Don't tell her it's not tea

There were so many things I wanted to do on the old teablog this weekend, but great weather got in the way. As did the Rugby World Cup, and Manchester City beating Manchester United, and did I mention the weather was really very nice?  I was outside as much as possible.  Not much time for teablogging.

But luckily, I have done my little part for the teablogging community in the past, and some of it has started coming back to me.  I've said it so many times, but it needs repeating...as much as I like tea drinkers reading what I have to say, it's nearly as much of a joy to find out that the occasional non-teadrinker comes to visit.

I've made no secret of the fact that I enjoy luring people over to the leaf-side.  So when I find out someone's actually taken any of my advice seriously...well, it makes me simultaneously proud and a bit nervous for the individual.

Several times over the last few months, Lisa Galaviz has threatened to actually attempt to put some of her newfound tea knowledge to the test.  If you know anything about Lisa, you know that if she goes through with something, she's going to blog about it.  Without further ado, here's the account of Lisa going to Teavana:

How NOT to go to a Tea Shop

Teablogging doesn't get much better than this, eh?

Let me just say something about Teavana, because I hear/read some unflattering things.  As a matter of fact, Lisa's blogpost wouldn't be so telling if it weren't similar to quite a few other experiences I've heard about shopping there.  It's the most common complaint I'm aware of.

But to be fair, a lot of people only get into tea because they stumble into a Teavana shop.  There are things this company is doing right, and I've been impressed with some of their practices.  I'm sure there's an entire other blogpost I could devote to what I like about Teavana.  Maybe another time.

Having said all that, you can really imagine those hippies hollering about antioxidants, can't you?  I certainly can.  Stay tuned for more on Lisa's experiments with tea.  Her endeavours with that Samurai Chai Mate are magic waiting to happen.

Let's not mention that Yerba Mate isn't really tea, ok?  I can just see her flying down to the Galleria demanding her money back, setting the Oolong-plucking monkeys free and riding away into the night.

For the sake of all that is proper, just don't tell her it's not tea.

getting into tea in Tucson

Have met quite a few tea people only virtually, whether it be by watching tea videos and then interacting with them on twitter or even using skype for an online tea party. Robert Godden set up one of those several weeks ago and it was a pleasure to hear the voices of people with whom I'd had very limited contact. Whether it be reading teablogs they write or their brilliance on twitter.

Then there are some tea people I've even met as a result of this teablogging lark. Haven't been creeped out by any of those new tea friends I initially met online. Not yet anyway. That's not an invitation for freaky tea drinkers to contact me. Just saying that this has been a very positive social experience with people I'd never have otherwise met.

There are some tea drinkers I know in my daily life. Whether they were already sipping from the dark brown liqueur or I lured them over to the leaf-side, it's nice to have personal contact with others who enjoy tea.

And there's a third category I hadn't thought of until recently. People I've known for a long time who I didn't even know were into tea. You know someone a long time, you get together or see each other at some function and the last thing you think to bring up is your tea obsession. My Aunt Elise found my tea blog over at teatra.de, and told me in the comments over there that she was enjoying reading. That they were 'getting into tea in Tucson'.

In another conversation she talked about a tea I hadn't hear of called Sakurambo Vert. The only tea I found with this name was from the tea company Lupicia, and although I'm not normally a big fan of tea with fruit in it, I'd like to try this one out.

Here's what steepster.com had to say about it: Sakurambo Vert.

Any of you tried this? One person says it's bitter. Another seems to say the opposite. Any thoughts?

this teablogging lark (x300)

Just realised this is my three hundredth blogpost. Can you believe it? I can't.

When I launched this little baby a year and a half ago, I wondered if I had anything to say. Clearly that hasn't been an issue. Maybe the opposite's been the case on a few occasions. Maybe I've had a bit too much to say.


(My niece Amelia and me...this has definitely been one of the highlights of my tea journey)

A few of you have commented on the fact that I write about everything and nothing. That the connection to tea is sometimes tenuous at best. That's been much more intentional than you might think. I love tea. I love drinking it. I love writing about it. I love having people over and serving it.

