Hello hello! Last week, I opened my mailbox to find a surprise package from 404 Tea -- a new tea company out of Melbourne Australia! 404 Tea made a debut appearance on social media on February 11th, and launched on March 31st! All over social media, this company has teased their release with 1950's Retro-futurism and trippy photo edits. With intrigue and hype surrounding this tea company, I knew I had to reach out to them and get my hands on a couple of samples for their launch. In all, they provided me with a first look into what to look forward to by sending me three of their selections. However, due to snail-mail, I received their teas after their launch. However, I must ask, how do their teas hold up? Are their teas as great as their marketing and graphic design? Let's find out! (Photo: Liminal) Tea: Liminal Price: $22.00 USD -- 50g Cake Steeps: 12 Dimensions: 4g of tea for a 60ml gaiwan Temperature: 200ºf Liminal is a 2018 Hekai Sheng Puer, and upon opening the sampler bag, I noticed the sweet smell of lemon-infused plum. However, with the first infusion, I tasted faint floral notes of vanilla. After a few more infusions, a biting bee-pollen and light honey tasting note overshadowed the vanilla notes. The texture quickly turned sharp, but slowly progressed to a velvet texture which left a bitter aftertaste. The more this tea opened up, the quicker and more energized I felt. By the twelfth infusion, I was buzzing and ready to on. (Photo: Transporter) Tea: Transporter Price: $22.50 USD -- 50g Cake Steeps: 12 Dimensions: 4g of tea for a 60ml gaiwan Temperature: 200ºf Transporter is a 2018 Mengku sheng puer, and upon opening the ampler bag I noticed a faint fluffy aroma that illuminated carnations. However, when brewing the first infusion, I first noticed a vanilla-like warmth on the back of the throat that carried a savory tree bark note across the tongue. After a few more infusions, I noticed a light sweet tangerine bite that balanced with a faint bitter after-tone. As the tea kept progressing, it kept opening up to more of a sweet woodsy moss -- which points to being originated form a more humid storage condition. By the last infusion, I was still buzzing from the energy that it possessed while feeling a slight tingle to the head. (Photo: Nexus) Tea: Nexus Price: $150.00 USD -- 200g Cake (also comes in smaller bags of maocha) Steeps: 16 Dimensions: 4g of tea for a 60ml gaiwan Temperature: 200ºf Nexus is their end of the line sheng 2019 puer that's blended from various regions. I forgot to smell the sample I had and jumped right into the session. At first, a rich and creamy texture of green grass quickly flowed over the tongue. After another infusion, the notes of grass sharply resembled a Japanese sencha, while leaving a faint buttery aftertaste of sweet flowers. However, this tea kept growing in size as this tea's texture and notes became louder -- causing me to repeat a few infusions. When this tea reached its peak, it left a strong atmosphere that left a slight tingling on the tongue. After sixteen infusions, I was hit was a head-high -- making me feel like I weighed two hundred more pounds. Conclusion: 404 Tea is a new tea company that jumped right out of the gate with a strong line-up. Without knowing what to expect, I was surprised to see that their offerings were as strong as they were. For me at least, I expected a larger selection. However, a larger selection to choose from isn't necessarily needed considering that their initial line-up is a pretty bold one. While trying these samples, I wished some of the bags included less tea-dust. However, I assumed that whoever tuns this company has been among us for quite some time -- considering the high quality of teas provided upfront. Overall, I believe 404 Tea has a strong start getting their feet planted in the tea industry. I believe that, for the selections, this company is very passionate about their craft -- something of which I wish we could see more of in our community. I think it's special to see a company start as strong as this one, and know that whatever they do next, they'll be doing it with a love of tea first. This only made me excited to see what they do next, and hope they keep up this momentum! Click HERE to join the discussion on Instagram!

