (at least 12) and I could write chapters about them but I’ll keep those for my memoirs. What are the best tea experiences you’ve ever had? Please let me know in the comments below, I’m curious!
As a tea lover and cat mom of two (but also an animal lover in general), I’ve always wondered whether there is a connection between being a tea drinker and being a cat lover. There seems to be a recurring pattern but is it true or is it a misconception or a stereotype? I asked my newsletter subscribers and here are the results of that survey.
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.
Hello, tea lovers and welcome back to The Tea Squirrel! This is episode number two 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.
What is mindfulness? Being present in the moment, enjoying the beauty of little things, being intentional with one’s thoughts and actions are all things tea lovers can easily teach themselves by cultivating a tea ritual. Over the next 10 weeks join me for a “Tea and Mindfulness Series” for tea lovers on the blog. My goal is to inspire you and get inspired for my future tea endeavors.
When Elisa Da Rin Puppel, the Italian tea blogger at Il Bollitore, asked me about working together on a blog post for The Tea Squirrel about her recent experience at The Tea Crane in Kyoto, I was already familiar with Tyas Sōsen and his natural teas. Here’s Elisa’s tea tasting experience at The Tea Crane. Enjoy!
Decluttering means making room for new teas and restocking old favorites. Therefore, in order to find my favorite teas and understand what other teas I might want to try, I had to adopt a structured approach to the content of my tea cabinet. It’s called a “showdown” and it’s a type of contest. You take your teas and taste them side by side to determine your favorite. Keep reading to find out the winner of this round.
In times of chaos and uncertainty, I find decluttering, cleaning and organizing extremely therapeutic. There’s something comforting about having things under control, especially when everything else is beyond my control. I had already embraced the “drink-what-you-own” approach to my tea stash a while ago, because while some teas age well, some others don’t and when you have a lot of them, chances are, many are getting stale and it breaks my heart to be wasteful. Decluttering also means making room for new teas and restocking old favorites. Therefore, in order to find my favorite teas and understand what other teas I might want to try, I had to adopt an analytical approach to the content of my tea cabinet.
