( Read more... )

 
Awhile ago, keltickalypso invited me to tea. She always puts on the best spread. We had little sweets and savories, as well as a delicious and rare tea from the Posh Peasant in San Clemente.


( Read more... )

A serene day like this is great for drinking tea and also for writing. And, hey, when I'm done with the fiction, and there's still some golden afternoon sunlight, it seems most appropriate to write about drinking tea.

Ming scholar Xu Cishu (许次纾) codified particularly appropriate moments for enjoying tea in his Chashu (茶疏) or tea manual:

In ( Read more... )

So I went to this amazing exhibit the other day on the history of tea. A number of things amused me.

First was this little 19th century book on the "good usage" of coffee, tea, and chocolate. Looking at it, I was able to imagine myself a corsetted lady of yesteryear, indulging in the exotic pleasures of these new drugs. And really, they are they ( Read more... )