“You won’t change it if you won’t be held accountable for it…,” is the how this chilling and ominous discussion began. “Everyone on every level knows it, and everyone goes along with it,” Derek continued. When investigating a claim that began as a wild conspiracy theory, to begin a conversation about tea with such a bold statement, I knew that the truth would be a lot more complicated than what any conspiracy theory would allow. Before we go further, let me preface all of this by taking you back to the end of November/beginning of December, 2020. I was drinking a brown-looking white tea-cake in a late night virtual tea session with close-friend Shawn. I tea-drunkenly stated, “Have you ever noticed how all the majority of all of the aged white tea we see are all from the same few-years? And how nearly every company we know started selling them in 2017-2018? Could you imagine if all of our aged-white tea is faked?” I sounded like a conspiracy theorist, Shawn laughed, and we moved on to other wild tea-related observations that would die with the end of our session… Until a little over a month later when I accidentally stumbled upon an online tea-shop that sold ‘browned-white tea’. This random 3:00am discovery not only lit a fire within me to research the topic, it led to me to a video chat with Derek. (Image: Fuding White Tea Market 2021 -- Source: One River Tea) Derek, who’s originally from Kansas City, now lives in Guang-Dong while being one of three who runs One River Tea. “I really got into tea back in 2009. I was quitting smoking cigarettes, and decided to replace the habit with tea,” he explained. After diving into the world of Big-Box Store-Brand tea bags, he transitioned into medicinal tisanes which later led to the world of loose-leaf teas. However, exploring the world of tea in China looked very different than you’d imagine here in the Western Market. After bringing up the tea he sold in his online-shop that sparked this conversation (which goes by the name of ‘Browned Shou Mei), he later explained how white tea can be processed to appear to be brown in color. Before I go into that, let me explain what the more traditional way of processing white process looks like: Tea leaves are plucked/harvested, then traditionally spread thin and evenly on large bamboo mats, while being lightly turned to air-dry in the sun — a process that both withers and dries the tea, before being sent to lightly cook to completely dry the leaves. However, unlike the more traditional process of white tea, producing browned-white tea goes through a process that looks like this: The tea leaves are plucked and harvested, before being spread thick on large bamboo mats. The tea also air-dries in the sun, but since teas are packed on the mats more densely, they create hot-humidity. The hotter the pile of leaves become, the quicker the moisture evaporates from the leaves — making the pile more humid in a continual cycle. In this continual cycle, the leaves turn brown. Derek explained that this process of making traditional white tea is very technical, it also takes more skill to master — whereas processing browned-white tea is not nearly as technical, it results in a much larger yield. Tea farmers and producers can move a lot more product onto the wholesaler, much quicker. The appearance and quality aren't nearly as important with browned-white tea as it is greened-white tea, because most of the flaws in processing are masked when the tea is browned in processing. It’s not only cheaper to process tea this way, it also makes more money. (Image: Raw Tea Being Sold at Fuding Tea Market 2021 -- Source: One River Tea) However, while this answers one question, it doesn’t quite explain another. While recalling my original thought to Shawn, I observed that the sell of aged white tea was a lie because it was all primarily aged from the same years. In my original thought, I pointed out to Shawn that aged-white tea is primarily sold in the western-facing market from the years of 2009 or 2011, and 2014 or 2015. While that’s not always the case, it seems to be the majority across many vendors. However, after explaining this to Derek, he had a great explanation for why I observed something that’s actually not a conspiracy — I observed something that’s very real. It can all be linked to the following term: 一年茶三年药七年宝 Or, Yi nian cha san nian yao qi nian bao Have you seen this term before? Or even heard it in passing? Well, for those who aren’t familiar with mandarin, the translation essentially goes like this: One Year Tea, Three Year Medicine, 7 Year Treasure But, how does this slogan tie back to my original observation? According to Derek, this famous slogan can be seen all across Fuding. Due to popularity, this slogan is commonly found all over, and can even be found when labeling tea-packaging. However, it’s not just a second-hand account either. Tea entities such as Teavivire and Tching even referenced this slogan going back to 