The Essence of Tea Blog

We’ve been a bit quiet of late, both here on the blog and on our Facebook and Instagram feeds. This year has been non-stop for us. Young Puerh We spent almost 3 months in Yunnan this Spring. I took my Chinese driving license test and was able to drive legally in the mountains for the […]

We’re back from the mountains, finishing up our trip in Yunnan and consolidating our teas in our Jinghong warehouse. Over the next few days we’ll be preparing and arranging shipping for the Spring shipment of our puerh tea club. I know there are a few people who’d mentioned that they’d like to be included in […]

Each year in the tea mountains we come across high end teas that are available in too small quantities to deal with on a commercial basis. They tend to be single tree teas or from special places that friends are willing to share a couple of kg of, but no more. We tend to buy […]

We’ve just arrived back in Yunnan from a week in Wuyishan. We had a great trip and spent most of our days in the studio and the mountains with Master Huang and his sons. I think this year more than any other we started to understand the importance of location for the trees in the […]

One of the teapots we get asked most for is the shui ping shape from Yixing Factory 1. It’s really a classic – simple shape, good clay and very functional. Last weekend I visited a collector who’s been collecting Yixing pots since the 80’s. Over the years I’ve met some people with a lot of […]

Over the past 6 months or so, we’ve been looking around in Malaysia and testing the clays of some different older teapots. Although we’ve been generally happy with the pots we’ve received from Chen Ju Fang and her apprentices, we began to realise more and more that pots made in the 80’s and 90’s could […]

The economy in Malaysia is terrible. Earlier in the year they brought in a 6% sales tax, which left restaurant owners, cabbies and other small business owners complaining about a fall off in trade. The Malaysian ringgit continued its slow and steady decline in value against the dollar, renminbi and pound sterling, making imports more […]