Recently Clicked: July 8, 2005

Thinking of London

Yesterday I woke to radio news of the terrorist attacks, grabbed for the TV remote and turned to BBC-America for live coverage from England. One of the first images I saw was of folks on the street with thermoses, passing out steaming cups of tea and comfort.

Tonight I raise my cup of tea to London, toasting the British sense of resolve and determination.

• Londoner’s Take Pride in ‘Blitz Spirit': "It's amazing how people have stuck together. I've seen total strangers hugging each other and people coming out into the street with free cups of tea."
  
• We're Not Afraid! with photos submitted by many readers (there are a few middle fingers and you'll see the F*** word)
  
• London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s rousing speech: "Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail."

Puerhs

I’ve been learning quite a bit about puerhs lately, and as always much of my learning comes via the Internet.

• What is the best way to break up my puerh cake? from Teaspring.com
• How do I store Puerh? a newsgroup response by Mike Petro of pu-erh.net
• Tea Masters Blog is always a vast resource. Lately he’s been posting wonderful photos of tea shops, comparisons between types of puerh leaves, and even notes on how the age of puerh is faked.

Three Articles from The China Daily

Unearthing Treasures of Clay, July 1, 2005, a travel article describing several parts of the city of Chaozhou, including one area noted for its tea shops and porcelain products.

“Small, well-decorated shops are scattered along the street, mainly selling tea and popular porcelain products. Crossing the old street, we caught the sound of a guzheng, zither-like 21-stringed or 25-stringed plucked musical instrument, and following it, found ourselves in a small shop stuffed with teapots, jars and other knick-knacks.”

Let's drink to rising tea prices, July 1, 2005, looks at the rising prices and hoarding of pu’er.

Hot commodity, May 30, 2005, Puerh is not the only tea commanding high prices at auction.

Odds & Ends

Tea Icons (beanlovers might like the coffee icons), available about halfway down the page. There's also this page, with Coffee and Tea icons.

The July Newsletter from Hou De Fine Asian Art has an interesting comparison between hand-harvested and machine-harvested tea. (please note: this is an Adobe Acrobat file, so you’ll need to download a free copy of Adobe Reader if you don’t already have one)

Tea Arts Photo Blog: I don’t know anything about the blogger (icetea), and there isn’t much text explaining things, but the photos here are wonderful. You’ll see Yixing pots in the park, pictures from a tea seminar, and more. Have fun looking through them -- I did!