Winter 2017
editor's note
Hi there, tea lovers! This journal is arriving in your inboxes a bit later than planned. After two years of very focus and thematic issues, I've run into some trouble pulling together high-quality content to share with you all. Part of me thought that was a sign this project had run its course. I've received positive feedback from so many people that I was afraid of letting you all down. That being said, this journal has always has been a passion project for me. I started it because I wanted to give everyone free access to the kind of articles that I'd like to read myself. There are going to be some changes as we move through the year but I'm committed to keeping this going. Content will be a bit more general but still always focused on tea. Issues will still be delivered quarterly in the same formats as before. I'm counting on all of you to continue to let me know your thoughts. Keep those topic requests coming too! Submissions for this publication are always welcome whether you are a writer, tea merchant, or a fellow tea enthusiast. Please feel free to reach out to me at nicole@teaformeplease.com.
Nicole Martin
by Nicole Martin
Did you know that for 99 years there was a government agency in the United States dedicated specifically to tea? The Board of Tea Appeals fell under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration from 1897 until 1996. Their primary function was to ensure the quality and safety of all of the tea being imported into the country. The act also authorized the FDA to appoint a board of tea experts whose job was to taste all of the tea being imported to determine whether or not it was fit for consumption. I can't decide if that is a dream job or some bizarre form of torture. I'm sure those tasters had to try some pretty terrible teas over the years.
In the 19th century tea was an important part of society but drinking it also seems like it was dubious at best. Adulteration was very commonplace both here in the U.S. and in England. Â Coloring agents, leaves of other local plants and sheep dung were all potential inclusions. While the Board of Tea Tasters was ostensibly set up to protect consumers, it also meant that just a handful of people had total control over what types of tea Americans had access to. They famously barred the importation of puerh tea for many years because of its mustiness. I definitely think that is part of why most of us are still discovering this kind of tea.
There were several attempts to repeal the Tea Importation Act, most notably during the Nixon and Carter administrations. Congress was not successful until 1996 during Bill Clinton's first term in office. Senator Harry M. Reid was quoted as saying "These tea-tasting people are just like lizards. You grab them and jerk something off and they are right back.". While he did not succeed initially in getting the act repealed, congress did succeed in forcing the tea industry to pay for operations rather than the federal government.
I found several interesting quotes from Robert H. Dick, the last tea taster before the act was repealed.Â
"I was also able to down to Yunnan, practically down to the Laos border where the the Pu Ehr teas are produced. Now, the Pu Ehr teas are rather infamous in this country because the Chinese treat them so that they produce a mustiness. They have a musty favor. Now, to the tea expert in this country mustiness is something on which they all agree. They would throw it out. The Chinese, from that area, like it and that is where I have a lot of my troubles from their attempts to bring it in."
"Most of the larger packers follow the Act faithfully and they follow the procedures that were set up. However, there are some who do not and some of them, especially the Chinese grocers and some of the Japanese and the Indian grocers do not seem to understand or at least they pretend they don't understand and we have difficulty at times getting these samples. Also, we have difficulty in really checking as to whether the samples are what they are supposed to be. Most of the Chinese invoices will come in and they will just list "tea", and it can be just about anything. You really don't know what they do have. I am sure that a lot of the teas are coming in and are not being recorded or else they are coming in under another name because there are these types which we would reject because of the fact that they are very musty in taste. But they are very highly prized and highly priced in the Chinese community. I don't have very many rejections and yet I go down in Chinatown and I'll see all of these teas displayed in the grocery windows. I am unable to follow through on that."
"Then later on I was able to go to China and I managed to cover quite a bit of territory in that country right after it was reopened to general travel. Imanaged to visit Hangchow, then the West Lake. The West Lake is a famous vacation spot for the Chinese. On the shores of the W~est Lake is a tea garden, Lung Ching Tea Garden, which is supposed to be one of the finest green teas in the world, and which the Chinese in particular prize very highly. They are willing to pay several dollars a pound. Even years ago, they were paying $10.00-$20.00 per pound, when $5.00 was considered a high price for tea."
