What does a tea want to say?

Is there something there, beyond just flavor notes, that's embedded by the teamaker, the roaster, and the place where the leaves are from?

Today's guest is Noah from Floating Leaves Tea, a shop based in both Seattle, WA and Taiwan that specializes in Taiwanese teas. More than just a tea dealer, they also share a way of approaching tea that's a little more intuitive -- asking us to listen more to the leaves, and to ourselves, to find whatever joy and lessons may be in the leaves.

In this episode, listen in as Noah guides us through a tea tasting, Floating Leaves Tea style. This was an absolute treat of a tea session to have: Noah is an incredible tea host, and he holds space here (in a Zoom call!) in a way that makes you feel like you're back at their tea table in Seattle.

Along the way, Noah also talks about his journey as a tea roaster, learning to roast and refine teas from beloved teachers in Taiwan.

This episode was recorded in Fall 2021. We taste an early version of Noah's Heartwood Hongshui, which he first released as a finished tea after another year of roasting practice, in Fall 2022.

How does a tea expert become an expert?

Today's guest is Jeffrey Mcintosh, my friend and go-to source for pu'er tea information. He's a pu'er tea especialist, financial advisor, and host of a YouTube channel about pu'er sourcing and evaluation.

He speaks fluent Mandarin, and has also spent most of the last decade building and consulting for business ventures in tea.

It's quite the resume, but before there was tea expert Jeff, there was... just Jeff, at the beginning of a long and bumpy road to tea confidence.

In this episode, Jeff generously shares his personal story of getting into the pu'er industry. We get to meet some of the key figures in his journey, review some hard lessons learned, and also get some advice from Jeff on thinking about tea from the investment standpoint, a perspective that's not uncommon to find in China's often speculative pu'er market.

When I first approached my friend Ting to record this episode, I asked her to teach us about mindfulness. As amazing as she is as a tea host, I could have sworn she had some kind of powerful mindfulness practice to share.

But as we find out during the recording, Ting, who is the founder of the non-profit tea community Tea Arts and Culture, has arrived at her beautiful tea practice in more everyday ways -- and after a lot of challenges and lessons.

We hear about how she stumbled into tea in New York after having little interest in it growing up in China, how she found out what people truly wanted in a tea workshop, and how she shares tea with her children in meaningful ways.

This and more in this incredible episode that feels like a lesson in real-life grace and patience for us tea brewers. Thank you Ting!