The Shou pu erh cake in the picture is a 2005 Haiwan ripe pu erh cake.   I started my Chinese tea adventures 20 years ago when I first stepped into a Hong Kong Chinese tea shop.   It was shou or ripe pu erh that caught my imagination. I was simply smitten with the taste and aroma of the tea.  I believed that it was Hong Kong that Chinese tea drinkers outside China got to know this tea. Hong Kong was the gateway to China 20-30 years ago. People from all over the world would go to Hong Kong to buy and order goods that were made in Mainland China. Hong Kong acted as an in ..read more

  I saw this tea at a local emporium.  This is a herbal Chinese tea.   This oolong tea is from the famed Wuyi region. However I suspect that the tea is low grade.  The unique point of this tea is that this is a herbal tea where herbs like liquorice, mint, orange peel, lingzhi, mulberry and other herbs are blended into the tea.  This tea when brewed taste like a Chinese medicinal herbal tea that are sold by many Chinese medicinal shops in South East Asia. There is bitterness from the herbs and yet....there is a faint sweetness in the aftertaste.  If you e ..read more

  I am heartened to received questions from a few new pu erh tea drinkers from Europe and USA this year.  Many had asked about pu erh tea and how I brew my tea. Below are some 'tips' which I had discovered during my tea journey and adventures. Many of my readers would know these techniques I used for pu erh tea...so I apologise to the older readers if these 'tips' are familiar to you.  1.  Breaking up your tea cake. When you have a new pu erh cake whether you got it from a shop or delivered by mail,  I would recommend (if you want to drink this tea) to break up the ..read more

When I sampled this tea more than 10 years ago, I liked it so much that I purchased a carton of this tea and followed up with another carton one year later.   This is the 2011 Haiwan Ziyun raw pu erh brick.  I had also found out that this was a special order by a Guangzhou tea dealer.  This 250g tea brick came packed in a presentation cardboard box. This tea was made from the purple varietal leaves of the pu erh tree and blended with pu erh from the Yiwu region.  I do not recommend this tea to a new pu erh drinker. There is hardly any sweetness from th ..read more

  Many Chinese teashops use porcelain gaiwans to brew their tea when a customer wants to sample their products.   Porcelain are a neutral material and using porcelain to brew tea will not affect the tea in terms of taste and aroma. Using clay teapots may affect the tea as seasoned clay teapots can  change or amplify the taste of the tea.  I had noticed when teashops use a gaiwan to brew tea, the tea 'brewer' would sometimes use fancy moves when he or she brews the tea. He would open the gaiwan and used the cover to stir the surface of the tea or even perform some visual ..read more

  Kai Hu is seasoning a teapot in Chinese.  There are many methods used to season a new Chinese teapot. I am using one method that is commonly used in China and my part of the world.  I had recently purchased a Jian Shui teapot(right of pix) and decided to season it together with a large Hei Ni teapot (from my 12 dragon collection).  The seasoning method is simple. Rinse the teapot under a running tap to clean out the teapot. Immerse the teapot in a pot of water.  Bring the water to a low simmering boil for about 15-20 minutes. When water has cooled down, rinse th ..read more

  There are Chinese tea with extra flavours added to the tea.  I am sure you had heard or drank jasmine tea. This is Chinese tea, that during processing had layers of jasmine flowers piled between the tea for a few weeks. The result is the tea would have absorbed the jasmine floral aroma and you have this popular tea to enjoy.   Another example would be tangerine tea where tea was packed into the dried tangerine husk (flesh had been taken out). As a result, the tea would smell and taste lightly citrusy. Some tea drinkers would increase this citrus level by adding a sma ..read more

  Tomorrow is Chinese New Year.  It will be the year of the dragon.  I will be making a trip or two to Hong Kong, China to visit the tea markets there. I will keep everyone updated on all the happenings about Chinese tea there. Lots of pictures as well.  I would like to wish all my tea buddies and friends a Happy Chinese New Year. Live long and prosper.  ..read more

  Chinese new year is next week.  I had been busy working to get my new online store up by the end of the month.  Time to shop for Chinese New Year.  I must buy the pastries and goodies to feed the guests who visit me. I think the goodies may be eaten by me within a day or two after I buy them.  I had selected a 20 year old tea for this festive occasion. This is a 2003 Xiaguan baoyan brick 250g.  Such tea were originally produced for export.  They were made for the places like Mongolia and as far as Tibet. The people there have little access to gree ..read more

If you are a tea drinker, you would have drank black tea on many occasions.  Really. Those regular tea bags you buy from the supermarkets and as well as the ones you drink at the office pantry are made with black tea.  The tea would most probably come from Sri Lanka, India, Kenya or from China.  These black tea bags has comforted many tea drinkers round the world and many drinkers add milk and sugar to their tea to make it a tasty beverage.  Black tea from Anhua, China has a long traditional history. Many serious Chinese tea drinkers would know that such tea are ..read more