If only Dragonwell was still $20 per pound! In case any of you would like to read it, the entire interview can be viewed on the FDA's website.
by Geoffrey Norman of STEEP STORIES
Bros, Black Teas and Bugshit It hasn’t been a normal couple of weeks. Initially, I set out to find an off-the-beaten-path teashop or two for this here write-up for Tea For Me Please. Well, that didn’t happen. I mean, there are places I need to check out, but they aren’t appearing here. Instead, I thought I’d highlight two separate tea sessions —locally, as in, Portland-centric—I had with two tea-bros. What’s a tea-bro? It’s a bro you have tea with. No, not the negative connotation of “bro”; all the positive aspects. As in, a guy that’d bail you out of jail if you stole all the teaware from the local museum . . . or who probably ends up in the cell with you. Portland is full of these tea-bros —both new and old, male and female. Yes, girls can be tea-bros, too. As to whether or not that’d make them “tea-bro-sisses” . . . well . . . I’ll leave that moniker question up to the gals themselves. New age guy, as I am and all. I’m getting off-topic.
One unassuming night, I received a message from one Nicky Evers. While we’d been friends on Facebook and followed each other on Instagram, we never had a full conversation. I only knew him as “that Steady Hand Tea dude” and/or the moderator for an online Gong Fu Cha group; someone who was rather connected to the Wild West tea scene of San Francisco. Apparently, he and his girlfriend decided that SF was financially suffocating, and they jumped ship and moved up to Portland. A city that was fast becoming financially suffocating. We arranged for a tea meet-up the following Friday. I had no clue what to expect. I knew the dude was far younger than me but had developed a decades-old palate in a matter of a few years. He even globe-trotted to various tea growing regions. When I finally found his place, he greeted me at the door, and we traded barbs like fast friends for a half-hour or so before getting down to brewing. We discussed some of our mutual acquaintances; some of our weirdest tea finds. (I think he had me beat.) He and his girlfriend even regaled me with tales of how they met.
Answer: While juggling. In a circus group. That’s . . . kind of amazing. Eventually, he finally moseyed over to the tea chest to pick something out. And I do mean, it was a literal chest—like something out of a pirate movie. Nicky asked what my preferences were. To which I had . . . no real answer. Upon hearing I had a Taiwanese tea affinity (and for all things weird), he picked out a bag and got to brewin’. It was a black tea made from a Tie Guan Yin cultivar but grown in Taiwan.
I can’t quite recall the exact taster notes that beast evoked, but I seem to remember the words “rye bread and mint” were uttered by me. Sounds apt. The last time I had a Guan Yin black tea, the flavors were similar. We got about four good, burly steeps out of that sucker. Our second tea was something I brought: an aged oolong from Thailand. I’ve written about it before. Moving on. The third (and final) tea we destroyed was another Taiwanese black—Hongyun #21.
Not to be confused with Hongyu #18. Darn you, Taiwan, and your confusing tea cultivars! Anyway, it tasted like an Assam, minus all that tannic stuff. Although, that might’ve been due to the fact that we were gongfu-ing it. I left Nicky and his girl’s place after three hours and one heaping head-buzz. I think I got some sleep . . . but not much. Great way to spend a Friday night.
Throughout the early weeks of January, a fellow Taiwanese oolong fan, Dan Pappas, and I had tried to coordinate our schedules for a marathon brewing session. Ice storms, snow storms, and work schedules prevented such attempts. But sometime in the middle of the month, we were able to make it work. I was particularly looking forward to this session for once reason.
Bug shit. While he was at the Xiamen Tea Festival, he picked up some “Dragon Pearls”. That was the polite name for them. In reality, they were small, circular pellets found in (and on) puerh cakes that were stored for a number of years. Said pellets were . . . exactly what you—fine reader—thing they are. You see, sometimes—in those funky warehouses—stored puerh cakes are the chosen meal for moth caterpillars. Before these violated cakes are put up for sale or auction, the pellets are removed from the leaf material. And, for some reason, those are sold as tea as well. The ‘pillar pellets are, indeed, leaves that were . . . “passed” . . . but they aren’t fully digested. Meaning, technically, they’re still tea leaves, but with the added benefit of . . . um . . . bug shittiness to them. A second type of Dragon Pearl/bug shit tea also exists, wherein caterpillars are put on actual tea trees, and then the droppings are collected. And I’d been trying to collect that shit for YEARS!!!