I love luring non-teadrinkers over to the leaf side. But you know that.



The thing is that as much as I love all those things, they're somehow not enough. I have to write about other things, and I love to find that link to tea. It's often a kind of a puzzle to find the connection. I like to think I find it more often than I don't.



So, I'd like to use this occasion to explain the origin of the name lahikmajoe. It's a convoluted story, but I'll try to be concise.

My grandmother was a Comanche Indian. Because she saw plenty of discrimination in her surroundings, she wanted her children to have better opportunities. She gave each of her seven sons very anglo sounding names.

The way the two names she thought sounded quite classy went together were borderline comical, and the one she paired with Kenneth was downright embarrassing. It won't even be repeated here. I was given my father's name, and not only Kenneth but the other one, as well. It began with the letter 'L', and I loathed it from as far back as I can remember.

So when I was a bit older, I started to imagine what my grandmother might have named me had she gone with an Indian name. The one I came up with was lahikma. The 'joe' part came later.

I'm sure I could have an easier to explain web identity, but this one's very personal and a bit quirky and actually fits me perfectly. If you met me in person, I can say with certainty that you'd chuckle to yourself, 'My goodness, he really is a lahikmajoe'.

1st annual Tea Trade gathering

Although we'd met separately over the weekend, the whole gang finally got together on Sunday afternoon and we went through a nice selection of tea. There was a wonderful surprise organised by Robert, and he wrote about it over at It’s a mad, mad world…








The other not necessarily tea-related surprise was that I invited my bass player friend Jarrod, about whom I've written here periodically, and we started the afternoon out by playing some of my tunes and some lesser-known covers. It hadn't been announced, and the music was well received.

Jarrod was interrogated at the beginning of the festivities about whether he even drank tea, but I quickly assured everyone that he was one of the people I'd lured partially over to the leaf-side. Many of my tea-related experiments have first been tried on Jarrod before I've launched them on the general public. He seems no worse for wear.




Before anyone arrived, I'd brewed the Gu Zhang Mao Jian that I wrote about in yesterday's post, as well as some Nilgiri Thiashola 'Carrington'. Both got nice comments, but the Nilgiri especially seemed to impress. I wrote about it in tea choices for marauding teenagers or Zombie Apocalypse, but you have to read through to near the end of the blogpost to get to the part about the Nilgiri.




In addition to the strong black and earthy green, I wanted to have a decent Darjeeling to offer people as they arrived, so I chose a first flush from the Snowview Estate. Although it's a tea from 2010, it's still remarkably crisp and fresh.

But because the darker tea got such a good reception, I decided to make a strong but not too malty/bitter Assam. I'd written quite a bit about Assam Mangalam, so I decided now was my change to showcase it. If you look in the comments to my blogpost Waking up in Mangalam, you can see what interesting things Jackie found out about this estate and their distinctive clonal Assam. Here's the best part:

From Steepster:
“The Mangalam tea estate is named after Kumar Mangalam Birla, once the son of the estate’s owners and now one of its managers. The estate is owned by Jayshree Tea & Industries, a large company that incorporated in 1945. Jayshree is heralded in the Orthodox world for its special clones that produce a big golden leaf tip, which no one is able to replicate, making Jayshree Assams easily identifiable.”

I couldn't miss an oppurtunity to serve some Flugtee, so I brewed a pot of this year's Singell Darjeeling first flush. From my perspective, this was probably the best tea served today and it certainly got the praise it deserved. One person who nearly always drinks any black tea with milk said that this was the first tea she'd had that was just fine all on its own. That alone made my day.


As good as the tea was to be, the quality of the cake was of extreme importance. Jackie made it clear that good cake was absolutely essential. From what I could tell, she was anything but disappointed.







As people started getting ready to leave I quickly started brewing multiple infusions of my nicest high mountain Oolong from Taiwan. It's called Alishan Zhu Lu Oolong and it really was the perfect tea to wrap up an enjoyable afternoon. Even after six infusions, the taste was vibrant and blooming. No wonder many serious teabloggers spend so much time talking about high mountain Oolongs.