2014. According to one of the tea-farmers Derek works with, they personally didn’t start seeing this slogan until around 2010. In fact, this farmer didn’t start seeing it in 2010 by mistake — it was a deliberate marketing tactic that can be tied back to Chen Xinghua, the former director of the Standing Committee of the Fuding Municipal People’s Congress. In 2007, Chen led a development group of the Fuding Ding City to overhaul the region’s development of white tea. To help gain traction of the push for white tea, Chen displayed the world’s largest white-tea brick at the first tea expo in Fujing. However, it wouldn’t be until three years later in 2010 when Chen took over an initiative at the Shanghai World Expo to present a re-branding of Fuding white tea. This massive rebranding of Fuding white tea not only put white tea on the industry’s radar, it exploded in it. At the time, Fuding only had around 11 companies who branded and produced white tea. Now, there are well over 400. This massive overhaul proved to be profitable and spread like wildfire all over China. This re-branding not only ties back to the famed slogan 'One Year Tea, Three Year Medicine, 7 Year Treasure', it’s also where our current dilemma lies. This is where the famed slogan comes into play with my original observation. It goes something like this: We only started seeing aged white tea from the years 2009/2011 and 2014/2015. In my original observation of tea-companies, these teas started being released by a wide-variety of tea companies in 2017-2018. In my original, in 2017, a white-tea from 2014 would just now start becoming medicine, and white tea from 2011 would now start becoming treasure. After linking pieces of the puzzle together, I ran my theory by Derek. While catching on to something that’s very real, but not having enough data to back my observation, he did say I was correct on one thing: We are being lied to about the age of our white tea when it's sold to us. (Image: Fuding White Tea Market 2021 -- Source: One River Tea) We are being lied to about the age of our white tea. “Going to the whole-sale market, you see a 2020 Shou Mei. And some of it is green, some of it is brown — from the same producer. They’ll say, ‘We can make it green or we can make it brown depending on your needs’” When asking what the needs are, Derek continued, “The famers at the wholesale market will even say brown sells better because it looks older.” After pausing from hearing this jaw-dropping admission, he continued, “To hear it directly from producers like that is really miraculous.” Now that we know where the marketing of white tea starts, I asked Derek how far up the chain this goes. “One family, or one clan — usually in one village, will pull their resources and land harvested and process it together. The goal here for them is to sell their tea. The goal for them is to sell their tea, and make money,” he added After a moment, Derek continued, “It starts at the farmer, then to the wholesaler, or the wholesale market. Then people will buy that tea loose, [process it], and label it however they want.” Derek then gave an example about how false marketing doesn’t only start with the farmer — it can also start with a vendor. “We were looking at some really nice BaiMuDan — spring harvested tea that looked really good. The label said, YeSheng.” (野生, which means ‘Wild Harvested’) "I asked them if it was wild and they said no, [a vendor] just wanted them to put that label on there," Derek concluded. Given that Fuding has subsidy programs for farmers to encourage the promotion, sell, and growth of white tea, you’d want to make the most money you can. If it were possible to produce a tea that'll bring in more profit without the extra effort, a lot of farmers and producers might be inclined to sell tea that way. After talking to Derek further, I learned that lying about the age and origin of our white tea may not be the simple choice we all think it is. Derek proceeded to show me a video of a tea-plantation in a farm in Fuding being cut-down for failing to pass a herbicide test. Derek claimed that Fuding takes the production of their products very seriously at the farm. So when it comes to repaying the Fuding government for their subsidized loans, they may not be as reluctant to be as strict for what happens to the tea after its processed, as long as its sold. This suggests that people in the industry might not be lying by choice, but instead, may be lying out of necessity. (Video: Farm being cut down. Source: @sweetestdew / instagram) After ending my conversation with Derek, I went to my white tea stash and separated the tea into two-piles: One pile was tea I bought that was advertised as fresh at time of purchase, and another pile that was advertised as aged at time of purchase. Shockingly, I had a mix of both greened and browned-white tea on both ends. This even became more dizzying and confusing when I pulled out a cake of black tea and couldn’t