Pilot Blender for tea blending workshop

At JT&Tea, we use this pilot blender for staff training, and our tea blending workshops. 

It is "old school", but it works well.  The teas can be evenly blended, especially when working on the related materials that have very different sizes and densities.

You need to see it to believe it!  

This should intrigue  your imagination when creating new blends.

(As a side note, divide the recipe in 4 to have four rounds to complete a batch.)

Dr. Liu has experimented with three different teas: one green, one black, and one oolong, all in different sizes.  

What is the result?

A scientist was convinced by this very traditional blending skill.

New 'American Tea Room' in Down Town L.A.

10/8/2015 evening, Josephine and I arrived in downtown Los Angeles.
Congratulations to our friend, David Barenholtz, on his beautiful 'American Tea Room' grand opening!
Very nice tea bar and seating area, it is modern and cozy.... And good tea too!!

I will say this definitely is a new landmark for our tea industry!

 

 Tea information on the big touch screen

'Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room' in Seattle's Capital Hills

After our presentations in 2015 Northwest Tea Festival, we decided to pay a visit to the legendary yet still quiet new 'Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room' on Capital Hills. 
We are very impressed and also admire the idea... and who won't be?

For Taiwan Oolong, it is about time to have professional designed 'Oolong Tasting Room' with all sorts of DIY workshops, for the tea lovers to visit, having fine Oolongs plus fun learning.  I believe Tai3Route will be such a great tea district to launch.

I hope these photos will inspire some of our tea friends.

 

The 12 Big Turns in Shan-Lin-Si

Mr. 石宇玄, a local farmer from Lugu, sharing the slogan about the famous 12 Turns on the route of Shan-Lin-Si named by the 12 Zodiac Signs, in Holo Taiwanese. I recorded this one on the way from Bagua Tea Garden to Alishan on 10/21/2010 with our TOST 2010 group.

Bopiliao in Wanhua, a place to visit in Taipei!

On 3/27/2010, I got a call from a fellow tea enthusiast, Ah Liang. He invited me to meet him at Bopiliao. I really don't know where it is...but, I am glad that I did make it there to see this place.
Ah Liang has a tea booth there under one old tea room in Wanhua at an earlier time. He did enjoy sharing tea stories there...
================
大道無門 識茶有路 ─

很高興看到 阿亮識茶之路
幾個好友圍爐喝茶 天南地北 何其容易
但在眾人之前 三言兩語 讓大家駐足傾聽 需要硬實功夫
設計動作玩茶 三點捧杯 成山似品 是個"動手作"好主意
少談玄理 多說故事 從種茶 作茶 賣茶 買茶 送茶 喝茶....去加溫
茶人茶事 無盡趣事 無苦不成甘 有趣方延緣 眾飲乃得慧
台灣好茶 需要更多盡心盡力的投入與推動

喜見茶人阿亮 自覓識茶之路 剝皮寮說故事 是以為誌

Thomas (3/27/2010 Taipei)

Visit Wang's Tea in Taipei (7/6/2009)

This is the last day of our stay in Taipei. Our members for "2009 Taiwan Oolongs Study Tour" have all returned to the States and Canad safely...Before we were leaving for Taoyuan Airport on 7/6/2009, we got time to do one more visit, I decided to take Josephine to walk in the famours Wang's Tea in the old tea district. Mr. and Mr.s Wang are very friendly and they are happy that their second generation enjoy taking care of this family tea business. While I was chatting with Mr. Wang, JP was accompanied by Mrs. Wang to tour around the tea shop, working room, exhibition room and the second floor, with conference facility and small stage for various culture activities...Josephine's first visit and she is very very impressed... I am glad that Mr. Wang did turn the old tea factory to become a new interesting site for many local and foreign visitors to learn aobut Taipei's tea history from their display and exhibition, and can comfortably sip fine Taiwan oolongs here... This is another successful experience of Culture Economy.

Visit U Zeleneho Cafe in Prague (9/21/2009)

9/21/2009 - Spending a day at the Castle District seems to be a good idea..... And we just cannot believe what's in front of our eyes......amazingly colorful.....No wonder people in Czech say Prague is the Golden City. Josephine stops at almost every souvenir shop along the street of Nerudova...can't really blame her. Every shop fits in different building with individual "theme" marked on the wall, and each of them features something special..."House of Three Violins", "House of Red Lobster", "House of Golden Key"....and the doors, the decors, the displays...keeps me very busy in looking around.

Then, the sign of U Zeleneho Cafe, "At the Green Tea" - pops into my eyes... The owner later tells us that this is one of the oldest and original Prague's tea room.

I order Matcha, JP has Earl Grey...we again, get the consent of the waitress to take photos of this tea room for our European tea adventure.

I warmly recommend this tea room/cafe to everyone who will be visiting Prague's Castle district.. I promise to post our photos on facebook. This young lady at the tea room also agrees visit this blog and gives us her comments.

Visit Dobra' Kajovna tea room in Prague (9/20/2009)

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, after more than 7 hours' train ride, we finally arrived Prague, Czech.
Here we are in Prague, How exciting!
Our hotel is truly good bargain that Josephine has digged from internet - Hotel Prague right up on the hill with great city view. From the pictures they display, we learn that we are staying a place that many celebrities and royal families used to stay during their visit to Prague.
We decided not to waste time and went right ahead to visit the Old Town of Prague.
Following the moving crowds (hard to imagine how many tourists are visiting Prague?) in Old Town Square, we walked around the city just like a moving stream. It is so different from what we had seen in Budapest...seems much more colorful...and the buildings here have more styles. Josephine's Nikon camera works very hard the whole time...

Just on the way we walked over to National Museum...we found a sign, and it leads us to walk in a small court yard...and, here we discovered this tea room totally out of our expectation. We asked for the permission to take photos, and those girls who are enjoying their afternoon teas are smiling at JP's camera. A few photos for your review.

There is an brief introduction about this tea room:
Dobra Cajovna is one of a number of tea houses throughout the Czech Republic run under the Good T Room franchise. Good T Room would like to spread its authentic tea culture, contained in the tastes and aromas of all manner of fine teas, beyond the frontiers of its homeland. This audacious idea is founded on experience tried and tested by years of work in a network of brand-name tea-rooms; to date there are already eighteen.
Dobra Cajovna in central Prague was one of the first popular tea houses...



Here is the web site for this franchise:
http://www.tea.cz/cajovna/

Encounter Taiwan Oolong in Budapest (9/19/2009)

During our recent trip to Budapest, Hungary, surprisingly, we encountered Taiwan Oolongs in the back yard of East Asia Museum. It was a sunny morning on 9/19/2009, Josephine and I were walking around the city of Budapest. We were attracted by all those beautiful buildings...All of a sudden, a beautiful Hungarian lady at the entrance of the East Asia Museum told us there's a tea display and free tea serving in the back yard...so we were very curious to find out...
Klaudia and her sister, two beautiful young ladies were using Guywan to make Taiwan Tung-Ting Oolong... where is the tea from? Can you imagine the tea we just sipped might travel a long journey before it was transported from Moscow to Budapest? I sipped the tea and thought how amazing..."Josephine and I will have our first Taiwan Tea Workshop this evening in town, and now we are here meeting some tea enthusiasts who are promoting Taiwan Oolongs..."
How could we not be humble when we share our teas?
Salute to Klaudia and her sister.
visit their web site: http://www.teaterasz.hu/ (綠茶亭)