When I first started learning about tea over ten years ago, I was overwhelmed. Where do I start? I had borrowed my parent’s copy of James Norwood Pratt’s New Tea Lover’s Treasury. I was excited to learn all about tea, but the information seemed out of reach at the time. How do we taste and experience all these teas? Where can we find them? So, my dad and I made a visit to one of the Asian grocery stores in town on a mission to find these legendary teas. We were so pleased to find tins of Ti Kwan Yin (Iron Goddess of Mercy) oolong and Lung Jing (Dragon Well) green tea, and yet, we had no idea what we were doing or what they were. We probably prepared them completely different from how they are meant to be steeped, but we started our tea adventure.
Through this tea journey, I’ve realized that the best education is to experience tea by tasting. When I taste a tea, I can see what the dry tea leaves look like, smell the aroma of the steeped tea leaves and experience the bold tastes or subtle hints of flavors. I encourage you to come and experience a tea tasting. We sample 16 different teas from all over the world to give you an introduction to the major types of teas and how to identify them. We offer monthly tea tastings the last Saturday of each month. Our next one is this Saturday, from 10am-Noon. Please, call us, (512) 330-9991, to buy a ticket or come by and purchase one in our store. Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday! - Jonathan