Some Things to Come, and News

First off, things to come:

I've been meaning to interview some different tea bloggers that I know, starting with those in the Blackberry Messenger Tea group that I'm a member of.  Several people have agreed to be interviewed, and I meant to get the first interview completed and posted at the end of last week.

Life gets in the way sometimes, though, as it did last week.  I was so busy with school that I didn't have time for any real blogging at all, which was disappointing.  If I get the chance and can get my schedule to coincide with my first interviewee's, then I'll try and get that up by this weekend.

Until that time, I have a couple more posts planned for this week that I'll post over the next couple of days.  I hate posts like this one, where nothing is really accomplished and promises are made, but these type of posts keep me going when I haven't had a chance to com up with any real content, and they give me more reason to finally get some real content put up.

Now that we have that bit of housecleaning out of the way, on to some exciting news:

First off, Melissa, over at Expanding Leaves is holding her blog's first ever giveaway!  Tipu's Chai contacted Melissa asking if she'd be interested in having a giveaway for her readers and she agreed.  The prize is a 4oz pouch of Tipu's instant black chai tea mix, and entering is very easy.  Head on over to Expanding Leaves to check it out, and read the blog post and watch the video she has put up here.

Secondly, it's not really tea, per se, but Adagio is now selling Yerba Mate.  They have a sampler package put together (which you can find here).  I haven't tried mate myself, but I've been meaning to for a while now.  Adagio is where I first got into the exciting world of loose leaf tea, and I have been a big fan of theirs ever since.  Be sure to check out all they have to offer.

Trying My Hand At Tea Photography

Lately, I've become quite addicted to Flickr, and have been going through all my old photos and uploading them (this 100mb limit for free accounts is killing me!).  I've been trying to save a few megabytes each month for posting new photos, which up until now, I hadn't really been taking much of.

Until the past week, I haven't had a camera here besides my video camera and my cell phone, neither of which take very good pictures.  Now I have my trusty old Olympus c270 Ultra Zoom.  The camera is fairly old, as far as digital cameras go, and only takes 3.0 megapixel photos, but it does a very good job with them!

Anyways, last night while making some Sencha Premiere from Adagio I decided to try getting some pictures.  For the most part, the pictures turned out pretty rough, a couple were pleasing to me though, so I thought I'd share them here.

I'd love to hear people's thought on these, and what you do to get great shots of your tea and tea ware.  Leave a comment below, or hit me up on twitter.  Also, I'm always looking for new people to connect with on Flickr!

You can find my other photos at my Flickr account.

Resuming the Quest

It has been over a year since my last post on this blog, as as I went about my day off from social media, I thought about something that has crossed my mind many times in the past year.  I thought about bringing this blog back, about trying again, about giving it the run I should have given it in the first place.  I feel now is the time to do so.

One reason I dropped this blog in the first place was the sheer abundance of tea review blogs already on the internet.  Not only has this number not declined, it has, in fact, increased!  So why does this no longer bother me?  There are two reasons for this.

Partly it is because reviews are such a subjective thing, that I feel you never can truly have "too many" review sites.  The other reason is that I simply just don't mind anymore.  Originally I wanted to blog so I could get a huge readership, earn a ton of money on advertising, you know, the usual stuff.  Since that time, I've learned that by blogging, I learn more about myself and about the topic I'm writing on.

In the past I gave up on sites because they never "took off."  Well, no longer will this be the case! My mind is not focused on being the next "big" blogger anymore.  While a part of me still wants to have lots of people read what I have to say, it isn't the most important thing now.   I know now that I can't force being an amazing blogger, and now I want to write for a new reason.  If any of my blogs do "take off," then so be it, I'll enjoy my moment in the spotlight and continue doing my best.

The reason for writing now is more personal.  I intend to write about tea the same way I've begun writing about technology.  From here on out, writing is more a tool to better my own knowledge and understanding of different concepts and ideas.  If anyone else feels enriched at the same time, all the better, as it means I'm starting to really understand.

So, instead of simply reviewing teas, as I originally intended, I plan on looking deeper into the topic.  I want to learn more about the people in the tea community, from the farmers, to the merchants, to the consumers.  I intend to learn about the places, and what makes tea from different areas so different.  My intention is to learn what makes tea what it is, and I invite you to join me on this quest.