Floating Leaves Tea

Little Teacher Dong Ding

Following up with another tea roasted by our "Little Teacher" Lai. This was a beautiful session, our third time drinking his Dong Ding oolong. We're still processing the visit with Teacher Lai in this episode.

Revisiting Charcoal Roast Master

We're back from Taiwan! And Shiuwen is back from an entire month in Asia. Sorry to miss you all last week. We got back just in time to open the shop on Friday, and we pushed to get this episode recorded Sunday before opening the doors. In the episode we revisit our Old Growth Anxi Tie Guan Yin (back in stock) from a past episode, and rehash our visit with the master roaster who is responsible for this tea. We'll be back on schedule with a new episode next Monday!

I LOVE a Good Puer

This episode was recorded in May, featuring the tea poet Kate (@k8star_p) with some wonderful insights and observations about a 1998 loose Yiwu puer. This is the first episode we've featured a puer tea, and it gets a little deep into the topic of tea energy. It's hard to stay away from that with good puer. I've been sitting on it for precisely that reason, but listening to the session again... it was so beautiful I thought we just had to share it.

Smooth Water Baozhong

Sorry for the break, the anniversary sale knocked me out (lots of tea to pack). We recorded this episode before Shiuwen left for Asia; it's us drinking Smooth Water (Nangang) Baozhong. Shiuwen talks about her experience comparing Nangang and Wenshan Baozhong with the (very proud) farmer of this tea, but not before going off on an illuminating tangent about what it's like being a woman in the men's world of Taiwanese tea business. We were already a little tea drunk when we recorded this, so it's a fun one!

14th Anniversary Celebration

This is a little mini-episode we made to celebrate Floating Leaves Tea's 14th anniversary, and to announce our big annual site-wide sale. The tea of this session is a very special high mountain oolong from our charcoal roasting master in Taiwan. We take some time to thank the farmers and tea people in Taiwan who make this whole thing possible, we take some time to thank our loyal customers who have supported us over the years, and we get into a little bit of Floating Leaves history, as well as future goals. 

What Makes It "True Bush" Tie Guan Yin?

One more Tie Guan Yin episode for you! In this one Shiuwen and Noah discuss what makes a True Bush or Traditional Tie Guan Yin. This is one of our favorite teas, and it set in motion a very information packed session. Hope you enjoy it!

Aged Tie Guan Yin

Continuing with the Tie Guan Yin theme, this session we drank an aged Tie Guan Yin from 1995 that we got from a charcoal roasting teacher in Taiwan. Our illustrious cousin Jake joined us for this delightful session. You may be able to tell we got increasingly tea drunk towards the end, and became 'philosophical'. This is a great tea and it gave us a great session.

Modern Style Muzha Tie Guan Yin

This week we were joined by our adopted Cousin Jake for a giggly session. We drink a modern variation on Muzha Tie Guan Yin, and Shiuwen goes into detail about what goes into making Muzha TGY. Next week we'll release another Cousin Jake episode where we shared an aged Muzha TGY.

Slapped with the Enlightenment Stick

This session was illuminating, challenging and beautiful. Shiuwen and Noah each take a turn brewing a formidable oolong (Tie Guan Yin grown in Yunnan by a Taiwanese farmer). In the second half of the episode, we took a moment to look inward and examine our reactions to the difficulty we had brewing this tea. This really shows how deep a tea session can go. I hope this is something you all can learn from!

Ego and Ignorance : Anxi Tie Guan Yin

In this episode, Shiuwen and Noah drink an excellent old bush Tie Guan Yin from Anxi, charcoal roasted by a brilliant tea teacher in Taiwan. Shiuwen tells the story of how this tea showed her her own ignorance about fragrant style Tie Guan Yin, and how it helped her to see her ego.