Photos

Recent photos I’ve posted to Instagram.

chacrusade

Before I knew it, the @teaangle #teadiscoveryclub

Before I knew it, the @teaangle #teadiscoveryclub (TDC) box 4 arrived! Unlike the first three boxes, this only contained one tea: a 100g cake of a 2017 báimǔdān (white peony) #whitetea from the famous Fúdǐng region of Fújiàn, China, renowned for their white teas.
This was enjoyably thick, with flavours ranging from higher straw/hay notes down to dark stone fruits. Flaunting the brewing guide, I pushed this with boiling water the whole time and it held up really well. Even if you want to be cautious, I recommend using higher water temperatures after the first few steeps to bring out the flavours more.
This is the kind of tea I reach for when I'm not sure what I feel like drinking, and it always seems to hit the spot!

Trying "Biscuits" from the @teaangle Tea Discovery

Trying "Biscuits" from the @teaangle Tea Discovery Club (TDC) box 3, which is a #yellowtea exploration.
I've always been curious about this tiny tea category, since the handful of yellow teas I've tried haven't made a huge impression on me. The info sheet included in the box discusses this – is yellow tea legitimately deserving of its own category? Or is it barely more than "off" green tea?
I found "Biscuits" to be quite pleasant, with nice mouth activity and prolonged aftertaste following its delicate straw/hay and mung bean flavour. Notably this one wasn't nutty, which I missed because this is something I've enjoyed in yellow teas I've tried previously, but its convenient pressed shape was cool.
I'm looking forward to trying the other types included in the box!
Special thanks to the #teaangle folks for delaying sending out my box while I was overseas so that it didn't sit on my porch roasting for several weeks 😂
#teaangle #teadiscoveryclub

Bringing some waffles to yum cha. #white2tea #ripe

Bringing some waffles to yum cha. #white2tea #ripepuer

2023 "Plum Beauty" from #bitterleafteas. Definitel

2023 "Plum Beauty" from #bitterleafteas. Definitely lives up to its name!
Looking forward to ordering another "Treat Yourself" sample jar when their 2024 #rawpuer teas arrive.

Wrote up some thoughts on the #white2tea annual gr

Wrote up some thoughts on the #white2tea annual green tea sale (link in bio) as I try to recruit some colleagues into a group-buy for it before the window closes 😂
Keen to hear people's personal strategies for how you store your greens tea to extend their freshness. This 2021 "Cloud Mist Green" I found lost in my stash is still delicate and crisp but of course no longer has that beautiful freshness that made it so special.

Gifted a huge box of 小青柑 stuffed with ripe p

Gifted a huge box of 小青柑 stuffed with ripe pu'er while I was in China! I really enjoy the medicinal taste that the chenpi gives to the tea.

I've enjoyed a few sessions with this Yingde hongc

I've enjoyed a few sessions with this Yingde hongcha now. It's powerful enough to be a breakfast tea, able to cut through the taste of food, but also elegant and complex enough to be engaging in a stand-alone gongfu session. Prolonged aftertaste and great longevity through steeps 👍
#英德红茶 #英红九号

A quick stop at a local tea shop to pick up some Y

A quick stop at a local tea shop to pick up some Yīngdé red tea (英德红茶) also known as Yinghong number 9 (英红九号).
Apparently this is a pretty famous red tea, but I only learnt of it relatively recently so have been keen to try it out. It's grown in the region of the same name in Guangdong, about 100km or so north of Guangzhou.
I had a quick taste of it today before grabbing a box but will try it out properly soon!

Enjoying yum cha at one of many (40+) Dim Dou Duk

Enjoying yum cha at one of many (40+) Dim Dou Duk (点都德) yum cha chain restaurants here in Guangzhou. The Chaozhou-style gongfu set is standard at every table.
It's quite a sight for me to see 100+ people enjoying their tea here all at the same time in this way! And of course the food is great too 😋

Ripe pu'er the standard choice for yumcha in Guang

Ripe pu'er the standard choice for yumcha in Guangzhou.
Apparently this place opens from 7am every day for locals to get their fix.

