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We have named our upcoming presentation on Japanese tea ceremony, Chigusa. The event takes place this Sunday 01/22 at Leaf Tea Bar. If you are curious what Chigusa means, it is but a name of a clay jar that was used to store tea in Japan. No, not a type of a jar, but a jar that dates back to the 14th Century and was named Chigusa by tea men who had fallen in love with it. Today, the jar sits in the Smithsonian Institution.

Amidst the political whirlwind of 2016, we took a significant step in our business with the opening of Leaf Tea Bar in a charming Rochester, NY neighborhood. This brick-and-mortar avatar of Happy Earth Tea came after nearly 12 years of nurturing the dream which began with our first business, Darjeeling Tea Exclusive founded in 2005 in Darjeeling, India.  

This 1890 photograph from the archives of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, shows one JC Oswald (third person from the left), at a tea tasting room in Fuzhou in China's Fujian province. According to the photographer's caption, in order to consistently judge the color of the tea and the tea leaves, a tea-tasting room would face north and be top-lit, just like an early photographer’s studio.

It is always exciting to receive reviews from our customers. Tea is a personal experience – as someone rightly described, each cup is a voyage - so descriptions of the same tea by different people can vary. And, that enhances our own experience of the cup.

Let the mother in your life know how special she is by giving her some of our fine organic teas complete with a personalized label. Because we love mothers, take 10% off your order with this code "MOTHERSLOVE."

We are really excited to be introducing two exclusive “early Spring” teas from Jun Chiyabari, our Organic tea producer-partner in Nepal. These teas were manufactured in March. Normally, the first flush production for Jun Chiyabari, which is situated between 5000 ft – 6000 ft, takes place only in April.

Darjeeling first flush 2016 production is currently on in full swing. After a slow start due to less than normal rain for most of March, gardens are reporting a much better harvest since the rains came down at the end of the month.

Enjoy this slideshow of our visit to the famous Margaret's Hope Tea Estate in Darjeeling in November 2015. Although, we do not offer tea from this garden, since it is not Organic, it was nice to look around and meet up with our old friend, Arun Gurung, who is the assistant manager there.

We began with a review of the four principles of Chado, or Chanoyu for our second class on Japanese tea ceremony. I had been unable to recall all of those principles in the last blog post since taking notes and photos during the lessons are not encouraged. Total focus is demanded.