Author: Mai

Nanjing Rain Flower

In May I stopped browsing the menu at Teance. I’ve read it too many times, and I’ve remembered all the names. Most of them I’ve tried. Some were out of stock. The Nanjing Rain Flower (Yu Hua from Nanjing, Jiangsu…

Shiso Mochi and Spring 2012 Sencha

This must be the fifth time I’m talking about sencha, but the Spring 2012 harvest is a world difference from last year crop. To top it off with Masood’s steeping skill, who I’ve heard is the person to make sencha,…

Phoenix Oolongs

When I hear charcoal fire roasted, I don’t think of light and floral. I think smoky. That certainly has to do with the Charcoal Fire Roasted Tung Ting, the first charcoal-fire-roasted tea that I ever tried, and it’s everything but…

Honey Jialong

This tea leaves your palate with the sweetness of jicama, a sweetness that goes all the way to your nose and makes you believe that if you start talking after you take a sip, chamomile and gardenia floats out of…

Goji berry tea

It belongs to the herbal tea section: a type of red fruit dried to the size of the eraser at the end of an HB pencil, but skinnier and wrinklier. I’ve had dried goji berries before at a Chinese herbal…

Pair of porcelain yunomi

Three years ago (wow, I’ve been in Berkeley that long?!) I won this set at a silent auction at a Japanese Buddhist Temple. I was *so* excited. I didn’t know what they were called at the time, but I knew…

Two fun facts about tea

Well, one of them is fun, the other is good to know, or you might end up throwing out really good oolongs. I learned them from the Taiwanese oolong class last week. When you put a group of avid tea…

A sure sign that you’re a tea addict

You give yourself a monthly allowance. $70 from that goes to a tea set. Then you have 67-cent cup noodles for dinner, the American kind. All the while marveling at the celadon color, the smooth glaze, the delicate tasting cups.…