ARCHIVE FOR 2010

The seed of a tea plant, the seed of a blog

29 January 2010
The seed of a tea plant, the seed of a blog

The seed of a tea plant, the seed of a blog. The start of a blog is like a birth. It is like sowing a small seed, giving it time to germinate, then watching it emerge and grow until finally it becomes a mature plant. Something that links you to others by sharing a part of life, of love. So to begin my blog, I have chosen a photo of a seed. The seed of a tea plant, of course. I can’t remember exactly where I took this photo, but it doesn’t really matter. The fruit of the tea plant seen here is a type of nut. Inside are up to six seeds. Before choosing which seeds to plant, the grower does something interesting: he collects lots of seeds, then soaks them all in water for 24 hours. When he returns, he throws away all the seeds floating on the water’s surface, and keeps the ones that have sunk to the bottom. He knows that only those seeds will produce good tea plants.

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Discovering Tea, a Tea Traveller’s Blog

26 January 2010
Discovering Tea, a Tea Traveller’s Blog

An indefatigable globetrotter, François-Xavier Delmas has been touring the tea plantations of the world for more than 20 years in search of the best teas. Throughout India, China, Nepal, Japan, Taiwan and Sri Lanka, he has scaled the remotest mountains on his quest for the rarest teas.
How would he describe himself? Tea researcher? Tea explorer? Tea sommelier? Tea-trotter? It is difficult to summarise in just a few words these journeys inspired by tea, except to say that they are motivated by the desire to offer, through Le Palais des Thés’ stores, the finest pluckings, the rarest, most fleeting harvests, those that fetch a small fortune, on condition that he knows the growers, is in regular contact with them and, in many cases, is a longstanding and loyal friend. The aim of www.dicoveringtea.com is to follow the peregrinations of “FX” and to understand tea through the words and images of a passionate man. And not just tea – for there is much more besides – but also the people, traditions and cultures of the world that he encounters on his travels.

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