New About.com Tea Content

Lately, I've been developing quite a bit of content for About.com. Although I've never been much of a coffee drinker, the chance to discuss tea on such a popular forum has been an exciting opportunity for me. Most of the tea content is geared toward beginner tea drinkers, but I have been able to sneak in a few more advanced pieces of content, too. Here are some of the pieces I'm most proud of:

* An illustrated guide to tea & breakfast pairings
* Image galleries of Japanese green teas and white teas from China and beyond
* A guide to the tea-producing regions of India
* An intermediate-level tea quiz
* Hubs of content about kombucha, yerba mate and common tea drinks

Being a visual person, I find the illustrated guides and image galleries to be the most exciting and rewarding types of content to produce for About, so I'll probably continue to develop more of those in the near future. If you have any suggestions for content to add, I'd love to hear about it! Let me know in the comments.

Samovar "Magalog"

I recently had the opportunity to write the copy for Samovar's new magazine/catalog hybrid. If you've seen content-driven catalogs from companies like Patagonia and Zappos, this is like that for the tea world. You can check it out below (if not for my copy, then for the gorgeous images the photographer and graphic designer came up with!), or pick up a copy at any of Samovar's locations.

Samovar Artisan Tea - Volume I, Issue 1

Publish at Calaméo or browse others.

Here's a link for the full-size magalog.

PS -- If you're interested in having me develop content for your tea business, contact me at vee (at) veetea (dot) com.

Harvard Business Review on Tea

The Harvard Business Review has an interesting article on tea in China in the 19th century. Excerpt:

Chinese methods of processing and enjoying tea were reinvented over the centuries. As late as the Song dynasty (960-1279 A.D.), powdered teas were gourmet extravagances, which gave rise to the varieties central to the Japanese tea ceremony (chanoyu). Tastes changed decisively in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) to favor types of loose, whole-leaf teas like those of the present day. No longer beaten to a froth in bowls and drunk out of them, tea was now brewed or steeped in teapots (another innovation of this period) and sipped from cups. By the middle of the eighteenth century (the mid-Qing dynasty), the three major classifications of contemporary Chinese teas had emerged—the fully fermented black teas (hongcha) favored throughout the former British Empire, semi-fermented teas (gingcha), such as the oolong so popular in North America, and unfermented green teas (lücha), which secured a following in more limited markets, such as North Africa. As evident in the nomenclature, the degree of fermentation or oxidation allowed in tea processing largely determined the nature of the output. Whether done manually or mechanically, the manipulation of newly picked leaves activates their oxidation, and firing or drying halts the process at the desired point.

Very interesting! You can read the rest and see more rare photos here.

New Vee Tea Look

Vee Tea got a makeover! There's a new background, favicon and banner. There have been a few changes in the text (my outdated tours are now replaced with info about tea writing), too. Soon, there will also be new thumbnails alongside each article and the newest blog post will appear on the main page. Exciting!

The photography is by my friend (and one of my favorite photographers!) Sam Bennett and the web design is by my friend (and trusty web designer!) Pat Boyd. Thanks, guys!!!

Photos

I finally got around to adding photos to my SF trip posts. You can see them here, here and here. I wish I had taken more to share! Maybe next time...

Can you read Japanese?

If so, check out this new blog by my tea friend in Japan! We send teas to each other that are easily found in one place, but harder to find in the other. She also sent me the tea seeds I sent to some of you. Even if you don't read Japanese, it's worth taking a look -- she has some good photos up.

Photo Day!

I've been accumulating a lot of tea photos lately, so I think I'll start posting a few each week. Some warrant their own posts (a series of photos on how to make chagra sachets, for example), but some are basic enough to share posts with other semi-related photos. Here are a few for now, mostly from local tearooms. Enjoy!


Amai's matcha cupcake, which, I'm sure, helped them win Best New Tearoom in Time Out NYC's Eat Out Awards. (You may remember I posted a quick tearoom review of their tea house last Friday.)





A glimpse of T Salon, which I also reviewed recently.







Two of Sanctuary T's famed tea cocktails.







Sanctuary T's cheese plate. (Oh, how I am a sucker for a good cheese plate!)







Houjicha, freshly roasted by TAFU's tea master at the Coffee and Tea Festival. Yum!