make out the difference between the black and white tea in these cakes. However, in the pile of tea that was advertised as ‘aged’ at the time I purchased it, the only variation of greened-white tea I owned came from Bitterleaf Teas. After making this realization that these might be the only ‘actual’ aged white teas I own, I reached out to the co-founder and co-operator of Bitterelaf Teas, Jonah for comment. I started our conversation by asking him if the age of white tea is being lied about. Shockingly, he replied, “Yes, definitely.” He continued, “It’s probably safe to assume that if there is money to be made off something that can’t be verified, someone, somewhere, is lying about it, unfortunately.” When talking to Derek, he mentioned that the issue lies with every level of the tea industry — from the farmer, to the vendor. This made an even deeper impression when Jonah mentioned that the the issue is much more muddled than we think. “Some people are just relating the information that they’ve been given about the tea,” Jonah said. I started our conversation by asking him if the age of white tea is being lied about. Shockingly, he replied, “Yes, definitely.” However, in my mind, the simplest solution to this issue would be transparency. When mentioning this to Jonah, he indicated that the road to being transparent is an inherently problematic one. He said, “You can share as many pictures of tea trees, processing, sourcing trips, cakes, etc. on social media, but not a damn bit of it can be used to prove that's what your tea is in the end. Anyone in Yunnan (or other provinces) can find a garden with gushu in it, walk around, shoot pictures and videos, then buy some junk roadside maocha.” While conversing with Jonah, I realized he made another point that Derek had made before. White tea was bottle-necked in the industry, and Fuding white tea didn’t explode onto the scene until after 2010. What this means, any aged-white tea that’s before 2010 is almost guaranteed to be a fake. More specifically, like I had found out before, only a small handful of tea-companies were driving Fuding white tea. Event that, white tea wasn’t as profitable then as it is now. Farmers rarely produced and kept white tea for long-term storage, and it often got tossed. If the white tea was saved, it would be incredibly rare. We wouldn’t be able to easily access it, given that we could. Jonah and I ended our conversation about how to spot fake-aged white tea long before buying it. With an exceptional piece of knowledge, Jonah advised,”If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Or in the same vein, you get what you pay for. This couldn't be more true with tea. People need to treat the $25 Laobanzhang cake or 2005 white tea cake on Amazon the same way they would a Gucci bag being sold out of someone's trunk.” Later, I looked back at my own stash, and one question was left to be answered — how do I know which one of my aged white teas is a fake? We already know that if it originates past 2010 it should automatically be assumed to likely be faked. However, what else can I look out for? After reaching back out to Derek, he touched on something that Jonah later echoed — there’s really no ‘true’ way to know. (Image: Pile of loose-leaf browned-white tea at Fuding Tea Market -- Source: One River Tea) Despite so, Derek did suggest to perform a smell-experiment that works like this: When a browned-white tea is processed, it won’t ever obtain all of the delicate notes that greened-white tea has. However, if a greened-white tea is aged naturally, it’ll still hold all of the notes that comes with a fresher tea, such as grass or flowers. The older it’s aged the more woodsy it’ll become, and despite it being aged, it’ll still have traces of grass/flowers mixed with the wood. Whereas, browned-white tea will never have the floral/grassy aspect to it. After talking to Derek and Jonah, I went back to my piles of of tea that I had bought that were advertised as aged at the time of purchase and performed a smell experiment. Then, I went back and performed the smell experiment with the pile of teas that I had bought that were fresh at time of purchase. Surprisingly, none of the aged browned-white teas from the stack possessed any grassy or floral notes. However, when comparing the aged greened-white teas with the fresh ones, there was noticeable similarities in odor between the two. With this in mind, I then pulled the aged browned-white teas with the new browned-white teas I owned and performed a smell experiment for a final time. In conclusion, I found there was absolutely zero difference between the two… Reaching this conclusion was not only concerning and devastating, it was out-right damning. However, as we may enjoy these teas, the way in which it’s marketed and sold to us is a massive problem. After realizing that so many of the tea companies that we know sell versions of aged browned-white tea, I reached out to a large number