Dan Bolton

Nepal’s Specialty Tea Evolution

The Barbote tea farm is nestled in the steep hills of Ilam, Nepal, planted by his grandfather and tended by his father but grower Narendra Kumar Gurung spent most of his working years with the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Like most of Nepal’s new-generation farmers, specialty tea is a new endeavor built on a century-old foundation of commodity production.

Alfred Mwase

Alfred Mwase: Crafting Orthodox Teas Amid a Sea of CTC

The Satemwa Tea Estate, founded in 1923, began to revive the production of orthodox teas about 15 years ago. It is the only estate in Malawi crafting orthodox teas. Taster Alfred Mwase says, “my only experience prior to 2010 was CTC. My first tasting of specialty stimulated interest in these unique teas. Satemwa is a pioneering estate that is open to experiments with new tea cultivars, withering times, rolling techniques, oxidation times, and drying cycles.”

Andrew McNeill AM Tasting Table

Andrew McNeill on Down-Chain Tasting

“Down-chain tasting invites creative adventures into language and experience that is independent of a single lexicon. The focus is on concrete references to scents and aromas but abstract descriptors that personify overall quality are effective. Of course, your words have to describe something that touches on a shared experience  — otherwise, it’s useless.”

Last minute holiday gift guide

Last-Minute Holiday Gifts

Tea Journey readers span the globe. Half of the magazine’s subscribers reside in Asia and Europe and Africa. That’s why this year’s last-minute gift guide features festive items from India, Europe, and China. These gifts bring to mind holiday celebrations around the world

Summer Fun

While hot tea still cools millions worldwide, it is iced and cold-brewed tea that quenches the thirst of urban dwellers on the go. Our Summer Fun gift issue offers some great iced teas, pitchers, tea makers and teaware. Now is the perfect time to review the terrific selection of recipes for A Summer Barbecue by Culinary Tea author Cynthia Gold. Recipes include tea-smoked salmon, tea-grilled wings with hot dipping sauce, matcha and white bean dip, and gourmet s’mores.

Announcing the Health & Wellness Issue

Tea is proven to enhance the well-being of those who drink several cups a day. It inspires a process of discovery among imbibers, cultivating a deep appreciation for the growing, crafting, and preparation of great tasting tea. Finding your own favorite tea leads to a daily ritual and, in time, a healthy life-long habit.

Announcing the Incredible India Issue

Long before cut, tear and curl (CTC) dominated tea processing in the West, India exported sizeable quantities of handmade orthodox tea to an appreciative world market. Small factories at small gardens cultivated the art of rolling

Tea Discovery: Crab Pincer Tea

Eons of evolution in the ancient tea forests of China has established a complex and delicate biomass. The gnarled, pale-grey and green trunks of the oldest trees are home to myriad adaptations of spiders, lichen, and the tree parasite known to locals as crab pincer, a tea mistletoe.

Turkish Tea Pot

Electric Kettles

Electric kettles are much more convenient, faster, and safer than using the stove or microwave to heat water. Kettles should ideally permit heating water to several pre-set temperatures. Delicate floral teas require far lower temperatures than robust black tea or Pu’er. Safety shut-offs, efficient boilers, and sturdy construction with comfortable handles and wide mouths for filling are minimums.

ZENS Mobile Moon Express Series Bright Moon Mini Twin Ceramic Travel Tea Set

Tea Sets for Travelers

Friends don’t let friends drink hotel-room tea. Serious tea drinkers want to ensure their beverage is always available, even on leisure or business journeys. Help them tea travel in style with the elegantly designed Mobile Moon set, which includes a teapot, a lid with filter, a cup, and a hard-shell travel case available in several colors, including Coral Red and classic Zen black (dark blue shown).

Nepal Tea Collective Immersive Tours

Holiday Tea Adventures

Nepal Tea Collective’s Immersive Tea Tours are about authentic connections. Beyond the picturesque tea gardens and aromatic brews, these tours bring tea lovers on a journey to the heart of Nepal’s rich culture, captivating landscapes, and the labor of its unsung heroes – the tea producers.

BRU Maker One

Electric Brewers

BRU is on a mission to simplify the tea-making process. This innovative brewer offers the freedom to set your brewing time, water temperature, and cup size at the twist of a dial and push of a button that allows you to perform a ”stacked steep” with three different infusions. The first infusion maximizes the tea’s aromatics, the second extracts natural sugars, and the third extracts phytonutrients and polyphenols. The machine saves your previous settings so you can quickly repeat the process without changing the settings every time.

Sri Lanka’s Tea Sesquicentennial

Sri Lanka celebrated its 150th anniversary of tea beginning in 2016 and culminating in the International Tea Convention and Expo in Colombo in August 2017.

Wild Orchard | Early Spring Green

Manly Teas

Green tea and black tea were originally used to make tea punches for sailors. Tea punches eventually went from merchant ships to the ballrooms of Europe and colonial America where the favored liquors were rum or fortified wine.

Harvest Review: Africa

Rains essential to the 2016 flush throughout East Africa arrived too soon or they arrived in torrents too late — but mainly they didn’t arrive at all.

Cornelia Bean | The Wall

Tea Brewers

The award-winning glass tea infuser, The Wall, is a simple and clean way to infuse tea, herbs, and berries in a single cup. The glass cup has a fused glass strainer to keep the leaves from your mouth, allowing for a full, unrestricted infusion.