The weekend has been fantastic, and I can only hope we actually do another annual gathering. Maybe Adelaide next year? Or everyone make a pilgrimage to the Chicago Tea Gardens? I'm sure we can find a place centrally located.



Here's yours truly, Jackie, Peter, Sheila, Sabine and Xavier. We were too busy drinking tea and listening to music to take a lot of photos, but there were a few.

guest blogposts

Over the next several weeks I'm going to have a few guest blogposts. I tried this last year with someone I successfully lured over to the leaf-side, and we'll hear from her and how her tea tastes have changed over time.

That should be interesting. I think you'll agree.

There're also a few other people in the tea world I'd like to talk to and possibly interview here. There are German tea experts whose sites/teablogs I'm reading that have some ideas worth discussing. Maybe a different perspective than what you might get in your corner of the tea community.

So, you've been warned. If you come here and there's a voice/author you didn't expect to find here, it's an attempt to spice things up a bit. Enjoy.

tea-powered gore fest

Earlier today I was listening to an interview about a novel method of writing, and suddenly the subject of tea came up. In that moment, I knew this little nugget would be mined for the teablog. Such is the way of the teablogger.

But first the interview. Turns out a married couple, who happen to be writers, wanted to cash in on the success of the Swedish brutal-hyper-sexual crime novel (à la Stieg Larsson and his The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). In order to write together, they came up with a pseudonym Lars Kepler and they even went so far as to concoct a few specific habits, that are not their own, for this Kepler character.

One of them is that he's a tea drinker (in real life they both drink coffee), and they arranged to have what they call a 'tea meeting' when they'd actually sit down and write in the name of Kepler. They even brewed tea for these little sessions, and thankfully they actually drank the stuff.

While I was listening to the interview I was half-expecting the couple to say that they brewed the tea for their imaginary friend (sort of an empty chair for Elijah), and then poured the tea out after their session.

This would be a very different blogpost had that been the case. We don't take kindly to discarding perfectly good tea in these here parts. Not that whatever tea these two self-described coffee drinkers are brewing is necessarily decent tea. Can't imagine that it is even remotely acceptable, but you get my point.

I ask myself: What do I think about these two writers getting into character by coming over to the leaf-side if only for some sort of quasi-inspiration? I don't see much wrong with it. Why not? Maybe one or both of these writers will get ahold of some quality loose-leaf tea and start drinking the stuff on the sly. When the other one isn't looking. Stranger things've happened, right?

The original interview that I heard can be found here: The Authors Behind The Author Of 'The Hypnotist'. The book is admittedly a bit brutal and possibly not to be read after eating too many of the same lemon biscuits that the writers themselves enjoy.

But if you happen to enjoy gory crime novels, brew up some above-average tea and dig in.

like a Cheshire Cat

I've had several whole day meetings with some clients, and something very curious happened during the coffee break each day. My tea was brewed and carried to the office in two well-worn flasks. It had to last me through the entire day, so I rationed it very carefully. By the late afternoon, I still had at least one very delicious cup of Darjeeling to savour.

And then it happened.

The break was announced, some headed for the toilets, others went outside to smoke, and one guy broke out his tea stash. I wish I could report that he was a loose-leaf tea drinker. Alas, it was a plastic Ziploc bag with a variety of bagged tea.

Nevertheless. The assortment was carefully arranged. Others were curious what his bag o' tea selection offered and gladly accepted his invitation to pull out their choice of teabag. Someone put on the kettle and soon thereafter teabags were submerged in nearly boiling water.

'Wait just a minute', I hear some of you say. 'You're a tea snob, right? No teabags for you. Why did this put such a ridiculous smile on your face?'

Well, of course loose-leaf tea is the goal. It's what I'm sure people would insist on if they knew how far superior the quality of tea almost always is when it's loose-leaf. We all know the arguments for rejecting teabags. But this was tea (no matter how substandard) being fully enjoyed by a group of people who very likely would've otherwise had yet another cup of overheated coffee. These were my people.

Did I try to lure them over to the leaf-side? I did not. I sipped my perfect cup of Darjeeling and smiled like a Cheshire Cat and took in a deep breath.

