Floating Leaves Tea

Oolong tea does not go bad, but it does go stale if stored improperly, or for a very long time. In this episode, we taste the same Tie Guanyin oolong tea, one stored properly and one improperly. John and Shiuwen identify the staleness of tea through drinking.   To join the class and learn from these episodes, please place an order and leave a comment to let us know you'd like some stale tea to pra...

Oolong tea does not go bad, but it does go stale if stored improperly or for a very long time. In this episode, Shiuwen offers John a few techniques to smell from the dry leaf if a tea is stale.   To join the class and learn from these episodes, please place an order and leave a comment to let us know you'd like some stale tea to practice with. Otherwise, if you have a bag of tea you've left open...

With higher grade teas, we are looking for more complexity in the scent. Not only how flavorful or how many notes it has, but also where the scent is felt in the body. This episode Shiuwen and John compare two oolongs to isolate the sensation of scent reaching deeper inside of the nostrils.   To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink this exact tea and answer Shiuwen's guiding...

This episode Shiuwen and John explore the third main parameter of tea brewing : timing. How long does the water need to sit on the leaves? #NoFear #MakeMistakes   To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink this exact tea and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. Find the teas on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/update?updates%5B396513202...

This episode we soak four black teas to see if they 'break' or not. A good tea will still show a sense of structure and movement, even if it's brewed to the point of unpleasantness. We are using two of our own black teas and two tea bag teas.   To join the class and learn from these videos, you can drink these exact teas and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. If you buy t...

This class we will be exploring different leaf-to-water ratios to see if there is really such a thing as proper recipes. To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink these exact teas and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. Find the tea on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/update?updates%5B39651321970895%5D=1 The Tea : Charcoal Dong Ding

In this tea class, Shiuwen guides John to notice the various places in the mouth and body where roasted oolong can produce unique sensations and textures. To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink these exact teas and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. These teas will be used in the next episode as well. Find the teas on our website here => https://fl...

Shiuwen offers a tea class on the ‘correct' brewing temperature for oolong tea. Is it ok to boil green oolong?   To join the class and learn from these videos, you can drink these exact teas and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. Find the teas on our website here https://floatingleaves.us/products/secret-garden-alishan-high-mountain   The Tea : Secret Garden Alishan High...

Shiuwen of Floating Leaves offers a tea class on the defining characteristics that make green oolong more basic or more premium. Focus is on experiential learning. To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink these exact teas and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. Find the teas on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/39651321807055:1,410984...

Shiuwen invites special guests, some "random middle school boys", for a holiday special episode! T   his is also the last episode of our retroactively named Season 1. We will be taking a short break, and will see you again in 2022!   Find our teas :  https://floatingleaves.com

Tea blogger Oolong Owl visits the shop for some strong pots of epic oolong.   Check Out Oolong Owl's Blog : https://oolongowl.com/   Tea Teas : Eight Roast Dong Ding Lala Shan Hong Shui Taman Shan 'Empress Dowager'

Long time tea friend of Floating Leaves, the infamous Steve, joins Shiuwen and Noah to drink some teas that struck us by surprise!   The Teas :   Sun Solstice Oolong   Charcoal Roast Ruby 18   Lalashan Hong Shui   Find our teas at https://floatingleaves.com

Shiuwen sits down to answer some of John's questions about tea tasting: What it means for a tea to be 'open' or, conversely, 'bound up'.    The Tea    1998 Iron Cask Aged Dong Ding (brewed 3X's)   Find our teas at  https://floatingleaves.com  

Founder of Embrace the Moon School for Taichi and Qigong, Kim Ivy, joins Shiuwen for some potent teas.    Learn more about Kim's Taichi and Qigong dojo at  https://embracethemoon.com/

Shiuwen chooses and shares two teas that represent her two friends Timothy and Lewis, Floating Leafers from the early days.   Find Timothy's work at https://timothysiciliano.com/   The Teas Wild Pinglin Baozhong Laughing Buddha (Yunnan High Mountain Oolong)

Fellow tea podcasters of Tea Talks join us for their first dive into Dong Ding plus other roasted oolong.   Check out Chris' podcast on Instagram @ckylum and find Caitlin @dishwench   The Teas :  House Oolong Charcoal Dong Ding 1998 Ripe Tuocha

Shiuwen invites our friend and budding tea connoisseur Matt for an oolong introduction.   Link to full video episode : https://youtu.be/3QabhFyAPsY   The Teas Competition Style Baozhong Dong Ding Traditional A

A great tea! This is an upcoming release, an oolong tea grown in the high mountain region of Wuliang Shan in Yunnan province (home of puer tea). We had a great session capped off with a brief conversation about tea brewing.

Excellent session with Milk and Honey oolong. Plus a conversation on water temperature and tea brewing.

Welcome to Floating Leaves, your local loofah emporium! Buy a loofah for your teapot, for your friends' teapots and even for your enemy's teapot. It's good for you!! *Also, Shiuwen wanted to make sure we made this correction : She did not give a liter of blood, but rather a PINT of blood.

We drank a delicious Eight Roast Dong Ding for the 16th anniversary of Floating Leaves which occurred on 8/8.

Last week we went back to visit an 'old friend', a tea that we've tasted many times and are just finding out new things about it. This time we visited a 'new friend', also a Furry Crab, and from the same farmer. This one is also fantastic! And we're looking forward to many more sessions with this tea. It is only available on the dot com site.

This session we tasted Furry Crab, an oolong we've been drinking for a while now, but one that is showing a new face in the last month or so.

This episode we tried out some of our new Yixing and Taiwanese Wood Fired teapots. We use Dong Ding Traditional A as a base and branch out depending on how the Dong Ding tastes.

This session we drank a new batch of Charcoal Dong Ding that I brought back from Taiwan. It was roasted in a special way to produce a very unique feel for Dong Ding tea. WE LOVE IT! We're going to be keeping aside some for ourselves to age. And after this session Shiuwen wants to keep even more!!