Tag: gongfucha

Tea as Daoist Meditation, with Robert Coons

by Talking Tea, posted in Podcast Episodes

After nearly a year hiatus from releasing new episodes, and nearing what’s hopefully the end of a worldwide pandemic, we’re very happy to welcome back Robert Coons to talk with us about tea as a medium for meditation and health, from a Daoist viewpoint. Robert is a well-known teacher and writer on Daoist meditation, a tea vendor, an acupuncturist and practitioner of qigong and martial arts,  and was our guest two years ago in our episode “Tea & Daoism: Adjacent Connections”. He’s about to launch an online course on tea meditation, so we took this opportunity to get an overview of Robert’s perspectives on tea as a meditation practice.

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Bamboo Pu’er, Beyond the Novelty

by Talking Tea, posted in Podcast Episodes

There’s a certain novelty factor to bamboo pu’er – sheng or shou pu’er packed and (usually) aged in a bamboo tube. It’s not the way we usually acquire our pu’er, and it can be both challenging and fun to crack open the bamboo log and see what’s inside. But aside from the novelty, are bamboo pu’ers worth exploring for serious tea drinkers?

To look inside the bamboo log a little more deeply, we’re joined once again today on Talking Tea by John Wetzel, founder and owner of Stone Leaf Teahouse in Middlebury, Vermont. Specifically we’re focusing on one bamboo pu’er, a 2016 sheng from Naka Shan. 

Continue reading “Bamboo Pu’er, Beyond the Novelty” →

Tea & Daoism: Adjacent Connections

by Talking Tea, posted in Podcast Episodes

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Today we’re exploring connections between tea and Daoism, the millenia-old Chinese religious and philosophical tradition that has had such a profound influence on culture and history in and beyond China. We’re joined by Robert Coons, who straddles both the tea world and the world of Daoism. Robert is a well-known tea vendor based in Canada and China and is also a writer, teacher and podcaster on Daoism, qigong and Daoist meditation.   Read the full show notes

Talking Teapots, In-Depth with Scott Norton

by Talking Tea, posted in Podcast Episodes

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When a listener requested an episode about teapots. we realized that this was a topic we haven’t really delved into on Talking Tea. And having attended one of tea blogger, writer and teacher Scott Norton’s incredibly comprehensive seminars on yixing teaware, we invited Scott to join us for an in-depth overview of teapots, their design elements, their history and how to best match your teapots with your teas.  Read the full show notes

Growing a Tea Meetup

by Talking Tea, posted in Podcast Episodes

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One of our guiding principles here at Talking Tea is that conversations about tea and tea culture have the power to deepen our understanding and enhance our experience of tea. Today on Talking Tea we’re exploring one of the ways people are increasingly coming together to share and talk about tea: tea meetup groups. We’re joined by Roy Lamberty, founder and organizer of the New York Tea Society, a popular tea meetup in New York City.  Read the full show notes

Tea Goes to College

by Talking Tea, posted in Podcast Episodes

An institute dedicated to intensive, interdisciplinary tea education and research is not something you’ll typically see at a college or university in North America – or anywhere else, for that matter. But it’s exactly what you’ll find at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania, where an initiative originally undertaken by students has resulted in the groundbreaking, university-funded Tea Institute at Penn State.  Read the full show notes

An Eclectic Path of Tea

by Talking Tea, posted in Podcast Episodes

This week Talking Tea is back in Philadelphia to chat with Rebecca Goldschmidt of Philly’s Random Tea Room & Curiosity Shop, one of the most eclectic tea shops we’ve encountered on our tea journeys to date. Rebecca talks with us about her own path of tea and her aim of providing a space for health and well-being, which come together to create the unique tea environment that is the Random Tea Room.  Read the full show notes