Tea Geek

04/18/2017

Tea Shirts Are Back!
I've been contacted by people who were bummed the Tea Geek shirts weren't for sale any more. Well, they're back. I've put the designs up on Threadless. This will mean faster turnaround and a dedicated customer service team (as opposed to me taking over the kitchen table to individually screen-print every product and trying to answer emails when I get the time). A win for everyone!

Check out: https://teageek.threadless.com/

Designs include:
* the "Cha" character I commissioned from a professional calligrapher,
* the Tea Geek definition, and
* "this IS my black tea shirt" on a red shirt...for those who know what black tea is called in most Asian languages.

In addition, the Cha and Tea Geek definition are available on mugs and notebooks, which I've never offered before.

04/12/2017

Here we go! The next milestone for Michael J. Coffey's book has been reached. Learn more on the Tea Geek blog:

http://www.teageek.net/blog/2017/04/tea-geek-book-continues/

At long last, I can announce that my book project has moved forward. (If you weren’t aware, I started writing a book a while ago about my journey from complete tea neophyte to “Tea Geek.”) Last week I got the edited manuscript of Life of a Tea Geek back from the editor. I still have to … Continue…

02/09/2017

New blog post by Eric Scott, covering the tricky science behind that stage of tea processing called "fermentation" by some and "oxidation" by others.

Full story: http://www.teageek.net/blog/2017/02/tea-terminology-part-1/

08/05/2016

An interesting article on Bai Hao wulong.

Eric Scott uncovers some of the mystery and diffuses some of the hype surrounding bug-bitten teas during his recent trip to an Oriental Beauty tea farm.

08/02/2016

Think you have a good palate for tea? Think again!

"At this point we secretly switched the contents of the sample containers, so that the outcome of the choice became the opposite of what the participants intended. In total, no more than a third of the manipulated trials were detected."

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027710001381

We set up a tasting venue at a local supermarket and invited passerby shoppers to sample two different varieties of jam and tea, and to decide which alternative in each pair they preferred the most. Immediately after the participants had made their choice, we asked them to again sample the chosen al...

06/13/2016

Tea Geek founder Michael J. Coffey is co-hosting a podcast in where tea is featured as the first segment in each episode (except for the introductory "episode zero"). It's available for subscription on iTunes and Google Play.

Download past episodes or subscribe to future episodes of Tech Tea by Damon & Michael for free.

12/22/2015

A cool look at tea in the archives of the Royal Society, with Charlie McDonnell (aka CharlieIsCoolLike): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bvTjh0Kz0o

This week, Charlie McDonnell swings by The Royal Society to search for tea-related artefacts with Brady and Keith! Films by James Hennessy and Brady Haran Ro...

10/08/2015

Antioxidants May Make Cancer Worse
Yup. Antioxidants are cool and generally helpful, but they also seem to help cancer cells.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antioxidants-may-make-cancer-worse/

New animal studies explain why supposedly healthy supplements like beta-carotene could exacerbate a dread disease

10/04/2015

Watch Let's Talk Tea live
Michael Coffey interviews his usual co-host, Eric Scott, starting in just a couple of minutes. Watch it live now, or recorded later, at http://youtu.be/zudXVY3Wn4s

This time +Michael J. Coffey interviews his co-host +Eric Scott about his tea-research trip to Hangzhou China!

09/06/2015

Tea Salon in 30 minutes!
We'll be talking about tea books today. Join us by following the Tea Geek page and RSVPing at https://plus.google.com/b/116089885916339520005/events/ctte9fsaack4oa6eba04m2l6218?authkey=CPyo39HTqKzL1wE

What are your favorite tea books? Which ones have you learned the most from? What do you want to see in a good tea book? All this and more will be discussed in this week's Tea Salon. RSVP on the event page to get a reminder when it's time to start, and be sure you're following the @116089885916…

09/06/2015

*North Idaho Tea?*
"The Australian-born Texas transplant is putting in camellia plants at her new home in east Coeur d’Alene with the goal of producing premium teas for an exclusive clientele under the name Coeur d’Tea or Coeur d’Thé."

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/sep/05/grower-hopes-to-raise-premium-tea-in-north-idaho/

The Northwest is celebrated for its wines and microbrews and coffee culture, with craft distilleries and custom cannabis on the rise. Is it tea time yet?

08/26/2015

Tea Book: Over 30,000 Words
I still have a story about one of the World Tea Expos I attended, and some journal entries from trips to Taiwan and China to type up, plus a couple of blog posts that need text transferred over. But we're getting close to the end. I've done a lot of writing over the history of Tea Geek, and very little of that previous writing is yet in my manuscript.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) says a novel is 50,000+ words, and Amazon's Text Stats put the median of all books around 64,000 words. We'll see what my book looks like when all the additional words are added.

Also, if you want to be sure to get book-specific updates, be sure to subscribe at http://www.ardeapress.com/teageek/

08/23/2015

Tea Salon's 4th Birthday Celebration starts on Google+ in a few minutes. Must be following the Tea Geek page to see the Hangout invitation: https://plus.google.com/b/116089885916339520005/116089885916339520005

Tea Geek - A socially-unacceptable level of tea knowledge - Founded by the ironically named Michael J. Coffey, Tea Geek has been providing the most accurate tea information in online and in-person classes and tastings since 2006.

08/09/2015

Tea Salon starts now! Eric Scott will be talking about a Japanese tea farm he visited in China. https://plus.google.com/b/116089885916339520005/events/c2qrlrhmq2pep67vkf0in6m69a0

Japan is a small island, and a lot of Japanese style teas are produced in China--for better or for worse. Come hear about my trip to a Japanese tea farm in Shaoxing, China and discuss!

08/04/2015

The writing streak continues into its second week. Today I wrote about the printing needs of the Second Continental Congress and about the Þorlákrsaga. Neither is directly related to tea, except through my life experience in becoming a tea geek.

Get real updates and extras related to the book by signing up at http://www.ardeapress.com/teageek/

07/29/2015

The Writing Begins
Yesterday marked my first day of writing on my planned book series. I'm working on Life of a Tea Geek now, but may switch back and forth between this and The Tea Geek Reference Book (working titles) over the next several weeks...and hopefully not months.

Want to follow along and get some extra content? Sign up for the Readers Group at www.ardeapress.com/teageek

05/11/2015

Well, that's kind of amusing. No, my expertise is not in Coffee Makers nor in Dinnerware and Flatware. Tea and Teapots? Perhaps.

03/08/2015

Tea Salon and the Changing Times:
Hey, quick heads-up that most of the United States moved our clocks ahead last night. If you're not in a place that did the same, you might find the Tea Salon happening at a weird time. We'll start at 2:00pm Pacific (Seattle/San Francisco), so use your favorite tool to figure out when that is. See you soon!

(If you haven't participated in a Tea Salon, just head over to the Tea Geek page on Google+ and be sure you've got us in your circles. At 2:00pm Pacific time, you should see a post with a link to join the event!)