Author: AJ

Updates Abound

04/03/2013 / / 12 Comments

As per usual, I have no actual article written or interesting things to discuss. I’ve just got some updates to my tea life.

Firstly, a new tea shop has opened up in my area. SOKO Teahouse. They are a very modern-traditional shop. Clean and open and bright, while focusing heavily on Chinese and Japanese brewing utensils and teas. I’ve been in there a few times already, and I really like the feel. Since Tealicious closed down their brick storefront, the only shop near me (most require an hour busride, which I’m willing to make–but only once or twice a month) has been Davids. Which I admit is a guilty pleasure of mine (52Teas fix without having to wait for orders to come in), but does get a bit boring. Though they’ve been branching out into unflavoured teas recently, which pleases me.

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Murchies: A Follow-Up

21/11/2012 / / 2 Comments

Thought I’d just make a quick post to bring to attention this comment, from “David” at Murchies, which clears up a few of the discrepancies I mentioned in my ramble about Murchies. Amusingly, this comment was made about a month ago, but I never got a notification for it, so I only just came across it.

DAVID wrote:

Amazingly thurough post which I enjoyed reading, thanks. To help explain the name confusion regarding John Raith/Raitt Murchie. Raith and Raitt are the same name and are both pronounced the same. Raith is how you spell it for a scottish reader and Raitt is how you spell it for an english reader. If my memory serves John spelt his name “Raith” on his wedding certificate, but his name on the death certificate is “Raitt”. I suspect the Susan which gave you information about a ‘Douglas’ may have gotten confused with a maternal branch of the family in which Douglas was a common name.

Sunday, October 28, 2012 at 11:19 pm

Shadowrun Brings Tealovers Together

15/07/2012 / / 0 Comments

I game. This should not be surprising, as I follow most of the trends associated with “geeks”, especially the old fashion type. Recently, my DM (of many years) has started into Shadowrun. This is my first brush with it, and to fill out our group he turned to the internet to gather some players. After many misses, he managed one new player (bringing our party total up to three), since most of our old regulars have since moved away.

During our last gaming session, I learned that our new member is big into tea. We managed to derail the whole game for half an hour discussing it–pausing every so often in an attempt to return to the game, but ultimately failing each time.

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Chinatown

09/07/2012 / / 0 Comments

Invaded Chinatown yesterday to pick up teas. I went in for unflavoured tuocha and “honey” phoenix dan cong, came out with a bit more.

And also books. But I got those at Chapters downtown, after I’d left Chinatown. Photos under the cut.

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Hor-Tea Cul-Ture, and Old Geology Books

17/05/2012 / / 2 Comments

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.

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Tea Purchases

05/05/2012 / / 7 Comments

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

Faking Sanity

01/03/2012 / / 4 Comments

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.

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A Search for Information: Murchie’s

08/10/2011 / / 15 Comments

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

A Tea Update

21/09/2011 / / 5 Comments

I’ve nothing of worth to say, but my usual Team Fortress playing ritual includes making a pot of tea. I sip in between kills, and refill my cup when I die.

As such, here’s my favourite class drinking my favourite beverage. Also included: A friend/frienemy eating a poptart.
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