Origin

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: Jin Jun Mei is a Wuyi Red Legend in the Making

Daniel Hong’s whimsical online profile picture has him adorning a Charlie Chaplin hat with an oversized black cardboard moustache.Chinese millennials don’t usually do whimsical, so I thought I might soon be meeting an over-the-top eccentric…

Tasting Notes: Jin Jun Mei

Red teas in China are experiencing a Renaissance. One of the most sought after of the high-end red teas is Jin Jun Mei – a fully oxidized tea created in 2006. It is made wholly of tea buds picked in early spring…

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.

Origin India: Kangra Valley

A scant 2,000 kilometers west of Darjeeling, on the opposite side of the Indian subcontinent, lays a scenic valley of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, a place steeped in Hindu mythology.

Origin India: Tamil Nadu and Kerala

The Western Ghats, South India Backbone of South India The six-hour drive south from Balanoor Tea Estate in Karnataka to […]

Origin India: The Deep South

Balanoor Tea Estate, Karnataka   Piece of Cake His birthday was celebrated in a leafy residential section of Bangalore, one […]

Harvest Review: Vietnam

Vietnam in 2017 ranked as the world’s seventh-largest producer of tea and fifth in exports. It has 124,000 hectares under […]

Origins: Tea Cultivation Takes Root in Oregon’s Willamette Valley

Tucked away near Oregon’s Willamette River in Salem, is Minto Island Tea Company: a nearly half acre plot of land containing Camellia sinensis var. sinensis bushes. More botanic laboratory than tea farm, it’s a 29-year-old science project and the only place in the state of Oregon where tea is being cultivated and sold.

Harvest Review: Australia

There is a clear emerging trend in the Australian market away from mainstream black tea to more specialist offerings. Australians’ […]

Harvest Review: Australia

Australians have a history of being black tea drinkers and following their mostly British heritage, but that is rapidly changing. […]

Tea the Hero Crop

Large government-supported tea estates are failing. Scarcity of labor, the cost of large-scale production and reliance on chemicals and pesticides […]

Harvest Review: South Korea

Green tea (nokcha in Korean) is called “sparrow’s tongue tea” (jaksulcha) due to the tea leaf’s delicate shape. In Korea, […]

Harvest Review: South Korea

Stephen Carroll is one of 42 Tea Journey tasters reporting on the 2016 harvest. Look for his posts on South […]

Arkasa Tea Room

Arkasa Tea Room

With every delicious sip and satisfying bite, the Araksa Tea Room in Bangkok is revolutionizing Thai tea culture. Araksa means “to preserve” and both the tea garden and restaurant promote Thai traditions while simultaneously elevating the way tea and food are produced and consumed.

Origin Mongolia: Making Nomad’s Tea

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia The nomadic way of life shapes Mongolia like no other country. Mongolia is the most sparsely populated country […]

Anything for Tea: Budget Backpacking in Nilgiris

Travelling through the Nilgiris on a comfortable budget, Anesce Dremen finds that it costs little to make real connections, have real conversations. As she allows her journey through the Nilgiris to unfold at will, she finds herself immersed in memorable encounters and experiences. Told with honesty, written vividly, it’s a view of the Nilgiris not often seen. (Itinerary and costs included)

Zhulu tea leaves

Of Morning Dew & Half-Day Sun – Taiwan’s Zhulu Tea

A high-mountain wulong known for its elegant aroma and sweet lingering aftertaste, Alishan Zhulu tea is appreciated by connoisseurs worldwide. Discover its story from Ren Zhi Deng, who was a catalyst in transforming his hometown into one of the most revered tea-producing areas in Taiwan.

An inheritance of tea sets

On a Chai Trail: The Bengali and their Cha

That Bengalis love tea is now legendary and in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, tea is part of the social and cultural fabric. Our Chai Trail series takes readers up close and personal to the tea culture across India, and this story is a peek into the Bengali homes and the place that tea has in their lives.

Tea for Generations to Come

KITSUKI, Japan Small family-owned tea gardens are inseparable from the economic and social past of historical places such as Kitsuki, […]

Origins: Historic Ceylon

From the vibrant colors and culture of Colombo to the peaceful hillsides of Kandy, Sri Lanka is both a tea […]

Origin India: Garden by the River

It took ten years for Rajiv Lochan to acquire and consolidate various plots into a single garden known as Doke Tea, an organic farm along the south bank of the Doke River in Bihar, India.

HARVEST REVIEW: Nepal

DO NOT PUBLISH http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/printedition/news/2016-05-02/tea-exports-down-as-production-up.html May 2, 2016- Tea exports dropped 1.13 percent in the last fiscal year despite a significant […]

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.

Evolution on the Farm

Six years is not a long time to master tea with its centuries of development, so expectations visiting Westholme Tea Farm were not high. But the region’s combination of ideal growing conditions and a sensitive palate produced something worthy of the title: Canada’s First Tea Farm.

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.

Modern Tea Trends Take a Decidedly Victorian Turn in London

The quintessentially English custom of afternoon tea is experiencing a serious renaissance in London with dozens of hotels and tea salons offering both traditional services and those updated for a modern palate and sensibility.

ORIGINS: Japan’s Higashiyama Tea Grass Gardens

In the foothills of Mt. Fuji lies the village of Higashiyama where Chagusaba agriculture, a UN-designated Globally Important World Agricultural Heritage System, is a way of life for tea farmers.

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.

A Tale of Two Kathmandu Tea Shops

Bhairab Risal, a veteran journalist with a sharp memory at 94, speaks with ease and zeal of his memories of the early days of Kathmandu’s tea culture. In 1948, at the age of 20, he recalled his first cup of tea at Tilauri Mailako Pasal, one of Kathmandu’s earliest and best-known tea shops. In this article, Kathmandu journalist Prawash Gautam shares tales of two storied tea houses.