Author Archives: ron

Top Five Teas of 2008

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I thought I would celebrate the end of year by naming my five favorite teas of 2008. Note that I mean teas that I have tasted in the past year, not necessarily the 2008 harvest. In the spirit of diversity, … Continued

Two Dickens Christmas Tales

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With the resounding success of A Christmas Carol, Dickens apparently thought he had a good thing going and started writing annual Christmas stories. There are five stories total, written from 1843 (A Christmas Carol) to 1848 (The Haunted Man). He … Continued

Firefox Favorites

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It’s been a while since I did a tech post, so I thought I’d write about a few of the fun tech toys I’ve been playing with lately. Then I realized that most of these are Firefox add-ons, so I’ll … Continued

A Christmas Carol

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I know that Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol to cheer the hearts of mankind and to infuse us all with the spirit of the season. (Well, he also wrote it to try to jump start his flagging career—more on that … Continued

A Few Oolongs

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For the most part, I really like oolong tea, but I don’t drink a lot of it. Lately I’ve been very focused on pu-erh, but I have made some recent interesting excursions into “the other gong-fu tea.” So here are … Continued

China Blacks

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China black teas are not an area that I have explored much in the past, but here are a few that I have sampled recently from Upton.

Yet More Pu

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A few more reports from my continuing exploration of the world of pu-erh tea, specifically sheng pu-erh.

Two Darjeelings

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I just received a shipment from Upton that includes two interesting Darjeeling teas, so I thought I’d try them both right away. During the spring and summer I’ve been drinking a lot of first flush Darjeeling, so I thought I’d … Continued

An Old Friend in Middlemarch

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After a string of reading experiences that I have found less than stellar, I decided to indulge in one of my favorite luxuries: re-reading. Considering how much there is out there that I want to read, I always feel a … Continued

Assorted Nautica

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We must come down from our heights, and leave our straight paths for the by-ways and low places of life, if we would learn truths by strong contrasts; and in hovels, in forecastles, and among our own outcasts in foreign … Continued