Focusing on Taste

TTDietz

Today on Talking Tea we focus on the nuances of flavor, and how to fully appreciate the taste of tea by engaging all of our senses. Guiding us through this exploration of tasting is Billy Dietz, a tea development specialist based in Montreal. We chat with Billy via Skype as he shares a little of his own remarkable tea journey and then takes us through two methods of preparing a tea he selected for this episode, a Muzha Tie Kwan Yin oolong from Taiwan provided by Naivetea.
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Montreal’s Tea School

TT Montreal Summer School group

What did Talking Tea do this summer? We went to summer school, of course. Tea summer school, that is. In August we attended one of the English-language Summer School workshops offered through the tea school at Montreal’s Camellia Sinensis. After the workshop we sat down with Kevin Gascoyne of Camellia Sinensis to chat about current and emerging trends in tea education.  Read the full show notes

Baozhong: Born in China, Rooted in Taiwan

FarmerChen 42

We’re continuing our exploration of Taiwanese oolongs this week with a focus on one of the most celebrated of Taiwanese teas, Baozhong. Shiuwen Tai, of Seattle’s Floating Leaves Tea, gave us such a fantastic and comprehensive intro to Taiwanese oolongs in our last episode that we had to invite her back to give us some more in-depth knowledge, and we asked Shiuwen to talk about Baozhong because, well, it’s one of our favorite oolongs.  Read the full show notes

Drunk on Tea, Part 1

Tea Drunk

This week on Talking Tea we get “drunk” on tea at Tea Drunk, a teahouse in New York City serving traditional Chinese tea. Shunan Teng, who founded and owns Tea Drunk (and knows just about everything there is to know about Chinese tea), talks with us about wild tea, Chan Cha or “monk’s tea”, tea picking seasons, and why tea requires a dedicated palate and a dedicated mind.  Read the full show notes