November 27, 2020

Pagoda Poem translated into German

Many of you may know the Pagoda Poem by Yuan Zhen, an 8th century Tang Dynasty poet. If not the words, at least its look is quite iconic:



茶。


香叶,嫩芽。

慕诗客,爱僧家。

碾雕白玉,罗织红纱。

铫煎黄蕊色,碗转曲尘花。

夜后邀陪明月,晨前独对朝霞。

洗尽古今人不倦,将知醉后岂堪夸。



元稹


I took the liberty of translating it into German while keeping the visual structure, intending to make it sound more crisp and modern. In case you got a decent command of German, you might want to switch to the German version of this blog, as I am not posting it here.

I hope you may like it.


November 21, 2020

Tea Talk with Shernelle

Did you also happen to notice how many podcasts exist that claim to be about tea? 

Sounds too good to be true and in fact, it is not all good. Well, maybe the podcasts are decent, only many of those rather talk about all other things but tea, while the host and guests are drinking tea. This is just fine with me, but not what I would be looking or rather listening after.

I met Shernelle just about when she was starting her channel and was used as a guinea pig. In real life she is a British graphic designer who came to live in Germany by chance years ago and got into podcasting by corona, or so she says. 

Shernelle in London

So far she has interviewed a Korean born tea dealer, an Indian tea teacher, a German late night Pu'er drinking show host and, um... me. There is much more to come and I happen to know what she has planned for some future releases, so I decided to stay tuned. Curious to hear about the Hong Kong British lady working with tea farmers in Argentina, for example.

Shernelle is open to any tea, even if it does not come in bags - so let us stop making fun of British people. Shernelle does not discriminate any tea, but on the other hand we may risk hearing about tisanes or infusions too, as in "not Camellia sinensis"...  😱

Shernelle also practices Thai Boxing, so one really should not mess with her. Besides that, she is really nice and patient and as of now did not refuse any tea I have offered her so far. 

In case you got something to say about tea, why not talk to Shernelle, too - or simply join me in listening to her next episodes.

In case you are a member of the church of Steve (as in Jobs) like me, you may find her on Apple Podcasts. Also on Spotify, plus countless other options are listed on Buzzsprout.

November 20, 2020

Feels like Xmas! 🎄

Who does not know and cherish Babelcarp.org, the popular online tea lexicon for (almost) all things about Chinese tea for the past 20 years?

And for many years, despite all my adoration, I have suffered from the, to say the least, moderate response time. A speedy Babelcarp was right on top of my virtual wish list.

Finally, my dream came true, 🎅 Liu Po Ling 刘坡岭 has switched the reindeer  - just in time for the season. Have a look here.

For the geeks among us: my by no means representative user tests have shown a reduction of the average response time per query from previously roughly 4 to now about 1 second. 

For the non-technicians among us: response time has been reduced by approximately 75%.