What’s going on? It’s been a while.

This is a great year for tea, one of the best in recent memory. I’m particularly excited about the duck shit oolong. I think it’s never been this good? Or it was only this good the first time I had it back in 2013. The reason I’m so excited about it may not only be its objective quality (which I think is outstanding) – but is tied to my exploration of tea itself and my mental navigation of fragrance. I’ve found that by combining tea with music, I can reach some very deep levels of sensory depth. It’s exciting because during the drinking of duck shit with a song called Bibo no Aozora by Ryuichi Sakamoto brought me to tears, involuntary, thoughtless tears – and not just me, several people. I’ve discovered a heart string I can tug on, now I need to practice tugging it to strengthen my technique.

Other than that, the shop is going well enough. I’ve had many meaningful conversations, and generally feel fulfilled when I lock the doors at night. Carino is going well, though I took a day off from it to try and balance life out, I do not work Wednesday’s anymore.

Some of you may know that I’ve written a lot on this site over the years, and when my shop was under renovations, I compiled my writing into the bare bones of a book called The Key to the Sacred Place. Well, I’ve had the drive to finish it recently. I re-wrote several sections, formatted it, and it’s ready for print. If it all works out I’m going to combine it with Daniel Kim’s coffee book in a tete-beche style. It might not work out, but here’s hoping.

I’ll do an event soon with Ozan at the Steinway Piano Gallery, pairing tea and classical music. I hope this event can prove my newfound music sommelier skills to the world. CELINE hired me for the mid-autumn festival to do tea paired with moon-cakes, and some private corporate stuff is on the horizon too.

So if you were wondering what I’ve been up to, that’s pretty much it. Sitting around, drinking tea, and chatting. Livin’ life as they say. Come visit me at The Tea Cult sometime if you’re in Calgary.

Later friends!