Musings

On Zen and Tea

Mass, Ritual, and Tea - there is no guide
Timing Tea - learning by doing
Drink Some Tea - where was I just now?
Just Doing - a cure for being elsewhere
Timeliness - to every thing, there is a season
Ice, Water - words of Taisen Deshimaru-roshi, the Zen monk
Tea Company - wa, kei, sei, jaku
Mumonkan - take all this with a pinch of salt
The Value of Words - drink more tea, do more zazen
The Unknown Soldier - space to think, a quietening session
Writing About Tea - take it easy


On Gongfucha

The Zen of Wenxiangbei - using aroma cups
A New Tool - sorting tea with a pu'er tray
Chachong - friends made of clay
Induction 101 - how your induction kettle works
Nembu Tekki - the art of the tetsubin
Tetsubin vs. Induction - the differences and concerns
The Aging Tetsubin - keeping track of an iron kettle's aging
The Aging Tetsubin II -  more kettle-watching
Internet Pots - buying blind?
Something Wicked This Way Comes - a collection of pots
Tasting Tea, I and II - what works for me
Wabi-Sabi - reducing our tea-clutter
Ending a Session - tidying up is an important part of gongfucha


Tea Miscellany

Thoughts on Aging - English storage, and pricing
English Storage IIIIIIIVVVI, and VII - keeping an eye on the cakes
The Five-Year-Olds - evaluating English storage after five years
Buying from Taobao - a brief introduction
Pesticide: It's What's for Dinner
Humidity and Temperature - experiences from our Sceptred Isle
A Glossary of Tea - ku, or bitterness
There's No Rush! - buy slowly, or face shelves filled with bad tea
Single Mountains - gaining exposure through avoiding the howlers
House Blend -  making the most of your leftovers
A Host of Tiny Concerns - a new era for tea-storage
Wrapper Mayhem - you never know what you're gonna get
Mould - it comes to us all in the end
Running Out of Tea - it can happen


Additional Musings

The Power Behind the Throne - Xiaohu writes for a day
Maliandao - exploring Beijing's tea district
Chayuan - more from Maliandao
Navigating Maliandao - a route in photographs
Consulting the Oracle - the Book of Changes and the Half-Dipper
That Time of the Month - a response to feedback on the Half-Dipper
That Time of the Month, II - more responses concerning the Half-Dipper
Maturity - of the drinker and the Half-Dipper
Non-tea - consuming caffeine in the afternoons can affect the quality of sleep
Just Writing - purposeless textual meandering
Hagiyaki - the ghostly "Oni" style
Normality - the everyday life
Tea Demonstrations - matcha at the British Museum and London's TeaSmith
A Quest for Gongfucha - an attempt to discover real tea in London
Gongfucha in Grenoble - even the French like good tea
A Tale of Two Teashops, Part I - Postcard Teas in London
A Tale of Two Teashops, Part II - Nong Cha in Brussels
Piles of Processed Pu'er, and Again - Cheeky vendors and cheeky prices
HH the Dalai Lama - HH visits our little town
A Generative Process, and The Results of an Experiment - a challenger appears
Back to the Tea-Table - what it means to be back behind the tetsubin
England is Closed - the last cup of the year
The Way of Tea - a book about tea
Keng - Keng
Gracias - Teachums ever-generous
Wulong and the Willow - Drinking in the Great Outdoors
A Little More Willow - Further details of our garden
Tea in Borneo - does it exist?
Tea Questions - an infinity of tea blogs
Gastro Tea - discovering decent tea in Oxford's cafes
How to Read a Haiku - some notes on reading
An Interview - we turn the Inquisition on white2tea
Dark Breakfast - We See in a Mirror, Darkly
YOU WIN, OR YOU DIE - a treatise on early-career academia
Be Careful What You Wish For - Looking Back on 2015
Strange Days - Curiouser and Curiouser, in 2016