Thanksgiving tea week 2024

20 years ago, Cosmin had a tea blog and blogged regularly to share his passion of tea. Now, he still has the passion, but also a job with responsibilities and a family, which is why he has stopped blogging, But his passion for tea hasn't stopped. His limited time means that he focuses on enjoying tea rather than writing long articles.

This week, I took Cosmin to one of my favorite tea spot in the Wenshan area, near Pinglin, so that he can enjoy Taiwan teas outdoors. He wanted to repeat a wonderful experience he had last time he came to Taipei. Then, he was having tea in Maokong and felt the connection between the flavors of the Oolongs he was brewing and the surrounding nature. 

Here, this 'surround' feeling that one can have in an IMAX cinema is intensified by the tea plantations we can see and almost smell in all 4 directions! We started with my spring BiLuoChun and followed by a 'subtropical forest' Baozhong, the 2 local teas. Then we moved to the center of Taiwan with my Shan Lin Xi high mountain Oolong. 

We finished with 2 teas that Cosmin also enjoyed a lot. First, my charcoal roasted Oolong from Yong Lung in Dong Ding. Its lighter and yet deep roast is a pleasant surprise to most of my tea friends who have become accustomed to the heavily roasted Dong Ding competition Oolongs. They are nice if you like roast, but require about 15 years to mellow. 

The very last tea on our menu was this imperial Oriental Beauty Oolong from Hsin Chu of summer 2024 brewed in this Yixing Zhuni Xishi teapot. 

I mostly focused on brewing the first teas in order to show Cosmin the technique I'm using. Then I let him handle the later brews and could see that he has well absorbed my lessons. He's very quiet, focused and precise. 

There were very few drops of tea on the Chabu! 

We had a little bit of cool wind, but all in all, we were very fortunate with the weather at this time of the year. Finishing with a roasted and a highly oxidized Oolong brought a welcome warm feeling from within. The other thing that we did well is to increase the amount of tea. When you're brewing outdoors, your senses are getting so many stimuli from nature that tea must be strong for you to notice it.

Wonderful tea experiences with my longtime customers are the high marks of my career in tea. On this Thanksgiving weekend, these interactions are what I'm most thankful for. Brightening the life of so many people with superior quality tea and a sense of achievement, mastery and beauty, is what makes my day! Tea-masters is probably the smallest professional tea boutique on the Net, but it has some very fine teas and my blog has reached 20 years this years. I want to thank all of those who made my endeavor a success over these years. 

An hour after this session, I had a proof of my blog's fame and how life is full of coincidences: Cosmin and I ran into women from Romania at a restaurant in Pinglin! At first, they were surprised to meet a Romanian in this small Taiwanese town. Then, they realized that they knew my blog and one of them had even ordered tea from me before Covid!! Two days later, they came for a tea lesson!