Welcome! Today, Derek and Alex talk about their journey to the top of Golden Chicken Mountain, one of the cheeriest tea prodcuers east of Luan (Liuan?), and the holisitic state of the yellow tea market in China. Is it fermented or oxidized? What is dry and wet yellowing? What even is yellow tea? We share our journey to answer these questions and grow from skeptics to yellow-pilled enjoyers. Come hear more about what goes into that mellow corny aroma you can brew up from nothing else. If you’re interested in yellow tea, please check out our very own onerivertea.com website ..read more

2024 Spring Tea has just started being picked, and the prospects are looking good! We spend the first part of this episode talking about green tea and what it’s like living through the Mingqian hype here in China. We get onto the topic of this episode, sourcing Puer in Menghai, and we say goodbye to the cast of characters we met in Lincang and we share a new set of faces we meet down in Menghai. We talk about the mysterious Paul, the man behind White2Tea, we talk about sketchy border teas, over-talkative taxi drivers, and of course farmer Tan and his remarkable Huazhu Liangzi Gushu. As always ..read more

In this episode of Tea Soup, Derek talks about the 10 million train trips per day during China’s Spring Festival, the curious mythology surrounding the Dai Minority Water Splashing Festival, and his pilgrimage to the world’s oldest tea tree (2,700 years old!). He mentions Joseph Campbell’s book “The Hero With a Thousand Faces: The Cosmogonic Cycle”, Mercia Eliade’s Book “The Sacred and the Profane”, Laozi’s “Dao De Jing”, and Zhuangzi’s “Zhuangzi”. It is a surprisingly philosophical introspective episode that takes place between sourcing Lincang Puer and his trip down south to Xishuang Banna ..read more

In this episode Derek talks about pressed tea. Why is compressed tea so popular these days, what unique virtues does it possess, and what does it take to press tea into these 100, 200, or 375 gram disks that are so common to see in teashops all around the mainland. We muse on the creative process of running a business and circle back to the existential dilemma of sourcing ‘good tea’. We also talk about the pressing process for these teas in Lincang, Yunnan. As always, the best way to support tea soup is to subscribe to our podcast, our YouTube channel, our instagram and of course browse any of ..read more

Still on the tea trail, Derek recounts and ranks all the most difficult to access teas, as he travels through Yunnan in the grip of a deep drought. He makes his way to the Bangdong Village, drinks the raw tea just made yesterday and compares old bush, with gushu, and single tree productions with Puer blends. Eating tea with the pickers, he makes his way out to Mengjie’s ancestral home in the mountains. We reflect a bit on pastoral routines and they affect our concept of time and explain why the Puer from Bangdong has been called Yancha, or rock tea. As always, the teas mentioned in this podcas ..read more

In this episode of Tea Soup, Derek continues talking about his Spring Tea Sourcing trip in April of 2023. Starting at the peak of Wudong Mountain in Chaozhou, he talks about the wholly hand-made teapots he sources from his ceramics Master Kemin’s apprentices in Chaozhou (only available on taoteaware.com). He talks about getting into Lincang in Yunnan with zero puer tea connections, and in a mere 5 hours finds his way into a Xigui production household frying a wok of freshly withered Xigui himself. Really a lot of insights into what it takes to source tea in China, and the sourcing ethics of On ..read more

In this episode Derek tries to tackle 2023, what teas were we into, what teas did we source, where did we go and more. It ends up mainly being about the stories untold, the life behind the tea and a few trips with liminal connections to tea itself. We talk about tea friends in our city, the sourcing trips that revolved around the history of tea episodes, the birth of the Tea Soup Podcast in January of 2023, Between the Cracks - the video podcast we've been doing for Tao Teaware on Youtube, and the incredible quality development visible this year. Be sure to check out OneRiverTea.com and TaoTea ..read more

Welcome back to the second episode of the history of Puer Tea. In this episode, we cover the past 300 years of this teas development, from the Qing Dynasry tribute tea gardens to the State Owned Enterprises of the Maoist era. We share the logic behind the secret recipes and talk about suspicions, paranoia, and knockoffs in the world of Puerh tea. Remember to check out onerivertea.com for all out single origin puer teas sourced in 2023 ..read more

In this episode, Derek takes on a new type of tea: Pu’er (often romanized as Pu’erh). We give an in depth overview of the geographical make up of China’s Yunnan province, talking about its incredible biodiversity and myriad climate zones. We talk about different origin myths about puer and the naming conventions, and even get into the historical relevance of these myths and what truths we can glean from them. If you’re interested in sampling any puer tea, just head over to the onerivertea.com website to check out the teas we have sourced personally from this incredible region ..read more

In this episode of Tea Soup, Derek goes deep into how to decipher, select, and appreciate dancong oolong teas. We talk about the cultivars, the prices to expect, the characteristics of old and young bushes, and much more. Derek spills the tea on his tasting methods when selecting teas for the onerivertea.com website, and gives some tips into buying the teas you want, descending high and low quality dancong oolongs, and what to expect from certain teas. A very informative episode that even groups all 200 dancong cultivars into the top ten fragrance families ..read more