Monday, January 10, 2005

A tea blog from a Chinese Tea Merchant

The Teahub blog and tea talk blog are 2 blogs from a clever Chinese tea company, JinYuXuan, with a website called Tea hub. I think it's a wonderful idea for them to extend their store with 2 blogs. Maybe I should extend my blog with a web store, too?!!!

The reading is quite interesting. Their focus seems to be on Pu Erh tea, which is one of the most difficult for westerners to understand. The driving force behind them is a tea master called Ms. Liu. -Shouldn't she be called tea mistress?!-

Located in Mainland China, this company seems to associate local tea sources, tea knowledge, english and web proficiency. If they have good businss sense, they may become leaders in export of Chinese teas.

What I like about the blogs is that the information provided is quite reliable and stems from a deep knowledge about tea. However, mistakes (or differences in opinion) can't be ruled out. For instance, here they advocate using glass to brew green tea because you can see the leaves unfold. However, glass doesn't handle heat as well as chinaware and leads to a more fuzzy smell. This is an interesting experience everybody can make: brew the same tea in different tea wares and find out which gives the best result. Don't always trust the tea master, become one!

3 comments:

TeaHub said...

Stephane, glass is actually widely used in tea ceremonies in China. Mr. Zhi Lin specifically mentioned glass teaware in his book, Collection of Chinese Tea Ceremonies (中国茶艺集锦), a Chinese tea master training book. May be you can consider giving glass another try? Make sure that you control the water temperature and brewing time. If interested, we have special brewing instruction using glass for Jiang Su Bi Luo Chun on our site at http://www.teahub.com/G2004102.htm .

Linda
www.teahub.com

Anonymous said...

Stephane,

I've been enjoying your blog. I must say that I have had wonderful outcomes using glass for brewing my green and white teas. I actually took a class on Chinese Tea where glass was only used.

For the longest time I would use a Bodum French Press--then ended up purchasing a glass teapot. I swore that it made the best tasting White Tea brews. I often switch between the Chinaware, Glass and Yixing pottery depending on my mood.

You have probably seen that the latest craze, in the U.S. anyways, seems to be the glass teapot with the flowering tea. A beautiful thing to look at but I guess we all have our preferences for what to make our brew in. Enjoy!

Peace and Joy to you!

~Amadeus

Rooibos Infusion said...

Love your blog.

I did not know that glass was widely used in China, first time I have heard that.