Off to China for Verdant Tea Adventures! What Can I Bring Back for Everyone?

Thanks for all the well-wishes everyone! I am signing off here for the next 48 hours on my way to Qingdao, the nearest city to Laoshan Village.

First plans are to meet Weiwei, who does our buying when I am away (an old friend), and then to go get mushroom hotpot together. I will have to get pictures of the mushroom hotpot because it is a ten course culinary wonder like nothing else. After that we are going mountain climbing on the foothills of Laoshan. (It helps with the jetlag). After a good night’s sleep, it will be off to the tea fields.

I will try to get the first fun tea wares, updates, etc up by Monday.

Teawares, I so desperately need. It has been a longtime since I made myself purchase tea wares; well a mug here and there. There is a place in Cambridge, MA that is ideal for china (stone ware) but I am not likely to get there anytime soon. Tea wares please and thank you. Have a safe/successful trip. I remember you venturing to China last year and there was a box for $20.00 one could subscribe to for that trip; if memory/reading was correct. Take care.

Hi everyone! Just heard from David. He’s posted his first blog entry about the China trip. You can read about day 1 in the China Adventures Blog:

http://verdanttea.com/china-sourcing-trip-2012-day-one/

Also, he says that pictures will be coming soon!

As many others have said, I would love to be able to purchase some nice, unique yixing pots, tea animals, and things like that.

I would be absolutely THRILLED if I had the opportunity to try an aged sheng. I haven’t had the chance to try anything from before 2003. Something from the early 90’s or before would be fantastic. Also, some aged oolongs would be great as well.

Another update. We just got pages up on the website for the first round of China teawares that David has selected for sale. A couple porcelain cups, a Ru Kiln pitcher, and a nice Yixing teapot! They are available now. There’s only one available of each, as they are all unique items. More will be added in the coming days. You can take a look here:

http://verdanttea.com/shop/teaware/

Hi everyone!
I am back from China. Sadly, beloved Steepster is less beloved by the Chinese censors. I guess we are stirring up trouble with all of our friendly discussions and thoughtful tasting notes. Watch out! :)

Now that I am back, I can get back to sharing with everyone. More stories and videos will be posted very soon as I catch up with work, send out all of your pre-order teawares, and adjust to the time zone.

I mostly wanted to thank everyone for the support that allowed me to go on this trip. Teawares and fun aside, I accomplished some pretty big things while over in China. I will go into the details later, but in summary: I am helping Weiwei start a center for tea culture and literacy in Jimo China, essentially a tea bar and community space with free books on loan that sponsors meetings, hobby groups, and more. It is going to be incredible, and it has been Weiwei’s dream for a long time. Proceeds from tea staring today are going to fund the startup costs, but I will post the details on the site in the next week. I am also helping Wang Huimin get back on her feet after a lot of family crises to open a tea shop in Xiamen to sell her family and friends Tieguanyin and Taiwanese oolongs. She will be supplying us with oolongs starting now, proceeds from which will also be going to her teahouse project. The He family just bought a new house with a bigger facility for making tea, and opened a shop in Jimo to sell their own tea retail in part thanks to our constant support over the last year.
In addition to our cultural initiatives started, we have set in motion the development of several brand new kinds of tea:
Wang Yanxin and I got to work with farmers in Henan and Laoshan on creating a brand new kind of black tea that is on its way here. The He family is experimenting with new hand-processing techniques on green tea, and working out an OOLONG for the spring!

Each sentence here is a whole story to be told, and I will do my best to share in the coming weeks.

To celebrate getting back with no delays or lost baggage, I am putting up one of my favorite new acquisitions today: Song Dynasty Style Tea Cups, just like the ones used by the “tea emperor” Song Huizong. I met an artist at a tea wares exhibition, the first person I have seen doing a song style revival with the blue glaze teacups. I love that style like nothing else, so I bought his entire collection of thirty cups. Check it out: http://verdanttea.com/teas/song-dynasty-style-tea-cup/

I noticed you brought back a lot of tea on your trip. I am curious, is it easier to bring back your tea when you accompany it? I know most of your tea shipments are handled by other people and require a lot of customs processing and what not..

I wish I saw this sooner… I so want a teapot (ok. another teapot). They look so beautiful and I’m always so late in ordering. So, when are you going to China again? LOL

Hi Everyone,
I am putting up all the rest of the tea wares I brought back from China this afternoon around 4PM CST. Look out for super fine hand painted Jingdezhen porcelain tea cups, tea animals, and a few more yixing teapots. This is all I have, so if you are looking for tea wares (or gifts!) this holiday season, this is the last offering I will be making. All hand made unique pieces picked up from good friends. Get a sneak preview on the Facebook album I posted: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.556149624401980.145803.120756301274650&type=1

I will also be posting a limited edition 1996 sheng pu’er. I have 12 ounces to offer up, with a limit of one ounce per buyer. This is a textural epiphany in the top three pu’ers I have ever tasted. Pressed from wild leaf by the famous Mengku before they were big. If you are curious about aged pu’er, this is something to check out. Facebook pic here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=556170011066608&set=a.366937686656509.106750.120756301274650&type=1&theater

Best Wishes,
David