Recently in tea video Category

What makes a good wuyi tea and how is it processed?  Roy Fong of Imperial Tea Court  has been visiting Wuyi Shan (Mountain) in China for thirty years and has watched processing methods change over time. View the Bon Teavant video below to hear what Roy has to say.  If you would like to hear the entire 12-minute video, buy a copy of Roy's book The Great Teas of China from Bon Teavant Market and receive a custom download code to hear the full-length video.
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Thanks to the women of Dong Ding for plucking tea so beautifully so that we may imbibe! In this video, Bon Teavant features the tea pluckers in Nantou County, Taiwan, where Dong Ding tea is grown, harvested and processed. Please also enjoy our special Dong Ding tea.

While traditional Chinese and Taiwanese tea ceremony normally involves a yixing teapot, a gaiwan or "covered bowl", can also be used, as in the video below.  In this video Chen Shao Lan from the famed Geow Yung Tea Hong in Taipei demonstrates the use of a gaiwan in gong fu cha.

Last Spring, I met with Shiuwen Tai, owner of Floating Leaves in Seattle, who took me along with her on a tea buying mission in Taiwan.  Here is a short video in which Shiuwen explains the process of analyzing teas for purchase:

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Bon Teavant currently sells an outstanding Winter Alishan from Floating Leaves.  We think you might like it too!

The tea trade is excited by the recent publication of James Norwood Pratt's Tea Dictionary, a definitive guide to the terminology used in the industry. First place winner for new books at the 2010 World Tea Expo, Pratt's Tea Dictionary is the first attempt since 1935 at delivering a concise and thorough tea reference in the English language.

Mr. Pratt, a noted tea guru in the landscape of American tea culture, has outdone himself (again) with this publication. At a hefty $155 price tag, its value is greatly appreciated by tea professionals and serious connoisseurs who will find this reference indispensable in their pursuit of tea knowledge and understanding.

Mr. Pratt has been a great friend and colleague to me, and I am happy to offer signed copies of the Tea Dictionary through the Bon Teavant Market.

Enjoy this short video of Mr. Pratt discussing the Tea Dictionary:

David Lee Hoffman is known as one of the great tea experts in the United States. His thirty-five-year history of collecting teas in Asia has given Hoffman a rare and deep understanding of tea collecting and tea brewing. Here, Hoffman shows us how to open up the stalk of the Bamboo Fragrance Puerh with his proprietary puerh knife (sold by Bon Teavant) and also how to steep it. Each sip of this smokey, exotic tea makes you feel as though you were sitting by a wood fire in a small tribal village with the people who made this tea. A tea no connoisseur would want to miss, and offered at a price accessible to both the novice and the collector.  Enjoy this video:

On a recent visit to Taiwan, we were lucky to be escorted up to a Da Yu Ling tea farm, high in the Lishan mountain range. After seeing the tea farm, we understand why Da Yu Ling tea is so precious--there is so very little produced.  Take a short trip with us to Da Yu Ling....

How is "ecologically grown" tea different from just organic tea?  First, ecologically grown teas are grown without fertilizers or pesticides, like organics. But one tea farmer we caught up with in Taiwan takes cues from nature to produce the healthiest and best tasting teas:  he allows nature to make the tea as it wishes. 

Most herbalists know that plants grow best in the company of certain other plants, and by doing this, you get the best result. By allowing other plants to grow in and among tea plants, the farmer monitors the teas but allows the tea plants to mimic wild tea by letting nature play the lead role.

We went directly to the tea farmer so he could tell you himself about ecologically grown teas: