Pop Culture
I’m on record as being unmoved by both Japanese teas and Japanese tea culture and ceremonies. Taking your shoes off, sitting on a rush mat and admiring a stick in a vase does not in any way cause me to...
View ArticleMy 12 Best Blog Post Titles What I Wrote*
The Devotea’s List Week. List 4.** I love a great title. I find inspiration in titles. Many of my favourite authors go for brilliant, somewhat far-out titles such as Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream...
View ArticleThe Collective Minds of Tea on the 7 Great Stories
This is the final entry in my “List Week”. Seven Lists in Seven Days. If you’ve been reading, you have my thanks. If you haven’t – what’s wrong with you? According to a famous work by a certain Mr...
View ArticleThe Hypocrisy Continues
I wasn’t sure I should post this. But, here goes. I spent many hours writing a post recently. And then found one fact that challenged my assumptions. My basic premise was that the new anti-gay laws in...
View ArticleThe Hub
I was going to start by saying “regular readers will know”, but as I have published only three short, simple pieces in five weeks, I probably don’t have any left. The last four months have been the...
View ArticleA Trolley Good Time
The Tea Lady is virtually a mythical figure these days. Once an essential part of any medium sized business; the post is now reduced to a couple of stereotypes. In my part of the world, they finally...
View ArticleShe and He and Tea
Tea has been caught in the crossfire of a battle that is ostensibly between men and women for hundreds of years now. Why bother, you might ask? You might say “Don’t we have gender equality now? Not...
View ArticleFine Words Butter No Parsnips
A small intro, before the main event. I’ve always loved the saying “Fine Words Butter No Parsnips.” On a whim I decided to use it as a blog post title, with no idea what to write about. And then, on...
View ArticleTea Service
“I know the nicest thing I ever had on the Kokoda Trail was a cup of tea given to me by the Salvation Army. And I hated tea that never had milk or sugar in it; this didn’t have any in it and I loved...
View ArticleThe Lure of The Giant Teapot
Well, boys and girls, it all started with a giant teapot. That’s how we ended up with a stall, tastings and a talk at Ladies Day at a retirement village. Years ago, we looked the economics of holding...
View ArticleHidden Dangers: The 10 Side Effects of Green Tea
I get asked a fair few questions on Quora along the lines of: What are the side effects of Green Tea? To save wasting my valuable time, I’ve decided to offer one comprehensive answer to the question,...
View Article12 Days of Tea Pairing
As you all know, I am one of the world’s most knowledgeable tea people, and I am also very generous and willing to share my vast brain with less fortunate beings. The same goes with previous...
View ArticleTea: It’s Not Astrology
As we all know, I never criticise anyone or anything*, but I keep seeing stories about “National Hot Tea Month” and I get rather annoyed. Let’s tackle just some of the issues. Firstly, in these...
View ArticleOne Is Highly Unamused
It’s not everyday you turn 90. For most people, it only happens once. It will happen twice this year for Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, or to provide her official titles, Her Majesty Elizabeth the...
View Article1846 And All That
I read a lot, when I can. And I often read fiction. And I often read non-fiction. And often, that’s history. When it comes to history, generally, I like Stone Age through to about 1799. Why 1799? Well...
View ArticleCaptain and Capability
Today, I break my self imposed rule against not reviewing teas that are available in markets where they compete with our own, using Douglas Adam’s escape clause in the Hitchhiker’s Guide series, where...
View ArticleA Cup of Cultural Cringe
There’s a thing in Australia called the Cultural Cringe, and if you’ve not heard about it, it’s kind of a national chip on our shoulder; an inbuilt inferiority complex when compared to selected foreign...
View ArticleSweet Teadom
Well, here we are in Penang, Malaysia, and I spent yesterday drinking plenty of tea. My Lady and I had decided to get a good night’s sleep (you can translate that as ‘arrived near comatose’ if you...
View ArticleGoogle Is a Lazy Co-Author
I read a lot. I read surprising few books on tea. Of course, I’ve read my own a few times, and in the case of The Infusiast, should have read it a few more times before I okayed the print run with...
View ArticleThe Tea-Stained Glory that was 2016
Pinching an idea from the world’s most popular tea blogger, Nicole Martin at teaformeplease.com , I am posting a short rundown on which of my 49 blog posts in 2016 were the most widely read. Reading...
View Article
