Make yourself a perfect cup of tea and put your feet up. Shopping from home is the best! Here are some 2021 holiday gift deals for tea lovers on your list (or yourself) that Tea Deviant has actually experienced. Some are Christmas focused where others work as gifts for all faiths and celebrations. Award Winning Japanese Green Tea (& Coffee) Japanese Green Tea gave Tea Deviant a 20% off coupon code for Black Friday through to Cyber Monday:  teadeviantbfcm2021  This code is good from 2021/11/25 11:00PM PST to 2021/11/30 11:59PM PST and it works on both Japanese Green Tea Co. and ..read more

In many ways tea is a very enjoyable and healthy addition to the day. However, there are times when It can interfere with your feeling and being the fierce force of brilliance you want to be. Here are five times when tea is bad for you. 1. ​Drinking Tea too Hot and Frequently When having hot tea, I prefer it to be what I’d define as hot. When having iced tea, I prefer it truly cold. Anything in between is just bleh. However, there is such a thing as too hot. There have been multiple studies on the correlation between frequent hot tea drinking and increased incidence of esophageal cancer ..read more

For some of us everyday is Halloween, and no, we don’t get tired of it. The flavors of fall, however, are seasonal. Adagio Teas has both the season and the holiday covered with teas and teaware. Fall Teas Of the teas I sampled my favorite is the Puerh Hazelberry. Normally I see puerh as a category of tea that is best experienced unflavored and in multiple gaiwan steeps. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go for me. The dry leaves smell like dessert with the fruit and nut flavors overwhelming the tea. But when the leaves are wet that’s when I could smell the earth of puerh rising up over th ..read more

Tea party, tea and consent, Russell’s teapot...Yes, I love to drink tea, but I also find it intriguing how tea has been used as a symbol in so many ways socially, politically and so on. It's wild that this piece of common crockery has such a history worldwide it can be used like that. I recently discovered a way it was leveraged on the border of philosophy and religion. During a session of sending memes back and forth with a friend I found one of a teapot in space with the name Bertrand Russell on it. Loving tea and being a scifi fan I thought the image was fun, but I realized there was somet ..read more

If you’re a regular Tea Deviant reader you’ve heard me praise Japanese Green Tea Co. many times. Their award winning teas have become a regular in my tea arsenal and when they asked if I wanted to be an affiliate it was easy to say yes. Kei Nishida who started Japanese Green Tea Co. contacted me when he started his new Japanese Coffee Co. and asked if I wanted to try his coffee. Sounds like an adventure to me! Yes this is a tea blog and I am a tea freak, but I like a good cup of coffee too. I’ve experimented with some fun tea and coffee combos and really enjoyed them. What piques my interest ..read more

I’ve been told I have hyperosmia, an increased sense of smell. Though I haven’t had it clinically diagnosed, having an intense sensitivity to scent is a mixed blessing. When I’m the only one woken out of a sound sleep by the smell of something burning, or my nose is being exfoliated by the smell of a cleaner it’s more of a curse. In regard to tea and other beautiful aromas it is a sensory joy ride! I can smell some of the nuances others miss. I get a jolt of energy from pleasing smells like tea. By that I mean the tea itself, whether white, green, yellow, oolong, black, puerh or a blend. No ..read more

Sometimes it's the adventure that calls, and other times it's the chill. Steeping tea is relaxing to me both to do and to watch. It calms my mind and my body and I hope it will do the same for you. This session is without music, along the lines of ambient and ASMR experiences it is just the sounds of the tea making, the water, the room the movement. I am steeping a milk oolong here. It isn't a super high quality one so I only did four rounds in this gongfu inspired session. The creaminess disappeared quickly, but gave way to the feeling of a beach at the ocean with the salt water flowing ove ..read more

I am not ashamed that during this past year as an artist I became a member of the covid cocktail club (can I hear a “yes” from my fellow members?) I’ve often used tea in cocktails and to infuse spirits, but not long ago I discovered a new way to get tea in my more potent drinks. Thanks to moderate reopening I was at an awesome vintage bar with a friend. This place has actually been around since the 1700s and has so far survived the pandemic. I was looking for something simple, so I went for vodka and soda with bitters on the rocks. I asked about the bartender’s selection of bitters.&nbs ..read more

Tea companies send me tea and tea accessories for review, but for the first time I was invited to an online tea ‘experience’. Arigato Japan is a company that does food and culture tours in Japan. Considering the limitations that the COVID-19 pandemic has placed on live events and travel, Arigato has pivoted to create online experiences that bridge the gap for those looking for insight into Japanese culture. They contacted me about their green tea experience. So I joined them via the ubiquitous Zoom, which has been so helpful in connecting us during these crazy times (I’m not sponsored by Zoom ..read more

My intent is for Tea Deviant to be a positive place to inspire curiosity and have fun while exploring, but I can’t ignore the proverbial elephant in the room. Considering COVID-19 still has a daily impact on our lives and a study on tea and the virus in vitro has been done I feel it’s worth sharing and hope you do too. I’m not interested in fake news. This is not about a definitive cure. It's about studies that show the potential for compounds found in tea to be helpful against the virus and staying informed.   In November 2020 Nara University in Japan conducted a study on the effe ..read more