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ABOUT ME
Unlike most Americans, I’m not a coffee fan, but I love tea! I’ve been drinking it all my life, but I never realized the depth and complexity of the tea world until my wife and I started our first tea bar in 2009. I’m not a tea seller anymore. Instead, I share my love of tea and tisanes (yerba mate, rooibos, honeybush…) through this web site, my books, and my podcast (coming soon!). I hope you enjoy it!
MYTHS & LEGENDS
I am as much in love with the stories of different tea styles as I am with the tea itself. Many of these wondrous stories are far too short. Some are entirely legend, their origins lost in the mists of time. Some are based heavily on fact. Some are purely the product of my own imagination. In this book, I have retold seven of them them my own style, focusing on building a sense of the time, the setting, and the characters — bringing the stories of tea to life.
WHAT’S NEW
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Temperature, Time, and Lying Kettles
So this guy walks into a tea shop… A joke? No, a story with a lesson in it. This fellow clearly knew what he wanted when he walked into my shop. What he didn’t know was that the boiling point of water changes with your altitude.
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Blogging on a schedule
When I’m bored and not inspired enough to write something, I sometimes read silly things like blogging tips. They always seem to include the obvious, like “write interesting things” and “allow your personality to show through.” They also all seem to include, “always blog on a regular schedule.”
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Earl Grey vs Black Tea
I see these questions all the time: What’s the difference between Earl Grey and black tea? How much caffeine is in Earl Grey? What are the health benefits of Earl Grey compared to black tea? Well, strap in and let’s see if I can cover it all in one article!
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My dog ate my matcha whisk
We got a new dog. She’s about a year old, she’s a husky/bulldog cross, and I screwed up. I left a bunch of my teaware on a shelf that she could reach. She ignored the gaiwan, the matcha bowl, the pots, the cups, the gongfu tray — but not the whisk.
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Can you smoke tea?
My response to this question on Quora has gotten more views than any other tea-related response I’ve written, with over 100,000 views. Apparently, this is a question in a lot of people’s minds, so I’ve decided to expand upon that answer for my friends here on Tea with Gary.
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An open letter to restaurants about tea
I love going out to eat, but the dining experience at most restaurants is less than stellar for a tea drinker. In this open letter, I lay out why and suggest how to improve.
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World Tea Expo 2024
When I was running my tea shop, I looked forward to World Tea Expo each year. Now that I’m semi-retired, I’m getting back to my sorely-neglected tea site, working on a new tea book, and preparing to launch a tea-related podcast. And I’m heading back to WTE this month!
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Phong Sali 2011 Pu-erh from Laos
I first wrote this post in October of 2013. As I wrote back then, this was a pretty good sheng pu-erh, but it needed to be aged more. With much going on in life, I ended up putting it away in the back of the tea cabinet and forgetting about it. I pulled it out in 2019 or so and…
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Quick and Easy Peppermint Matcha Fudge
My wife, Kathy, decided that since it was almost Christmas, we should have a special treat. We have a brand-new peppermint matcha at the shop, so she decided to do a quick and easy matcha fudge. It’s a white chocolate bakeless recipe; Kathy calls it “cheater” fudge.
Tea With Gary 