Haiku for Stéphane
Crazy Taiwan weather
fains to interrupt;
Beauty changes it’s mind,
– Stéphane’s ChaXi continues.
Jason Cohen
Wisteria Tea House – Round 2
On returning to Wisteria Tea House (Pat and I are there quite often, working our way through the menu – oh, the pains we must bare), just a normal tea drinking day, we were greeted with overwhelming kindness and a fiery new interest by the infamous Chow Yu;
He had read
Monde Moderne Haiku
Misty mountains mount memorable siege against my motorcycle,
as modern mechanics triumph (if only I was riding a Triumph),
and we surmount the mountain passes,
only to be turned around by a typhoon.
A brief stop on the life’s to do list
Life Goal: Have top practitioners of the 3 tea ceremonies practicing together – CHECK
Life Goal: watch; breath; repeat – CHECK
Knowing I made this happen? – a wonderful feeling of fulfillment and accomplishment – now, back to work.
Extreme ChaXi – Taiwan Coast
What could be more extreme than making ChaXi on a rocky outcropping jutting into the ocean as typhoon driven waves crash violently against the rocks next to you and the rain pounds down with drops the size of hail (seriously, it started hailing as soon as we got back on
Extreme ChaXi – Taiwan Mountain Side
Doing ChaXi is one thing; doing it on the side of a mountain in the rain off your motorcycle is quite another. This is Extreme ChaXi. Welcome to the game.
For this High Mountain Chaxi (at ~1300M) I brewed an ALiShan GaoShan from April 2011. Good stuff!
Brewing outside (on
The White Knight – An Every Day Hero
Sometimes, people for no reason but to be helpful and kind, go far out of their way to help others; this is one of those times. As I alluded to in this post, Pat and I got (very) lost on the small section of our ride from Banciao to SanXia,
Operation Escape to Nantou
As great as Taipei is (kinda-sorta-sometimes-maybe) Pat and I needed to escape, and what better way to do that than a motorcycle ride over the river and through the mountains in search of tea fields, fresh air, and a sense of adventure?
We set off with nothing
Do you miss the surprises?
Looks like Pat and I are rolling with our VIP friends from Korea and Japan. Is that Wisteria tea house? Oh yes. Things are about to get crazy.
Miss-identification of Tea
So, as I alluded to a few posts ago, I feel that after ~5 years of studying tea I can trust my taste buds; but as I mentioned in that very same post, I still make mistakes.
Part of our education while studying with Teaparker in Taiwan is identifying samples;