The Tea Squirrel

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Welcome to my blog. I hope you will join me for a cup of tea!

All tagged tea tasting

A side-by-side tea tasting in wine glasses

Apr 13

Apr 13 A side-by-side tea tasting in wine glasses

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.

Tasting a tea-infused chocolate bar

Feb 27

Feb 27 Tasting a tea-infused chocolate bar

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.

Caffeine-free infusions: Soba cha aka Japanese buckwheat tea

Jun 16

Jun 16 Caffeine-free infusions: Soba cha aka Japanese buckwheat tea

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.

Can you age green tea?

Apr 26

Apr 26 Can you age green tea?

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.

Tea and Mindfulness. Drinking a 2018 wild black tea and finding focus

Feb 1

Feb 1 Tea and Mindfulness. Drinking a 2018 wild black tea and finding focus

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.

Tea and Mindfulness. Drinking pu erh and making a collage

Jan 21

Jan 21 Tea and Mindfulness. Drinking pu erh and making a collage

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.

My DIY tea advent calendar recap

Dec 25

Dec 25 My DIY tea advent calendar recap

This year in the spirit of drinking the teas that I already own, I DIYed my own tea advent calendar with teas from my collection. I got a large envelope and decorated the front with a dot for each day leading up to Christmas. I’m very proud of myself because I reused scraps of paper I had saved from a previous DIY project. Then I selected 24 teas from my collection, printed out each one on a separate strip of paper and put all of them into the envelope. Each day I was randomly drawing one and voila’, I had my DIY tea advent calendar. Each day I posted on Instagram what tea had been randomly selected.

A tea tasting in Kyoto, Japan

Dec 9

Dec 9 A tea tasting in Kyoto, Japan

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 my tea collection, part 2

Jul 14

Jul 14 Decluttering my tea collection, part 2

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.

Decluttering my tea collection

Jun 26

Jun 26 Decluttering my tea collection

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.

My tasting notes: Bamboo Peak Milk Oolong

Mar 30

Mar 30 My tasting notes: Bamboo Peak Milk Oolong

How much do your expectations about a specific tea influence your tasting experience? Mine definitely influenced me more than they should have when I tasted this tea for the first time. Read on to discover more.

My tasting notes: Forever Spring Oolong

Mar 23

Mar 23 My tasting notes: Forever Spring Oolong

This Forever Spring Oolong tea belongs to a sampler box which includes 6 different oolongs from Taiwan and China. I was pleasantly surprised by its aromatic profile and balanced taste. An easy drinking tea that everyone should have in their collection.

A micro lot Korean tea tasting in Los Angeles

Nov 11

Nov 11 A micro lot Korean tea tasting in Los Angeles

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to attend a very special Korean tea tasting in the Arts District of Los Angeles. The tasting was held by Jessica Choi at The Good Liver, a curated home good store.

My tasting notes: 2018 Wild Raw Puerh

Oct 10

Oct 10 My tasting notes: 2018 Wild Raw Puerh

I won this cake a while ago at a giveaway on Instagram and it had been sitting - untouched - in my tea cabinet for a while. Puerh is meant for aging, so I was not overly concerned and I was waiting to be in the mood for it. Let me tell you, I’m rarely in the mood for puerh. I can hear all the pu-heads gasping in horror. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it a lot, but not for solo tea sessions. Strange, isn’t it? Anyways, I somehow associate young (or relatively young) raw puerh with grape skin notes, but I could not detect those here and I did not miss them because there was plenty of other intriguing notes going on.

My tasting notes: competition-grade gyokuro

Oct 3

Oct 3 My tasting notes: competition-grade gyokuro

Tastings, Pairings

My tasting notes: Machiko VS Fukumidori

Sep 20

Sep 20 My tasting notes: Machiko VS Fukumidori

Machiko is known to have the distinctive aroma of sakura, cherry blossoms, and fukumidori was described to me as bitter but in a good way, which is not a priority for me when choosing green tea from Japan (umami is at the top of the list usually). Apparently, Japanese tea drinkers seem to enjoy bitterness in their green tea and I was curious to see what that was like. Read on to discover my tasting notes and thoughts.

My tasting notes: Ceylon Uva with Tea Flowers

Feb 7

Feb 7 My tasting notes: Ceylon Uva with Tea Flowers

Tastings, Pairings

My tasting notes of a very unique and intriguing tea, Ceylon Uva with Camellia Sinensis Flowers.

Tea in Tokyo. Tokyo Saryo

Jan 23

Jan 23 Tea in Tokyo. Tokyo Saryo

Tastings, Pairings

My Japanese tea journey of discovery took me to the narrow, winding streets of Setagaya ward in Tokyo to what has been dubbed “the world’s first hand-drip green tea shop”, Tokyo Saryo.

The Sakurai Tea Experience in Tokyo

Jan 16

Jan 16 The Sakurai Tea Experience in Tokyo

Tastings, Pairings

Last December, my tea travels took me to Japan. In Tokyo, I finally explored the amazing variety of Japanese tea. In this post, I’ll tell you more about the Sakurai tea experience. If you’re doing only one tea thing in Tokyo, let it be that.

A Japanese dessert and snack tasting with tea pairing in San Francisco

Nov 20

Nov 20 A Japanese dessert and snack tasting with tea pairing in San Francisco

Tastings, Pairings

Have you ever heard the quote “where there’s tea, there’s hope”? I took the liberty of rewriting that into “where there’s excellent tea, there’s the tea squirrel” because wherever you can find top notch tea, you can be sure that place is on my radar and you might find me there to enjoy it. So naturally I had to visit Oyatsuya, a pop-up Japanese dessert and snack tasting with tea pairings in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco.