A Tea Addict's Journal

Having tea outside

April 23, 2008 · 7 Comments

It was nice having tea outside yesterday. The weather was perfect — not too cold, not too hot, not too sunny. Having a way of making water while outside frees you from electrical outlets and lets you make tea anywhere you want…. that’s always a plus.

The first tea we had was a tieguanyin I got from Beijing about three years ago.

You can tell it’s not that fresh anymore, and now that I’m tasting it, I don’t think it was very very good to begin with. Very average stuff, in fact, and probably not even tieguanyin — maybe this is benshan.

For the purpose though, it worked well enough. It was a tea that’s light and not too hard to make. Easy going enough.

The colours are pretty

We then had a beidou #1, also from Beijing. It’s interesting what two or three years of drinking does to you — stuff that you used to think is good no longer seems so good. The beidou is only ok — then again, it’s quite cheap. Compared to the rougui I had two days ago… it’s no match.

What was nice though was to drink outside at all — listen to birds, watching the deer walk by, etc. It’s just not the same.

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7 responses so far ↓

  • djn7304 // April 23, 2008 at 1:27 pm | Reply

    I’m still looking for decent teapot. Does that warmer in the photo heat up a full pot fairly quickly? And do you know of any place online that sells something similar?

  • osososososos // April 23, 2008 at 2:41 pm | Reply

    beautiful setup you’ve put together. *envious*

  • MarshalN // April 23, 2008 at 2:57 pm | Reply

    djn7304: I do NOT recommend using this thing to heat up water — it’s good for keeping water warm, but will take forever to take anything to a boil.

    osososososososos: Thanks for your compliment 🙂

  • EmN // April 23, 2008 at 10:03 pm | Reply

    Hey, how gorgeous is that??? I’d love to write about having tea outdoors and include your picture in tippyleaf.com/blog/ , if you don’t mind. Please let me know if it’s ok!
    Emily

  • Anonymous // April 24, 2008 at 9:15 pm | Reply

    I really like your teawares – they are soooo beautiful! By the way, what is the “stove” you are using in the picture to boil water. ’cause you said “free from electrical outlets” I assume it burn gas? Or charcoal?! Is that a Japanese made? –Sherab

  • MarshalN // April 25, 2008 at 12:14 am | Reply

    EmN: Sure, use it, just give them a reference of where the picture’s from 🙂

    Sherab: Thanks :). The “stove” is actually a cheap alcohol lamp stand I got from China. It came as a set with a glass kettle (broken…). You can buy them for less than $10 in Beijing. If you need one, let me know, I can probably find somebody to buy it for about 50 RMB….

    I do want to eventually buy a brazier that burns charcoal, but until I have a permanent home where I have a yard or at least won’t move around much, there’s really no good reason why I should buy something like that.

  • EmN // April 25, 2008 at 7:38 am | Reply

    I sure will give you credit. 🙂
    Thanks much!

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