Harvest Review: Argentina

The harvest is just beginning in Argentina, the southernmost tea growing region in the world. This year November temperatures were unusually cool at the beginning of spring in the Southern Hemisphere.

Tea Utensils

A beautiful tea tray byThéières du Monde will elevate your tea ceremonies. This finely crafted wood tray is ideal for a traditional gong fu style tea tasting for dad.

Nepal Tea Collective | White Tea Bundle

Tea Gift Sets for Dad

Variety is the spice of life. Show a bundle of love for Dad with a gift of tea and accessories Selections include multiple teas, like these loose-leaf teas from Nepal as well as brewers, utensils, and more.

Teasy | Dove White (double-walled borosilicate glass)

Tea On the Go

Teasy is an innovative infuser designed to bring out the delicate flavours and true taste of your loose-leaf tea. With Teasy you can see the tea as it steeps, and with just a twist of the wrist, you can separate tea from the leaves at just the right moment. Your tea will have its full flavour without being over-steeped.

The Wall

These exquisite teas make perfect samplers to tantalize the palette. From shop favorites to a collection of chai Cornelia Bean will customize your order. Enhance the experience further, infuse these teas in the beautifully hand crafted glass tea infuser, The Wall.

Discover Authentic Nepal

Nepal’s altitude, seasonality, soil, and various microclimates combine to establish a remarkably well-suited terroir for growing tea. The country’s finest teas are delicate with subtle aromas; Handmade teas are an expression of the tea maker’s art, inspired by new demand for delicate whites, oolongs, and airy black teas sold directly to retailers in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Nepal Tea Collective | Tea Club

Tea Clubs & Subscriptions

Annual subscriptions for tea are growing in popularity more many reasons. Subscription plans are convenient and encourage tea discovery. Tea sellers love the flexibility of offering a range of teas that reveal current trends and consumer preferences for organic teas, for example. Bagged or loose-leaf, herbals or single-origin limited editions, tea clubs are a good value and great way to learn about tea.

Holiday Teas

Tea vendors make something special of the holidays with seasonal blends, special gift tins and packaging and scented teas to warm the home.

Brewer Magic

Shopping for a brewer? Tea Journey covers the globe looking for innovative and advanced tea brewers to make every kind of team from matcha to machine-learning internet operated models.

Fathers Day 2022

A New Normal

Happiness is only elusive when you pursue it. During the pandemic, for the first time in generations, fathers found themselves at home spending daylight hours with their children, who in pre-pandemic times, would have been at school. Families cooked together ate together and shared time in front of the TV. Fathers who invested in the most important, meaningful relationships of spouse and offspring, siblings, and parents found an overall sense of satisfaction. As the threat lessens and our lives resume consider retaining a bit of a “pandemic mindset.” Remember, the new normal is what you make it to be.

Four Symbols Premium Chinese Tea

Four Symbols teas are sourced in the unique tea lands of China, harmonizing the artisanship of man with nature to produce authentic specialty loose-leaf tea.

Barbote Tea Farm, Nepal

Nepal’s Specialty Tea Evolution

The Barbote tea farm is nestled in the steep hills of Ilam, Nepal. It was planted by Narendra Kumar Gurung’s grandfather and tended by his father. Narendra spent most of his working years with the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Like most of Nepal’s new-generation farmers, specialty tea is a new endeavor built on a century-old foundation of commodity production.

Father's Day 2021

The Challenge of Change

This has been a year for reflection, an opportunity to re-examine our habits and everyday routines. Lockdowns and losses re-emphasize the importance of maintaining our good health―both physical and mental. Tea calmed us during the pandemic, it provided a pleasant daily pleasure―a welcome break. Tea became an at-home habit worth preserving.

In Spring all the World Celebrates Motherhood

Each spring, the entire world celebrates the role of mothers with grateful appreciation. The practice of families traveling to their ancestral home in Spring dates to antiquity and remains an occasion for festivals and fairs in both Asia and Western countries. The holiday is recognized from March through May.

HARVEST REVIEW 2016

Tea Journey’s first annual harvest review gives you the big picture on the global tea business in 2016 along with insider information from local experts on some of the year’s most interesting teas. Especially for tea enthusiasts in the West, we hope this issue brings you a step or two closer to your favourite tea gardens – and your next new favourites!

Valentines Teapots

Almost everyone has a secret charm secretly locked in the back of the mind: a magic word, favorite number, or familiar habit – in short, something guaranteed to bring good luck. A star has fallen from the sky on top of this teapot like a lucky star to brighten your table, guaranteed to make a wish come true with every cup of tea.

Tea in the Great Outdoors

High adventure is not the first thing that comes to mind for those who enjoy tea but tea is a remarkably versatile companion outdoors, hot or cold.

Mother's Day 2021

The Comfort of Tea

During these difficult times, tea’s calming effect comforted many, but mothers most of all. If there is something missing that will make her everyday tea ritual more pleasant, now is the time to purchase that convenience. Consider a bright teapot, a brewer, tea caddy, porcelain cups, or mug. If mom has everything she needs close at hand, consider a gift of tea-themed jewelry or a book to curl up with till normalcy returns.