Ya-Ya’s Tea-Board

To celebrate the start of the Year of the Horse, I’ve decided to have the first sale ever at Ya-Ya. We don’t usually put teas on sale due to the way we operate and price our teas and teaware. We keep the markup extremely small to make even the most outstanding teas affordable to everyone. And with such small margins, our normal prices can’t easily be discounted.

But I’m in a festive mood today and have decided to give all of you an incentive to try some of the phenomenal Chinese black teas that you might otherwise not consider. Ever wondered why everyone is raving about the incredible smoothness of a good Keemun Mao Feng? Or whether the elusive Jin Jun Mei is really justified to be so expensive? Why not use this offer to see (or taste) for yourself?
The offer of 15% discount on all Chinese Black Teas is valid during the Spring Festival holidays and ends on 15 February.

You can browse our selection of Chinese Black Teas here.

Teahouse Events | No Comments »

I have just received a new shipment of the 3 Light Meets Life pu-erh cakes that I have offered some of my customers via email in December last year. The first shipment sold out in a matter of hours and I had to put some people on a waiting list for new stock. Now, this shipment has arrived and I want to open the offer to those who haven’t received my email last month.

Tasting Notes | No Comments »

Last October was an exciting month as it saw the arrival of many new teas - with pu-erh representing the majority of the new arrivals. I had a great time, drinking my way through the stash to write down some tasting notes which I want to share with you in this post.

I’m not covering all the new teas here, but might follow up with another post to share notes on the rest of them. This lot of pu-erh covers a very broad range and should satisfy most people - from raw (sheng) to ripe (shou) teas, from inexpensive beginner teas to  pricier aged teas, there’s something for everyone. But without further ado, here are the teas…

Tasting Notes | No Comments »

The pre-dawn hour is often being recommended as the perfect time for meditation. That sweet moment after a good night’s rest and before the hustle of the day catches up with us. It’s a time when we are especially receptive and willing to surrender control - maybe because the controlling part of our brain is still half asleep.

Being an early morning person myself, I am surprised that it’s taken me until this past weekend to actually try drinking tea in this magical hour. And already, after just 4 consecutive days of practicing this predawn ritual, it has had a big impact on my approach to tea. In this post, I want to share some of my experiences, insights and thoughts with you - hoping that it might inspire you to rise early, heat some water and let tea take over control.

know-how - Thoughts | No Comments »

About a year and a half ago, I traveled through New Zealand to piece together its historical involvement with tea. My research resulted in an article that was published in the May 2012 issue of New Zealand Geographic.* Since the full article is not freely available and some of you might be interested to read about our country’s history with our favourite drink, I decided to publish it here on our blog in 2 parts. The first part did cover New Zealand’s illustrious tea culture, while this second part covers Aotearoa’s long history of attempting to grow tea.

know-how - Travel | 2 Comments »