Notes From Daniel Lui's Tea Desk

People come to my tea shop every day asking for a tea (whether it’s oolong tea, pu-erh tea (puerh), or white tea, for example) that will help them with their medical problems. This is not surprising as many tea shops make fantastical medical claims about what their tea will do for their customers. Most...

Though counter-intuitive, it’s true: expensive tea is actually cheaper than inexpensive tea! This may come as a surprise to many people, but inexpensive tea is often more costly to use than its more expensive counterparts in the long run. There are 3 reasons for this: You use less. You only need...

1,500 years ago, the Chinese in Yunnan province began exporting loose leaf tea across the mountains to Tibet. The journey was long and dangerous but the Tibetans needed this tea as it provided important nutrients for their diet.  In return, the they traded horses which were very valuable to the Chinese....

Is it possible to tell the quality and taste of a tea without actually tasting it? In the previous The Chinese Tea Shop’s Blog post (“Welcome to the World of Engineered Teas“) I commented that there is a way to tell the quality and taste of a tea (like Oolong Tea, Puerh Tea (Pu-erh),...

People coming to my tea shop are always amazed by all the Chinese teas they have never heard of before. As they walk around the shop checking out our oolong teas, puerh teas (or pu-erh teas), and white teas (to name a few!) they ask “What does this one taste like?” or “What does...

There is much interest in teapots from China and their effect on making tea taste its best. The best of these are Yixing teapots made from a special rock clay from the Yixing area of China. The best Yixing teapots are called Zisha (Purple Sand Clay, even though they may not necessarily...

The other day I visited some tea shops with one of my students. We really noticed how western marketing techniques have impacted how tea is sold.  But more importantly, we noticed how this is affecting what consumers are really getting for their money. In the 16th century, it was the...

Which has the higher level of caffeine? Coffee or Tea Indian tea or Chinese tea Black tea or Green tea  There are many opinions, and good facts are harder to find.  Scientific studies can be less than detailed about what products were used so this can add to the confusion. A...

Today, I am sharing two advanced techniques of tea-making and why they make your teas taste so much better. The first is a better way to use your teapots and the second is about water temperature. Tea masters always have a large selection of Chinese Yixing unglazed clay teapots on hand...

What is the “real” Lao Ban Zhang Tea?  Last week I wrote about the Ban Zhang Pu-erh Teas I have brought back to my store from Yunnan. These are a rare type of green/raw Pu-erh tea that many people were very interested to know more about. These teas have just recently...

Big Leaf Tea from an Ancient Hidden Forest  In 2015 I was in Yunnan province in China buying new teas for The Chinese Tea Shop. On a visit to a Pu-erh tea factory I was given a tasting of a wonderful Lao Ban Zhang (Raw/Green) tea. This was a very lucky day as it...

The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2007) A study conducted in Taiwan which isolated the micro-organisms that make aged Pu-erh tea taste good and measured their effect over time when introduced to new tea leaves. The study does not prove that drinking Pu-erh tea (new or aged) will improve...

In last week’s blog post “Why Tea Tastes Bitter & How To Get Rid Of It (Part 1)“, I promised I’d provide more reasons tea is sometimes bitter and how you can get rid of it. So here you go! Time of day during harvesting: Leaves are harvested on sunny...

Many people who visit me at The Chinese Tea Shop in Vancouver’s Chinatown district say they would like to enjoy tea more but don’t like the bitter and astringent taste. I ask them to pick a tea (any tea! Oolong tea, white tea, black tea, or puerh tea, for example) and I make it...