Episode 40 - A History of Lapsang Souchong
Tea Soup
by One River Tea
2d ago
In this episode we dig into the history of the world’s first Black Tea: Lapsang Souchong. In another solo episode, Derek not only gets back into the ancient history of Chinese teas, but also talks about the six different kinds of teas and the strange space occupied by puer. We share the origin myth of Lapsang Souchong, aka Zhongshan Xiaozhong, and explain its significance in the explosion of tea drinking culture in the West at large. We just released six new Lapsang Souchong teas from the Tongmuguan region and from the Masu Village, all of which are available on the onerivertea.com website ..read more
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Episode 39 - Sourcing Junshan Silver Needle
Tea Soup
by One River Tea
2w ago
In this episode, Alex joins the podcast to talk about the time spent sourcing the most famous yellow tea in all of China: Junshan Silver Needle. We get deep into the history of yellow tea and the sorry state of the modern market. Derek muses on the differences between Japanese and Chinese teas and reflects on his recent time in Japan. The Junshan Silver Needle and other finds from this trip are available to try on the onerivertea.com website. Thank you for your interest in our teas ..read more
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Episode 38 - Making Hefeng White Tea
Tea Soup
by One River Tea
1M ago
In this episode, Derek is joined by Alex, also a founding member of the One River Tea Cooperative. We talk about our adventures in making white tea, the attempts, the mistakes, the failures, the victories, and the eventual brown shoumei tea cake we pressed and gave away earlier this year. Alex shares some interesting first-hand experiences of brewing tea in the traditional way: with a tea jar. And Derek shares the secrets on how he made the his beautiful micro batch of green shoumei. As always, all the teas talked about are available on the Onerivertea.com website, so be sure to support us wit ..read more
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Episode 37 - Sourcing Puer (Dong Guo Village)
Tea Soup
by One River Tea
2M ago
In this final episode of sourcing puer in Spring of 2024, we talk about the Dong Guo Village. A lesser known village with a large amount of Gushu trees in Yunnan’s Mengku region just South East of the Big Snow Mountain. We discuss different philosophies of making tea and fall deep into tangents on Daoism, Sun Wukong: Black Myth, deep Yunnan culture, and even a bit of food anthropology. As always, all the teas we source and discuss are available on the OneRiverTea.com website for all those interested in supporting our podcast and our little cooperative. Thanks for your interest in tea ..read more
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Episode 36 - Sourcing Pu’er (Xiao Hu Sai)
Tea Soup
by One River Tea
5M ago
In this episode, we leave the tombs of the Wang Family and wander through their wild gardens of tea trees on the Kua mountain. We talk about the skinny chickens, the knock off Adibas shoes, the connection between the land and the teas. We finally get out to Xiao Hu Sai, home of the largest garden of ancient tea trees in Mengku and we talk about why we love these teas and how we designed the new tea cake wrappers. As always, if you’re enjoying the podcast, consider checking out what teas Derek has sourced on www.onerivertea.com ..read more
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Episode 34 - A History of Modern Sichuan & Sourcing Jasmine Tea
Tea Soup
by One River Tea
5M ago
In this episode of Tea Soup, Derek is joined by another One River Tea Worker/Owner, Alex Witherspoon. Together we recount our recent travels into Sichuan searching for jasmine tea. We talk a lot about Alex’s project in Hefeng, where One River Tea hosts WWOOFers, farming volunteers from all over the world. We talk about the incredibly bloody history of the 19th and 20th century Sichuan, and of course we get around to talking about sourcing the Jasmine Tea which should appear in one the onerivertea.com website later this month. This podcast is part of a video which will be available on the One R ..read more
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Episode 33 - Sourcing Yellow Tea
Tea Soup
by One River Tea
7M ago
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
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Episode 31 - Sourcing Pu’er (Mengsong)
Tea Soup
by One River Tea
7M ago
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
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Episode 30 - Sourcing Pu’er (Big Snow Mt.)
Tea Soup
by One River Tea
7M ago
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
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Episode 29 - Pressing Pu’er (Xigui)
Tea Soup
by One River Tea
7M ago
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
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