An oasis on the Eastside

Have been reading about Zhi Tea for a while, and promised myself that when I made it back to Texas, I'd definitely make the trip to see it for myself. Am very glad I did. What a great little shop. When I was a kid, I wasn't even aware there was an Eastside of Austin. Things certainly change.

Have had a rather stressful few weeks travelling, and this was exactly what I needed. They've got plenty of loose-leaf tea for you to take home with you, but are just as happy to brew you up a pot while you're there.

Decided to go with the Iron Goddess Oolong (tie guan yin), whose leaves looked like a medium oxidation.


The first infusion's always a bit weak, but I could already tell this was more highly fermented than I expected. There was a hint of something that reminded me of a Formosa Oolong. But only a hint.






The second infusion was much more flavourful. Delicious. Very fruity and vegetal. Can feel The Iron Goddess working her magic. A bit darker cup colour and here are the leaves as they continue to expand.










The leaves don't look that much different for the third infusion here, but they are quite wild coming out of the infuser. The taste the third time round isn't quite as strong, but still delicious. Every time I drink this tea, I'm reminded of the video Leafbox Tea Called my attention to. Here it is. There's definitely still something in these leaves. I'm going for a fourth time.









Although the leaves don't look that much different, I think I like this infusion the best. There's something incredibly sweet about this time. Much lighter shade in the cup, but incredibly tasty.


They have quite a selection of different teas, and their attractive tins can be found in many places around the city. Here's a photo of one of the displays (the black teas), and below is where I sat and drank the tea and wrote this post.




Am really excited about the excitement about tea in the States. Of course, I read about it on blogs, and see fellow tea fanatics on twitter, but to be able to visit multiple tea rooms while I've been here has been a treat. If you're in Austin or happen to be visiting, you should definitely cruise over to the Eastside and check out Zhi Tea.

tea people in *real* life

Gingko mentioned something in today's blogpost (Life in Teacup) about meeting people from online tea communities in *real* life, and I'm sitting here pondering if I'd even seriously consider doing that. One of the weirdest things about twitter is that I adore communication with those people there, but I really doubt I'd actually want to meet many of them. Some would even make me surprisingly uncomfortable.

But tea people are different, right?

The thought of dodging a pterodactyl while sipping on some tea with Robert (@The_Devotea) is rather delightful. And after having read an old essay at Leafbox Tea about not blathering on about which estate the tea came from and actually having a bit of intellectual discourse about something other than tea, I can't stop thinking about where the discussion might head while chatting with Jackie and Pete. Last summer I was in Paris for a few weeks, and Ice Hellion and I have talked about trying to arrange both going there at the same time someday, and maybe meeting at Mariage Freres or one of the limitless tea salons.

There are far too many people I've come into contact with to list all of them here, but it is an interesting prospect, isn't it? Maybe you've already met people face to face that you got to know first in virtual tea rooms. Maybe you'd never risk it.

So here I am inviting your comments. Would you be interested in meeting some of the tea people you only know online face to face? If you're hesitating, what's holding you back?