Blog
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The Taste of Agreement – Why Old Factory Pu’er Can’t Be Your Baseline
Honestly, I’ve been looking for a topic worth an article for quite some time now. For the past few weeks my Instagram feed has once again been clogged with photos of old factory cakes and boutique brands whose teas easily cost more than a gastroscopy. As I write this it is Sunday, and even though…
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For Personal Reasons – Brew & Blossom Aged Zhangping Shuixian
I realize immediately it isn’t a question of time.Time is a polite, almost political excuse; its supposed lack is like fastening a little tie before going to church on Sunday, a superfluous ornament, yet institutionally acceptable, a way of dressing up a lie for a setting you can’t quite tolerate. The truth is that writing,…
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Temporary Relief, Applied Correctly – Seven Essence Autumn 2024 Darjeeling Serenade
Well, you see, when I first started drinking tea I never thought it would become such an important part of my life. I suppose no one ever expects it at the beginning, but I certainly didn’t imagine that something with such a high percentage of water could bring relief to my cirrhotic, worn-out soul, born…
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Critique of Darjeeling Reason, or Why Reducing Darjeeling Black Teas to “Muscatel” Is a Recipe for Disaster
We have all heard it at least once: that Darjeeling black teas, the second flushes, taste like muscatel. To some it may seem a trivial matter, but for me reading it for the umpteenth time is torture, a subtle form of violence, like being tied to a bed and forced to listen over and over…
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The Cup That Didn’t Need Your Approval – Viet Sun Tủa Chùa Spring 2024
We all know it: social networks always leave too much room for sensationalism. There’s endless space for anyone obsessed with sanctifying new brands and glorifying mind-blowing teas that promise an experience somewhere between spiritual awakening and a methamphetamine binge. A permanent pop-up of disposable enthusiasm. It’s the amusement park where anyone can feel like a…
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Why Are We Still Pretending Darjeeling Doesn’t Matter? – Seven Essence Darjeeling Ouroboros 2025
There are several reasons why I sometimes disappear and stop writing. A loss of imagination, a lack of interesting teas, and other times it’s simply my own bad habits sabotaging every functioning neuron like a broker gambling with other people’s money. And then there are a couple of reasons no one would care about anyway.…
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Shāqīng: My New EBook Is Out Now (English & Italian)
Hello everyone! With this post, I would like to share the result of a project that has accompanied me over the past few months: a publication born from the desire to present, in an ordered and comprehensible form, the most significant insights I have gathered about the world of fermented teas. More than a year…
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On How Hard It Is to Make a Good Black Tea – Sipping Viet Sun’s Lào Cai Deep Forest Black Spring 2025
I sometimes think we take far too much for granted just how complicated it is to make a truly good tea, especially a good black tea.It’s treated as a Pavlovian reflex, a gesture made without thought, like pouring yourself another glass of prosecco when the guests’ conversation has already descended into collective complaint. We grow…
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After the Metaphors – Viet Sun Cao Bồ Tall Trees Spring 2025
Usually, I would write about a place, a land, the wind disturbing the fragile balance of the hats of farmers bent by time and sciatica. I would use rhetorical tightrope acts that might seem almost contrived to some, or romantic and evocative to others.But this time I won’t do any of that, no recycled sensations,…
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Dark Alleys, Bright Lies. Seven Essence Spring 2025 Darjeeling Petrichor
You never thought you’d find yourself at this hour of the morning in a place like this, and you wish you could appear to yourself less out of place than you actually are. You got there after immense vestibular struggles, tearing your jacket at the shoulder that had christened the walls of the whole 3rd…
Wild Harvested 