Moving on . . . Dan and I arranged to meet at his place in the morning. He wasn’t much of an evening tea drinker. (Smart; I should probably stop that, too.) I brought along UNYTea’s bug-bitten Jin Xuan and a puerh cake from Myanmar. I didn’t expect us to go through all the teas we displayed. But we did. And, then, at the finale, it was time for bug shit.
The pellets looked like CTC-grade black, except they—sort of—glistened. No other way to describe it. The appearance reminded me of caviar. Old caviar. Like CTC tea, the pellets also didn’t take long to brew. One merely needed to slow-drip ‘em through hot water like coffee. The resulting brew turned up dark and ready for drinking. And the flavor was . . .
Surprisingly pleasant. Earthy on the front; cooling and mentholic on the back. Like a learned, Buddhist sage with rockin’ mullet . . . caught in an outhouse. If I wasn’t tea drunk before; I was after two steeps of the bug poo-poo puerh. In the span of four days, I had two completely different, genuine, and amazing tea sessions. It reminded me that I should leave the comforts of my mancave more, and share what oddi-“teas” I possessed. After all, that was another, quick way to run into new and exciting teas. Can’t wait to do it again. High fives, tea-bros. High fives.
Geoffrey Norman began writing about tea in 2007. Since then, he has made it a point to track down unique teas and the stories behind them. He is currently working on his first book and can usually be found in his pajamas with a mug in hand. You can find out more at http://www.steepstories.com
TEA IN LAS VEGAS
by Naomi Rosen of Joy's Teaspoon and the Southwest Tea Fest
When you think about Las Vegas, you think bright lights, cigarette smoke, gambling and showgirls. Everything is bigger and brighter here. Except the tea scene. Until now! Las Vegas is experiencing a surge of really great tea culture lately so I thought I could highlight a few things that you might want to mark on your To Do list the next time you are in town!
Lucky Dragon Hotel and Casino The newest hotel to adorn the Las Vegas strip is the Lucky Dragon Hotel and Casino. There are a number of reasons that this place is different from all of the others but number one on my list is their tea lounge - Cha Garden. Featuring Vegas' only tea sommeliers and an amazing tea selection from around the world, this tea lounge serves gong fu cha nearly round the clock. It's comfortable, next to the beautiful pool area, and starting at $10 per pot of tea it hardly breaks the bank. I've been there three different times thus far and have tried the Tie Guan Yin, Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun, and the Jin Jun Mei. Naomi Pro Tip: Sit at the table with the stone gong fu cha tea tray. Trust me...you've never seen anything like it.Â
Tea and Whisk Tea & Whisk, a new tea shop in the Henderson suburb, (about 15 minutes from the strip) combines two of my favorite things...tea and kitchen gadgets. I've been there for a couple of classes that they have offered and every time I have left with something new. The first time it was a Milk Oolong. The second time it was tongs. Leo and Martin are knowledgeable and patient and they are working hard to offer education to the surrounding areas. I'm a sucker for tea educators! But seriously, they've got some cool kitchen stuff! Naomi Pro Tip: Clean out a cabinet or a drawer in the kitchen before visiting...you'll need the space.Â
SW Tea Fest 2016 saw the launch of the Southwest Tea Festival in Downtown Las Vegas. With over 600 attendees, cultural demonstrations, tea sessions, tastings, 20+ tea vendors, and a musical fest it was a huge success! The 2017 festival promises to bring you more tea fun! This years two day festival will run February 25th - 26th at the Lucky Dragon Hotel and Casino. The Pearl Ocean restaurant will feature tea and food pairings throughout the day, there will be a Sans Self Tea Ceremony (formerly Wu Wo) demonstration, tea retailers and vendors with a cornucopia of tea goods and services, live music, and more tea than one should probably safely consume in a day. We have a line-up of tea education that will be happening throughout the two days and our speakers are eager to share their knowledge. For more information, or to purchase