What are your favorite tea/teaware blogs?

[klepto]

I'm always interested in what those who are more versed in the tea universe are doing and thinking.
Which is why I am here. I'm curious what blogs you like and what you gain from them.

https://tea-adventures.net/category/tea ... heng-puer/
https://mattchasblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.marshaln.com/
https://teadb.org/

At the moment I follow only a few but they are very useful and provide really detailed info without confusing you with high level tea talk

[mbanu]

Blogging is considered a little old-fashioned today, so there are not so many new ones that aren't supplements to something else, like a YouTube channel.

TeaDB is excellent but also a little retro in that they not only blog but do it on their own website. But of course, the main thing that keeps them in the public attention is their videos.

However, we are fortunate in that a lot of the older blogging platforms have not disappeared, but changed directions while keeping their old archives or were bought out by companies who don't mind preserving them, so there are a lot of vintage blogs that are still up.

I find that reading through these is really helpful, because even though they aren't new, they are new to me, and because even when they are wrong, they provide perspective on tea-on-the-internet during the time they were written.

A few I like:

* https://chadao.blogspot.com/ An old group blog with a lot of interesting articles.

* https://puerh-tea.livejournal.com Another old group blog, good for understanding how the pu'er tea culture of the 90s went online in the 00s.


* https://artoftea.teatra.de/ A modern blog. While I don't always agree with them, I like that they do book reviews; a lot of internet tea-culture is a-historical and ignores books almost completely, especially older books.

* https://relevanttealeaf.blogspot.com/ I like this one because this blogger is what I would consider a non-internet tea-drinker of the classic older American type, who normally live in an almost completely offline tea-world. Instead of being exclusively about tea, it is about their family, friends, and tea. More time is spent on teahouses than on tealeaves. It can be easy relying on blogs to get a warped view of the tea world because everyone talks about the same things from the same perspective, because the sort of people inspired to talk about tea on the internet in the first place often come from a common pool of internet-culture people who do things in a way that is uniquely their own.


* https://lazyliteratus.teatra.de/ A modern blogger from the pre-China camp; these used to be more common online, but slowly the Yixing and aged tea crowd that followed MarshalN took their place. I like this blog because the blogger is aware of the Chinese tea world but doesn't seem limited by it.

* https://teamasters.blogspot.com/ One of the few vendor blogs I think is worth looking at, mainly because they are also one of the oldest surviving, so you can sort of follow the changing internet tea-culture through the eyes of someone who was in the middle of everything. They are aware of TeaForum, so likely TeaForum is aware of them.

* https://www.teaformeplease.com/ Probably also counts as a vendor blog? Modern blog, but old-fashioned in that it does not focus on Chinese tea exclusively but is aware of it, and seems to have a foot in the door of a lot of different internet tea-worlds.

* https://qmhistoryoftea.wordpress.com/ Falls into the often overlooked category, "blog created for a book release". Internet tea-culture often doesn't seem terribly interested in the type of tea-drinking this blog focuses on, which makes it a good blog for the category.

* http://nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/ An old blog/book combo for a subject that most people would never think needed one, tea-biscuit reviews.

* https://www.cloudsteacollection.com/sub ... ex_e1.html Once as famous as MarshalN in pu'er circles, but sort of faded out of view over time. (Stumbling through the website looking for articles is actually a pretty good replication of the vintage web-surfing experience.)

[klepto]

Blogging is considered a little old-fashioned today, so there are not so many new ones that aren't supplements to something else, like a YouTube channel.

On Youtube, I like TeaDB and Tea House Ghost. THG is perfect for new tea drinkers who are dipping their toes into gong fu brewing. Thanks for the list I will check them out.

[teaformeplease]

* https://www.teaformeplease.com/ Probably also counts as a vendor blog? Modern blog, but old-fashioned in that it does not focus on Chinese tea exclusively but is aware of it, and seems to have a foot in the door of a lot of different internet tea-worlds.

Tea for Me Please here! I'm not a vendor, not sure what gave you that impression

I might be old-fashioned in that my blog has been around for more than a decade. The focus is primarily on Chinese tea though I do write about tea from many different origins.

There are a lot of blogs out there. OP, you can see a list of the tea blogs that I follow here:

https://www.bloglovin.com/@teaformeplease/following

[mbanu]

* https://www.teaformeplease.com/ Probably also counts as a vendor blog? Modern blog, but old-fashioned in that it does not focus on Chinese tea exclusively but is aware of it, and seems to have a foot in the door of a lot of different internet tea-worlds.

Tea for Me Please here! I'm not a vendor, not sure what gave you that impression

Perhaps the wrong word, what I think I meant is "industry person", in that you are a writer for tea publications, are on the board of directors for the Specialty Tea Alliance, and have been a guest at places like the World Tea Expo. I suppose this would make you more like a modern James Norwood Pratt or Jane Pettigrew? It's hard to make good parallels because as I mentioned many people ignore tea book authors now for some reason.

The focus is primarily on Chinese tea though I do write about tea from many different origins.

I find it refreshing whenever anyone covers non-Chinese tea. The tea-world is so large, but the internet often seems to want to make it small. Thank you for all of your hard work.

[LeoFox]

I really like Hster's tea closet blog.

http://teacloset.blogspot.com/?m=1

The blog reads like a witty and honest memoir with tea as a focal point that extends back to the 2000s. I think the blog captures Hster'd personal experiences with tea very well, ranging from the comical to the frustrating to the deeply moving moments that cut across complex layers of memories and emotions. Additionally, the blog provides some good information on tea, especially pu erh. For example, there is a nice wrapper cheat sheet:

http://teacloset.blogspot.com/p/chinese ... s.html?m=0

It is also entertaining to read the comments from tea celebrities such as Marshaln, teamasters and petr novak that grace many of his posts.

[LeoFox]

@mbanu

Your post inspired me to try the relevant tea leaf blog. I find that it is a very personal blog - so personal that reading it made me feel uncomfortable in the same way as if i had read someone's private diary without their permission.

A quick search reveals several mentions of the red hat society, including in this post about teapot shaped purses:

https://relevanttealeaf.blogspot.com/20 ... r.html?m=1

I wonder if she is a member. Didnt read deep enough to find out