Language, Tea, & A Little ‘Bout Me…
Intermediate Japanese learners often know thousands of words but still read at a crawl. Research on reading automaticity explains the specific reasons why — and what actually fixes it.
Reading manga to learn Japanese is a popular recommendation. But manga is genuinely difficult Japanese, and the community doesn’t always say that clearly enough.
AJATT popularised passive immersion — listening while doing other things. SLA researchers are skeptical. Here’s what the evidence actually shows about background listening for Japanese acquisition.
Mandarin speakers often expect kanji knowledge to give them a head start in Japanese. The research shows it does — and doesn’t — in ways that matter for how you…
First flush teas command dramatically higher prices than later harvests. The chemistry behind the spring premium is real — but it doesn’t apply equally to all tea types.
Japanese and Chinese green teas diverge at the first step of production: steam versus heat. That one difference drives most of what separates sencha from longjing in the cup.
Hojicha is widely sold as a low-caffeine tea, often recommended for evenings and children. The science behind that claim is more complicated than the packaging suggests.
Kenya is Africa’s largest tea exporter and the world’s third-largest tea producer. Walk into a specialty tea shop in London or New York and you’ll rarely find it. The gap…
Soft leaf describes tea leaf — both freshly plucked green leaf and certain finished teas — that is tender, pliable, and…
Green leaf standard refers to the quality criteria applied to freshly plucked tea leaf at the point of acceptance into the…
First leaf and second leaf are positional terms for the two youngest open leaves on the growing tea shoot (Camellia sinensis),…
Broken grade describes a category of orthodox tea in which the manufactured leaf has been intentionally cut or broken into smaller…
A withering trough (also called a blowing trough in older British trade literature) is the primary piece of equipment used for…
Winey note is a positive tasting descriptor for a vinous, slightly fermented, wine-like quality in tea — evoking the rounded, dried-fruit,…
Wet leaf aroma is the aroma assessment of the infused — spent — tea leaves remaining in the cupping bowl or…