tickets, you can visit www.swteafest.com, Naomi Pro Tip: Wear good shoes and maybe work biceps before coming. You'll need the strength to haul off the loot. My hope is that the trend towards good tea will continue to grow and thrive here in Sin City. I'm looking forward to putting another one of these together for Nicole in a few months time with all new tea finds in this great town. Joy's Teaspoon is a small, family-owned business based in Las Vegas, NV. Our goal is to provide top quality loose leaf teas while also ensuring that we know where those teas came from, when they were plucked, how they were processed, who picked them, was everyone paid fairly, and a whole lot more. The 2017 Southwest Tea Festival to be held on Saturday and Sunday, February 25th-26th, 2017, at the Lucky Dragon Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
WHERE TO FIND TEA IN NYC by Nicole Martin The tea culture epicenter of the U.S. was San Francisco for a long time. Or at least that's what it seemed to a tea-starved girl like me in New Jersey. I used to dream of visiting just so I could go from shop to shop, drinking all of the tea my heart desired. When I first started my blog Luckily things have improved quite a bit in recent years and the Big Apple now has some really great tea places. This won't be an exhaustive list by any means. I'm going to stick to places that I have visited and enjoyed myself, mostly in Manhattan and Brooklyn. If there's a tea spot not listed that you think I should know about, please feel free to shoot an email to me at nicole@teaformeplease.com.
McNulty's Tea & Coffee - 109 Christopher Street Imagine walking into a tea shop in 1895. That's exactly how I feel when I walk into McNulty's. The store is full of massive glass jars full of tea. The staff weigh your selection on an old fashioned scale and then rubber stamp the bag. The Golden Monkey is one of usual go-to's. Harney & Sons SoHo - 433 Broome Street Harney & Sons is one of the oldest names in tea. This shop is beautiful and I really enjoy the cafe area that they have at the back. It can be really hard to get a table on weekends, though. The tea selection is so large that they need a rolling library ladder just to reach it all. Temi Sikkim is a great one to check out if you enjoy Darjeeling.
T Shop - 247 Elizabeth Street Hidden back from the street and next to a psychic, you will find a hidden tea treasure. T Shop is an amazing combination of a traditional tea house and modern space. Trust me, you'll be there for hours before even realize that time has passed. The red water oolong is a must try.
Té Company - 136 West 10th Street Té Company is located in a cozy space that was once occupied by Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks. They are Taiwanese tea specialists but the menu is still very diverse. Pear Mountain and Green Sanctuary Violet are two of my favorites. Don't forget to grab one of their famous pineapple linzer cookies!
Ippodo - 125 East 39th Street Ippodo has been selling tea in Kyoto for nearly 3 centuries. Their NYC outpost is tiny but well worth the visit. There isn't a seating area but you can get an expertly whisked koicha or even a matcha slushie. Keep an eye out for their special seasonal matchas.
Belloq Tea Atelier - 104 West Street From the outside, it looks like it could be an abandoned warehouse. Once you step inside though you'll be immediately transported to a tea lover's wonderland. This shop is so beautiful that I struggle to describe it for you. You can tell that very detail, from the packing to the beautiful script they use to mark your bag, is thought out carefully. White Wolf is a fascinating white tea blend. I also really enjoyed their Tai Ping Hou Kui. Tea shoppers tip: their caddies are beautiful but also add a lot to the price. Get your tea in an atelier bag if you don't need the tin.
Matcha Cafe Wabi - 233 East 4th Street There are lots of matcha cafes in NYC now but Matcha Cafe Wabi stands out for me because they serve a true bowl of matcha. In addition to traditionally whisked matcha, they serve a fun assortment of lattes and other specialty drinks. There's no seating but they do offer a few food items on their menu. I like to pop in for a quick pick me up whenever I'm in the area.
From the
Blog