And then I let it out. Still smiling.

over to the leaf-side

Even though I enjoy drinking green tea and Oolong fascinates me the more I learn about it, I've noticed that most tea bloggers have already cornered the market over in the semi-oxidised and not-at-all-oxidised categories of tea. Not that no-one writes about black tea, but to me it seems that in our world of the tea obsessed, darker tea sometimes gets short-changed.

This is something I like to focus on. What tea might entice a coffee drinker? If someone only knows teabags or herbal tea, what could I say to lure them over to the leaf-side? Those questions are normally answered with malty Assams or light Ceylons. Maybe even an Indonesian or Kenyan black tea for those accustomed to sipping the liquor of the Arabica bean.

But there's a tea that I've found myself more and more drawn to the longer I research and write about tea. I've written at length on this blog about being drawn to Darjeeling tea. I did a search through my old blogposts on the subject, and I really have written the most about these teas. Bordering on obsessive I've been.

In the early days I tried these teas from multiple estates, and my taste hadn't developed enough to appreciate tea that I tried from the first flush. Slowly, as I tried more and more tea, I developed an appreciation even for these teas. I'm excited to try the newest crop of them this year as they come out.

The tea that's rushed back at the earliest possible moment is sold as Flugtee, and Germans pay a hefty price for the opportunity. I try to remember what it's like for someone new to tea, who is introduced to all of these exotic names and tea specific terminology. It's overwhelming.

So, you've heard about Darjeeling being nice in the afternoon, and the selection you read about online only baffles you. Do you just buy the simplest generic Darjeeling teabags you happen upon in the supermarket?

In my experience, that's not going to persuade anyone to drink different tea. Most teabags that're called Darjeeling might as well just say 'black tea' on them. There's hardly any relation between this and the real loose-leaf tea that I'm talking about.

What's your experience with this? Have you attempted to sway anyone to drink loose-leaf tea with anything other than the best quality? Has your taste changed, so that you're surprised at the tea you used to think was so tasty?

Neil's Yard

My friend Ruth married a guy named Neil, which means I got a new friend in the process. A while back, I saw them at some function, and they informed me they were packing up and moving to Newfoundland (and Labrador), where he'll have a little cafe/shop and serve tea. That's right tea!

The plan back then was to sell/serve tea from teabags. I thought that maybe my short-term goal was to bring him over to the leaf-side, but he seems to have made it over here on his own already. Thankfully.

Nevertheless, he wants to show me the teas he already has, and I want to introduce him to the Darjeeling from Darjeeling Tea Express that I served at the tea tasting I did a while back.

I'm also going to show him the basics of twitter, and extoll the virtues of meeting/communicating with tea people there. Should be fun. Will definitely be reporting here on the whole ordeal, but I wanted to start out by introducing Neil and his soon-to-be-opened cafe/shop. It's called Neil's Yard, and here's the website:

Neil's Yard

Go have a look.

More soon on an impromptu tea tasting and a welcome newcomer to the online tea community. You can't wait, can you?

Well-mannered tea-drinking guest

The last few weeks I've been serving one of my clients tea. I'd prepared both tea and coffee the first time we met, and although he opted for tea, he did admit later that he wasn't normally a tea drinker.

Was it my above-average tea or was he being polite? He matched me cup for cup, and I'm no slouch when it comes to volume of tea drunk. I kept pouring one for him and one for me. He thanked me politely, and drank every cup dry. Why did this please me so immensely?

I don't have any illusions that I've indoctrinated him to the leaf side. He drank it happily enough, but I got the feeling that he was simply well-mannered. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

The other funny thing was that I found myself serving him my very best tea. Alternating between light floral Darjeelings and vegetal Oolongs, I worked my way through the many teas that I've written about here.

Was a joy. I did have a bit of a quandary that first day. Because he and I had opted for tea, I had no idea what to do with the pot of coffee I'd made. Luckily I could turn to twitter where quite a few ridiculous coffee disposal options were presented. Thanks for that.

So, do you serve tea to guests? Do you offer an alternative? Do you proselytise? I didn't in the past, but I'm wondering if I might start.