Way back a number of years ago when I first started getting serious about high-end teas, I bought every tool, gizmo, and gadget in order to prepare the tea “properly.” My collection included several kinds of measuring spoons, a gram scale for metric weights, a small postal scale for avoirdupois weights, and an instant-read water …
Month: March 2012
Tea Gadget Ratings — Round 3
Once again, we’re taking a closer look at tea gadgets that seem to pop up on the market like mushrooms after a Spring rain. Over the past couple of years intrepid and tireless tea journalist William I. Lengeman III has sought out the weirdest, cutest, and downright silliest tea gadgets out there. Other tea lovers …
Tea Is Not a Miracle Weight Loss Cure
According to the National Center for Health Statistics about one-third of all adults in the United States are obese, with another one-third being overweight but not obese. With that in mind it's probably no surprise that weight loss is a topic of no small concern hereabouts, not to mention a road to riches for many …
5 Ways to Make the Most of Your Bagged Tea
“Bagged tea is low quality.” “Tea in bags is the worst.” “Tea bags are disgusting. I wouldn’t drink the bilge steeped from them.” You’ve heard such statements, I’m sure, from the “tea snobs” among us. I have said such things myself. Tea is bagged to meet customer demand. People want the convenience, and I can’t …
Offbeat Tea News and Gadget Redux
A day without a zany new novelty tea infuser is like a day without sunshine, or so the old saying goes. Which might not be exactly how the saying goes, now that you mention it, but sometimes it seems that there are enough novelty tea infusers coming out to have a new one everyday. This …
Finding a Tea (Pet) Companion
Tea pets are a delightful, if less well-known, element of tea drinking that most often feature in gong fu tea preparation. Made of yixing clay, tea pets (also known as tea mascots) absorb the flavour of tea because of the clay’s porous, unsealed nature. Yixing teapots often feature an animal on the body or lid, and …
Getting Along with “Normal” Teawares
Many tea drinkers have a limited selection of teawares in their arsenal. This is either because they have limited storage space, limited tea selections, limited funds, or limited time to go out and purchase specialized teawares and then learn how to use them properly. So, how do they prepare a special tea that might be …
What to Do with Broken Teapots
I remember going to South Carolina to complete one of the levels to my STI certification class a couple of years ago and, after the study class, I thought I’d venture into the town. There I came across an arts and craft market. I love to browse arts and crafts markets, admiring the beau-tea of …
Tea and the “Honey Do” List
In many U.S. households, the guy takes care of certain things and the gal takes care of certain things. Not saying I agree with this, but to each his/her own. Over the years the phrase “‘Honey Do’ List” has come to refer to the guys’ list — things like fixing drawers that stick, replacing rotting …
Cold War Tea Contingencies
The so-called Cold War was "fought" by various countries in the West, most notably the United States, against the USSR and various other communist countries. In truth it was not so much a war as a lengthy standoff, which by most accounts lasted from the end of World War II until about 1990. Nowadays, the …
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