After Yang, Winter Rhyme
I’ve prepared my Bai Mu Dan white tea for hundreds of people over the years, but my most recent preparation uncovered a significant trail for my mind to wander down. […]
Tasting Notes and their Relevance
“The nose knows things that the mind does not understand” – Blaise Pascal The benevolent reason for tasting notes to exist and be shared is to inform our colleagues/friends/customers about […]
Looking back on 2020
It was a memorable year! Unfortunately, I didn’t have the luck to get to visit Japan before the world ground to a halt. I don’t think I’ve ever spent as […]
Sumi-E
The art world, so intriguing. A few weeks ago I picked up a book called ‘The Mindful Artist: sumi-e’ and read through it cover to cover. Sumi-e is ink bush […]
‘Perfection’ Might Not Be Ideal?
Over the past weeks, I developed a new way to taste tea. I’ve covered it already in 2 other posts so I wont get into it here past a brief […]
The ‘Simulation’ Theory
Generally not up so early but my brain went off on a tangent and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I started writing things down and eventually came up with […]
The Tale of Genji
I decided to tackle one of Japan’s most famous literary works. This would be my 4th culturally significant book behind The Journey to the West, Musashi, and Shogun. In hindsight […]
Understanding Water, a Primer on Water for Tea
I’ve procrastinated writing this due to the sheer amount of information I have to post. Water was a topic I did quite a bit of studying of back in 2016. […]
Life
As mentioned before, for someone not used to writing a journal or keeping a blog it’s surprisingly hard to keep one active. Too many other priorities in life, but here […]
Dream about Keanu Reeves Eating at Q, Cocktail Dinner Prep
Literally the transcript from the dream: (For storytelling sake, I didn’t clean up anything I said in my half asleep state) Keanu reeves and girlfriend maybe came for dinner at […]
Flavor Associations
I’ve been drinking tea again lately, I recently got several different Sencha’s from Japan. One of them gave me the idea of a dish so I went out to buy […]
Maillard Reaction
Feeling a little sick, I guess this is something I’ve been fending off while I was busy with the ‘Big Taste’. I had a nap today, now I’m up at […]
Dream Friday February 24th 2017
Dream Friday February 24th 2017 Q Haute Cuisine, a wedding during the evening for a bunch of similar looking blonde white women of all ages wearing matching 1980s light purple […]
Translation of Japan’s Top 100 Aromatic Landscapes?
Already the title sounds poorly translated. fml.I was watching a documentary from NHK about the importance of aroma in Japanese culture, there was mention of a list created by the […]
Aromas of Sunday
I was watching a documentary on Saturday evening about the perfume industry, it would be an adventure to get into an industry like that, maybe in another life. I thought […]
Strawberry Leaf
Last year (2015) I took all the strawberry leaves from my backyard, wrapped them in tinfoil pouches, and baked them until they were dark brown. I blitzed them up in […]
Where to start with tea-ware?
Let me start by saying my work life and home life are polar opposites when it comes to tea. At Q Haute we brew our tea in a wine carafe, […]
Stagnation
:/ Brick wall. Work life has gotten kind of boring. I can keep on trucking along and doing what I’m doing, but I don’t really feel any satisfaction — I’m […]
Shoyeido Incense
After many months of neglect, I have resumed the journey of understanding incense. I got into the premium pack from Shoyeido and took some notes about them. I included the […]
First week in Japan 2015
Aside from the great food and company, the weather has been gorgeous. Shopping has been steady, as there is a lot to buy, we nearly go out every day to […]
Shopping list for Japan
Uguuuu this is going to be an expensive trip. (Edit: 5 years later✔✔) To jot down a list of the sake’s I’m hunting for: Yamatogawa Genshu from Fukushima Reijin Koshu […]
Weird fruits from T&T
Today I went to eat some pho for lunch. After I was finished I went into the market and bought some fruits I’ve never seen before — both melons. Hami […]
The raspberry dream
First of all, this was either the theme song to the dream or the first thing that came to mind when I woke up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70QJa_SwmEc What I’ve wrote below is […]
Just another monday~
Life’s just too good sometimes. They don’t happen often, but days like this literally make months at a time for me. #hyperbolictimechamber, #horyshet, #icame Chateau de Chevalier 2004 Domaine Jean […]
More music…
For the glorious records Outkast vs Deadmau5 – Ghosts over Baghdad DATA – Don’t Sing Flairs – Truckers Delight The Shoes – Time to Dance Kavinsky – Testarossa Autodrive (SebastiAn […]
Grooveshark dead
Fuck, now I’m going to forget the name of all the songs I like. Quick, write them down! Justice – Stress Justice – Dance K391 – Journey K391 – Summertime […]
Oat groats, fuck yeah
Sick of playing video games, my cycle of habits is back to creation. It’s 1am, I was digging through my cupboard for the wheat berries I thought I bought 3 […]
Wine Grape Test~
Grape Varieties A test I wrote for myself many years ago, likely when I was first starting to cram wine. It was lost in time between all the files in […]
Backyard clay test firings at other cones
Susan at Wildflower Arts Center did some test firings for me to see the vitrification point of my backyard clay. I really like Cone03, it’s a beautiful red, exactly what […]
Fook Ming Tong Tea Shop, Anxi Crown Grade Tie Guan Yin
Nose: Honeysuckle, fresh grass, blooming bushes, fish Palate: Light bitterness like Chinese brocolli Sunflower heads at the time you pick the seeds out Mild flavours with a rich texture The […]
Let’s make an incense burner (Kouro) 香炉 Part 2.5 ‘Test work’
I’ve made 2 small projects with clay so far, more for testing purposes than anything else. Both turned out ‘ok’ to some degree. A shitty tea cup that looks like […]
Incense!
Finally my first shipment of Incense from Japan arrived. Soon enough I’ll systematically go through the list and review each one. Buying in an assortment has pitfalls, with all of […]
Let’s make an incense burner (Kouro) 香炉 Part 2 ‘Design’
I’ve been a fan of ‘daruma’ since the first time I went to Japan in 2007, I usually buy them as gifts for others but never for myself. Conceptually it’s […]
Let’s make an incense burner (Kouro) 香炉 Part 1 ‘Clay’
It’s been one of those [it’s 12:00pm, I have the day off and nothing to do. I am not in the mood to read or learn, everyone else is working, […]
Difficult Alcohol Test
I’d first like to say that I didn’t write this, and I don’t know where I found it. In any case, if you think you know a little bit about […]
Beauty
Beauty: April 28th 2015 I’ve recently read a book called “The Unknown Craftsman”. While I feel I need to read it again to understand it better, I’d like to summarize […]
2013 Bizenyaki
X-Post from an older blog which I cannot access anymore, but didn’t want to lose this writeup. I wanted something unique to start a collection of Japanese ceramics so I […]
Crazy Dream
It all started in the ‘plus 15’ bridged area between TD Square and whatever the name of the building Holt Renfrew is in (I guess this is where Town Shoes […]