spot_img

Matthew Stedman

Strainer

Queen of Oolong; The Royal Tea She Maybe Never Even Tried

Matthew Stedman -
HRH E II R, Queen Elizabeth the Second. Her name has appeared in these pages twice before now.  And why would a Chinese tea column be concerned with the former monarch of the United Kingdom? Actually, Strainer first mentioned her as...
Strainer

Foaming at the Mouth; Message in a Bottle

Matthew Stedman -
The Stroop Test is a psychological test designed to demonstrate how closely human attention is attracted to the written word. For adult readers, textual information trumps other forms of visual information, including colour information, in provoking the brain. We could...
Strainer

Thousand Island Picking; “Not Worth Waking the Tea Master”

Matthew Stedman -
We had just 1 hour minutes to fill four baskets. Any less, we were told, and the local tea master would reject the batch as a waste of effort. So off we went to work on a hillside overlooking a...
Strainer

Hotline to Yunnan; Like Drinking Sweet Potato Skin

Matthew Stedman -
By coincidence, I was recently drinking Yunnan Green tea anyway. My favourite market-stall had been selling some. Yeah, it was cheap. And, despite the unpromising smell and ashen grey appearance, I was curious. I had not bought any of this stuff...
Strainer

From Bush to Cup; So White it’s Green

Matthew Stedman -
Well, I just don’t think it happened like that. It relies on too many coincidences. It can’t be the true origin of tea-drinking, surely. For the emperor, Shen Nong (神農), to have received a stray, falling leaf of camellia sinensis in...
Strainer

Ronald Dahl, Willy Wonka & Cheap Strumpets; The Longevity Game

Matthew Stedman -
The everlasting gobstopper is of course the invention of Roald Dahl. It’s his hero, Willy Wonka, who manufactures the boiled sweet that keeps on giving. Well, everlasting flavour is something that appeals to anyone who’s been stuck with flavour-faded chewing...
Strainer

Legal High (with Free Tea); Simply Nuts about the Nut

Matthew Stedman -
Especially here in Asia, it’s common to hear how smoking is good for stress. Men, particularly, face stress in their lives which needs a remedy. Tobacco, though not intrinsically healthy, at least helps to assuage that greater health threat;...
Strainer

Frozen 2.1; Only for Teas & Human Heads

Matthew Stedman -
“It’s just like sending gifts to myself!” It’s often said that the charm of Taobao is in the 4-day-long narrative it establishes. You order the products distractedly on your phone, return your full attention to work or family… and then,...
1...345...10Page 4 of 10

About Me

Matthew Stedman has spent years living and working in China. He has sold Chinese tea in the UK, and loves discussing the miraculous leaf with new (and suspicious) audiences. He however never feels happier than when researching the product here in beautiful South China. Email him via matthew@thenanjinger.com Matthew Stedman在中国生活工作了多年。多年在 中英两国从事茶叶贸易的他，喜欢和新读者讨论神 奇的东方树叶(虽然有时他的读者保持怀疑态度)。 没什么比在美丽的江南走访品尝各种茶叶更让他开 心的事了。
75 POSTS

Latest News

Big ReadsFrank Hossack -

Tasty Solutions on the Menu at Shanghai Climate Week

Shanghai Climate Week coincides with Earth Day and highlights China's dual-carbon commitments. And while its object as also a...
Big ReadsFrank Hossack -

Why is the Shanghai Government Sniffing around Our Back Yard? 

Shanghai-Nanjing Innovation Belt emerges, with Putuo District driving cross-regional collaboration to boost economic growth for 50+ million people Putuo officials...
Nanjing NewsFrank Hossack -

Nanjing’s International Flights; All Change for Summer Schedule

April is rolling around, and with it comes a new schedule for flights in and out of Nanjing Lukou...

Our Jiangsu