http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz News from the Teahouse, about tea and more Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:49:10 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Over the last decade or so, I have become increasingly concerned about the commercialization of Christmas. Growing up, Christmas was a lovely family celebration and the culmination of a whole month of family-centred activities: baking, singing, enjoying the warm light of the candles on the Advent wreath. Sure, presents played ... http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2009/12/10/meaningful-gifts/ I am very excited about this announcement! We decided to finally go ahead with an idea we had for a long time: a tea club in which members receive a different tea every month! This might well be the ideal Christmas present for the friend you always wanted to convert to ... http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2009/11/24/announcing-our-new-tea-of-the-month-club/ ... and it comes true. Well, I didn't really say my wish, but I wrote about my wish about more tea tastings in my last post. And the very next day I got an invitation to a Tea Party (which turned out to be a 'fancy hat and all frills' affair) at ... http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2009/11/09/sometimes-you-just-have-to-say-your-wish-aloud/ Over the last couple of weeks, I've attended two wine and one whisky tasting. While I am not too knowledgeable about either, I do enjoy a good glass or dram. And organized tastings with experts are a great way to learn and get exposure to things we don't usually consume. ... http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2009/11/05/musings-on-tastings/ Sorry for the lack of posts on our blog lately. I just realized that I haven't posted anything new for almost 3 months! Fortunately, this doesn't mean that nothing is happening at Ya-Ya, rather the opposite. Things have been really busy. We had a great time at the 2009 Vegetarian ... http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2009/11/04/new-teas-in-october-part-i-oolongs-black-tea/ I just realized that my last post on issue 6 of The Leaf was my 100th post on Ya-Ya's Tea Board and it fell in the month of the 3rd birthday of the blog! More than enough reasons to have a gong fu session with a beautiful old pu-erh that ... http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2009/08/09/100-posts-a-reason-to-celebrate/ The newest issue of the online tea magazine The Leaf is available now. With each new issue, I'm increasingly proud to be part of this amazing publication, if only in a small role. The Leaf is carving itself a niche for reliable, in-depth tea-related knowledge in a world of information that ... http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2009/08/09/the-leaf-issue-6-out-now/ ... is quite a flexible list at best. But more about that later. Most people with an interest in tea will have heard about the Ten Famous Chinese Teas (I have made references to them occasionally on this blog in the past). While references to this list are often used to ... http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2009/06/15/the-10-famous-chinese-teas/ It's this time of the year again! An abundance of ripe fruit on the trees invite us to get a big pot out, rinse the preserving jars and dream up a recipe. Last year I posted a recipe for apple jelly with rose oolong, this year I was inspired by a ... http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2009/05/27/cooking-with-tea-quince-jelly-with-dancong-oolong/ Only 2 oolongs are on the list of the 10 most famous Chinese teas: Da Hong Pao ('Big Red Robe') and Ti Guan Yin ('Iron Goddess of Mercy'), both originally from Fujian Province. Both come from Fujian Province, Da Hong Pao (DHP) from Wuyi Shan in Northern Fujian and Ti ... http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2009/05/04/ti-guan-yin-the-iron-goddess-of-mercy/