Picked up some tea that seems to have absolutely no record on the internet. …Outside of the Art Knapps store, from which it seems to be a new product of theirs.
It’s always a little exciting to be the first to discover a tea on a community database-like setup like Steepster, although I always like reading through others’ reviews before making a purchase–it helps me decide.
Thought I’d update with a few of my purchases. Seeing as I spent a total of one hundred dollars ($CAN) on tea and tea accessories (okay, they were all reasonable prices minus the forty dollars I spent on a freshly-picked 2012 first flush Darjeeling, but getting to that). Continue reading
I spoke, a few posts ago, about a Tea Shop/Used Book Shop I discovered whilst I was up north working at a coal mine. I didn’t think to scan the bookmark I picked up there, but I thought maybe I’d post that.
The shop was called “Faking Sanity”, located in Dawson Creek. Unfortunately, I was only able to visit it once, since I wasn’t living in Dawson, and didn’t own a vehicle (nor do I have my license, for that matter); it was found when me and some coworkers made a road trip there, since the groceries are about 1/3 the price (our town had one grocery store, and thus complete control over the perishable food market in the area). We’d passed the store while driving through the area, and I’d noted the name, “Faking Sanity” (I believe I figured it for some sort of Collectibles shop, perhaps). After watching Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon in a tiny theatre, I re-expressed my interest in finding a good book shop. Dave (a coworker) pulled out his phone and did a search of the area. There wasn’t much–just two, in fact, if I remember correctly. He said “Faking Sanity”, and I said that I remembered seeing that shop.
It began (as it usually does) on Google; this isn’t the first time I’ve typed ‘ “John Murchie”+tea ‘ into the Google search-engine. I’ve done it a few times now, but my search usually ends with very little information, and I normally give up within the hour.
Let’s start with a background for the non-Canadians. John Murchie was a tea and coffee importer and blender; he started up the company “Murchie’s”, and is normally considered to be the man behind the unorthodox blending of green tea with black tea. Murchie’s is still around today (with two in Vancouver and more in Victoria), and is pretty well-known. Heck, I have a friend from Alabama who orders from Murchie’s to keep up a supply of their Library Blend (they were first introduced to the company when they visited Canada a while back; sadly Murchie’s doesn’t extend into the US of A). Continue reading
I write to you today during my lunch hour at work (although I usually write these posts over the course of several days, and this one continues in the public library). As part of my job in the Exploration department, last week we hiked up (again) to the top of Roman Mountain. It’s a wonderful view, and I regret that I did not bring my camera with me on that occasion. I must next time (assuming there is one); in the meantime however, my supervisor did snap some shots, and I was able to take some yesterday when me and some colleagues went flagging up the opposite side of the mountain (not reaching the top ourselves).
Continue reading
Is what I’ve called my latest creation.
Pictured left is my physical Tea Journal. My old one was a flowery thing, although it has a long history. As soon as I saw this one, however, I had to pick it up (it has a teapot on the front, back, AND every other page! Plus interesting quotes from the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh), even though my old notebook hadn’t been filled yet. I mostly use it to list teas from companies that I’d like to try/checklists for said companies, as well as notes on tea places I’ve been to, and teas I’ve tried while not in the presence of the computer; it also has a few pages of interesting tea quotes I thought to jot down. My old book even had a poem or two by me, although not about tea. I have my poetic moments (but I rarely share them). There’s only one in there so far that I have any like for.
Returning again to my inexperience in blogging, I think I’m going to spend a post describing in my no-doubt monotone writing style, one of my favourite books to date; Okakura Kakuzo’s The Book of Tea. It is certainly my favourite tea book, and I like to suggest it to a lot of my friends (at least the tea-savvy ones), although it’s really not a book everyone can get into. It reads as a long, sometimes rambling exposition (something I personally enjoy), and constantly goes off on seemingly unrelated tangents; it is famous for being not so much about tea, but rather using tea as an analogical lens to view culture (western versus eastern) and art. Kakuzo was, after all, (and foremost) a man of the arts.
