I'm not sure how or when I got it in my head to buy a Web site and name it "deepteas.com." But to me, it made sense: tea is deep. It's not just about drinking hot liquid. When I take a sip of tea, I celebrate the culture, friendship, art, nature, and work that goes beyond the cup itself.

Teas are deep because of the depth and width of the things they connect us to. When I look into a cup of tea, I see time spent with friends. I see rows of tea bushes on a mountain side in India, shrouded by the chilly morning mist. I hear the raucous conversation of a crowded tearoom in China. I smell the much sought-after oolong, offered by friendly staff at my favorite tea shop. I see a woman in a colorful kimono, serving tea to guests seated on tatami mats.

Tea takes time to steep, and forces you to slow down. What you may discover when you do is what makes teas deep.

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3.17.06 |  Are you a tea nerd? Below are some of my criteria for being a tea nerd. If you identify with at least five of these criteria, welcome to full-fledged tea-nerdism!

  • You own at least one tea infuser basket.
  • You have a stash of teas in your work cubicle.
  • More than once you've caught yourself expounding on the health benefits of tea versus those of coffee.
  • You know the difference between green and black teas.
  • You insist on calling herbal infusions "tisanes," not teas.
  • You organize your tea collection for fun.
  • You regularly drink at least four cups of tea a day.
  • You always end up drooling over the tea selections when shopping at Metropolitan Market, Marlenes, and Barnes & Noble.
  • When purchasing pu'erh tea, you ask how many years old it is.
  • When purchasing a Darjeeling, you ask what flush it is.
  • You know the country origin for these teas: Darjeeling, tiquanyin, sencha, Ceylon, and Formosa oolong.
  • Milk or sugar in green tea? Que horible!

Submit your own tea nerd criteria: info@deepteas.com

3.10.06 |  Hello! Welcome to my lackluster site, based off of a lame-o Web template. I can't even take out the unnecessary sidebar to my left. Oh well, I'm too lazy to create a site from scratch, so this will suffice.

If you are here, it's because you're a friend of mine, and you have expressed interest in tea, or have politely tolerated my ramblings about tea, which I mistook for interest. I bought this site because it costed less than a dinner plate at Happy Teriyaki; I figured for $6.95, why not feed a dream instead of my stomach for once?

The purpose of this website is to: 1) to remind me of my dream of impacting the tea culture through a future career; 2) hopefully sharing my love of tea by posting random tea thoughts for others to see; and 3) indulging my ego by seeing my words published on the World Wide Web.

Even with the accountability of having others theoretically checking in on my postings, I doubt that I'll be updating this very often. Still, I am eager to share my love for tea, and if any of that passion rubs off on You Out There, it will bring me great joy. And if you hate tea and still do after visiting this site, thanks for stopping by anyway. I welcome comments and contributions, and would gladly post any contributions tea-related!

Happy tea drinking,

Tiffany