Enjoying Lunar New Year in China (Guangzhou) for t

Enjoying Lunar New Year in China (Guangzhou) for the first time in four years! Lots of great food with family and a bit of sightseeing, it's a bit trickier this time due to having a toddler in tow 😅
The hotel provides this basic gongfu tea set in every room, which is a nice touch. I'm drinking "Cakewalk" dancong (2023) from #bitterleafteas.
Wishing you all a happy and prosperous year of the dragon! 🐉

Had a great time sharing with some friends who are

Had a great time sharing with some friends who are just starting their journey into tea. We drank:
- raw pu'er (Jingmai #bitterleafteas "In Bloom" 2023)
- dancong oolong (#bitterleafteas "Bouquet" 2021)
- Yunnan white (#kuuracorp "Electroflowercandy" 2020)
- Yunnan red (#kuuracorp "Go-Juice" 2018)
- ripe pu'er (#white2tea "Waffles" 2021)

I picked these to complement and build on some of the teas they'd already tried recently from their #teaangle sampler pack.

It has been a long time since I drank through a bunch of teas back to back and I was definitely feeling it by the end 🥴 My friends, who are coffee drinkers, seemed mostly unaffected though!

There's always so much to talk about with tea, so the ~four hours just flew by!

The woody profile of #lumberslut isn't my favourit

Excited to receive my first #wuyiorigin order a co

Excited to receive my first #wuyiorigin order a couple of weeks ago!
I was looking for a good source of quality #yancha and had read excellent reviews from several of you folks that I follow.
I've tried a couple of these so far and been very satisfied. I'll post more details in the near future.
Also, it's a small thing but I really like that the boxes came with their own bulldog clips 👍

My last mini of "Scrye" Yunnan red tea from #white

The other day I managed to visit the "Michelin sta

The other day I managed to visit the "Michelin starred" (more on this later) bubble tea shop @chichasanchen.nsw.australia (吃茶三千 but romanised as CHICHA San Chen) in Burwood.

Their flagship store opened in April 2023 in Hornsby but they're now expanding quickly and recently opened shops in Burwood, Town Hall and Parramatta.

Sydney enjoys a large number of bubble tea stores and chains so there needs to be some kind of pull for people to pay much attention. This 1998 chain out of Taiwan has a couple of them:

1. Their focus is on the quality of the tea (as opposed to the pearls, menu variety, etc.) claiming to only use material from the Lishan tea growing region of Taiwan. They also freshly brew the tea to order in their "teaspresso" machines to extract a superior brew at the cost of time.
2. Their marketing mentions their tea's @tasteinstitute awards, which they have been getting since 2021, is "the equivalent to a Michelin 3-star standard". I think many would consider this disingenuous but the idea of Michelin-starred bubble tea certainly has a lot of people talking.

I ordered a Dongding milk tea with pearls and no sugar. Ordering and paying was convenient, using a large touch screen. It took about 10 minutes to make the order, but it was quite busy and the store had only opened 2 weeks ago, so they may still be finding their groove.

The verdict: I found it to be worthy of at least some of the hype, with a nice roasted Dongding oolong taste coming through clearly despite having to compete with the milk and pearls. I regretted ordering the smaller size. I'll be looking to try them again at my next opportunity!

Notably they are competing very closely with the excellent @teaspotaustralia, who take a very similar approach with their slow/made to order tea brewing. They opened several years ago but only have the one location (also in Burwood).

I think it's encouraging to see more bubble tea places popping up here that focus on the tea quality/taste. Maybe it reflects a more discerning consumer and/or a shift in their average age!

For my last tea session of 2023 I tried the ruixia

For my last tea session of 2023 I tried the ruixiang (瑞香) rock oolong included in my recent #wuyiorigin order as a free sample.
It was quite forgiving to brew, with a gentle clean taste, lovely balanced aroma and pleasant aftertaste. It did get a bit astringent as I tried to coax more out of it though.
I'm very much looking forward to tasting more of the teas from this order, as yancha is still a whole world I've barely explored.
Wishing everyone a happy new year and lots of wonderful tea experiences in 2024! 🥳

"Red Loon" #ripepuer from #white2tea has a nice mi

My modest #white2tea Black Friday order was mainly

My modest #white2tea Black Friday order was mainly just about getting my hands on Big O v3 (#ripepuer with chenpi) after running out of v2 ages ago and really missing it.
I also grabbed some samples of much of the 2023 ripe line-up.
I remember really struggling to differentiate various ripes early in my tea journey so it's been fun improving on this over the years.

A beautiful eastern beauty (东方美人) oolong f

A beautiful eastern beauty (东方美人) oolong from @wistariateahouse that one of our work tea group members brought to our latest gathering 😋

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