of western-facing vendors. Surprisingly, not one company who sold tea in this was agreed to speak with me regarding the topic. This is not only when I realized that many of the tea companies we know not only have knowledge about the issue, they partake in it too. In conclusion, I found there was absolutely zero difference between the two… Reaching this conclusion was not only concerning and devastating, it was out-right damning. With this, I fear that many tea-drinkers may jump to defense and say, “Well I don't know about anyone else, but I believe my tea is actually aged.” If you think that your tea is the ‘only honest one’ for whatever reason you have, unless you aged it yourself, then your bias already made you buy into the lie. Even if the source of your aged white tea reassure you of the validity of it, and you believe it, then you’ve already been pre-conditioned to carry on the lie. Like Jonah mentioned before, your source could unknowingly be lied to as well. After reflecting back on times when I talked and reviewed about aged white tea on my blog and social media, a harrowing question came to mind…Did I unknowingly help carry the lie? With all of this new information, I became sad. White tea in the way in which we know is so new to the market that we don’t inherently think to question it. We can assume that the larger lies within the market haven’t touched it yet, when Instead, it’s rooted in it. Unless we do more to educate each-other, the problem will only continue to get worse. While packing up all of my white teas, I put aside the tea-cake that originally sparked this journey — the brown-colored white tea that I had when having late night tea with Shawn back in the winter. With a whiff of the 2020 cake, all I smelled was a sweet woodsy bourbon, laced with brown sugar. Despite not picking up on any grassy or floral notes, I remembered an excellent point that Derek previously made, “Just because it’s browned, doesn’t mean it taste any less. It’s still good tea, and there’s a reason why it’s so popular.” And you know what? He’s absolutely right. This tea is one of my absolute favorite white teas that I own and the fact it’s browned never affected my enjoyment of it. After finishing my investigation, I took that tea cake before storing it away and pried myself a few grams for a solo session. I then sat down on my papasan, turned on my kettle, and pulled out my phone to call Shawn. Upon Shawn answering the phone, I started in, “Remember that wild conspiracy theory I once came up with back in December about aged white tea? Well, I did some research and you’re never going to believe what I’m about to tell you….” ~The Oolong Drunk "Blissfully Tea Drunk" (Image: Virtual tea session with Shawn / Sharing my findings) If you find any typos/mistakes in spelling, please notify contact@theoolongdrunk.com I'd like to personally thank Derek, Jonah, and Dylan for their contributions to this report. I would also like to thank Neldon H. and Sarah H. for assisting with editing. I'd also like to personally thank Shawn S., Tabitha S., Joshua Z., Neldon H., Alex H., Jann, and Joe L. for the love and support they've given me while writing this report. This report took 5 months worth of work across several countries and dozens of people. This was truly a community effort. To all of those who talked a big game and couldn't show up -- fuck you... and thank you for the motivation. With love, ~Cody Source/References: Derek of One River Tea. Interview. Conducted by Cody ‘The Oolong Drunk’, 26 March, 2021 Jonah of Bitterleaf Teas. Interview. Conducted by Cody ‘The Oolong Drunk’, 5 April, 2021 M.sohu.com. 2020. Chen Xinghua: White tea lives up to its original intention. [online] Available at: [Accessed 30 March 2021]. M.sohu.com. 2020. Chen Xinghua: White tea lives up to its original intention. [online] Available at: [Accessed 28 March 2021].

Hello hello! Last week, we went through a spiritual transformative journey in the outback with Harley as we paired tea with Flume's 'Hi This Is Flume' mixtape! While going through this soul-searching spiritual journey was heavy and transformative, we'll continue this week with another spectrum of electronic music. This week, we'll be diving into a modernized throwback to the 90's house with Sound of a Woman, a 2014 head-bopping album by Canadian artist Kiesza! Music prodigy Kiesza brought back the 90's with a forward punch by reviving Haddaway, while putting her modern twist on the genera. Kiesza even supported this new re-branding of the '90s by covering 'What Is Love' with her jaw-dropping re-image of the song. With this, Kiesza also filmed the lead-music video for Hidaway with a freshly broken rib and powered through while promoting this album. So what makes 'Sounds of a Woman' such a fun pairing with tea time? Dust off your boombox and dive right in! (Photo: Property of Island Records, a Division of UMG Recordings Inc.) Album: Sound of a woman Artist: Kiesza Year: 2014 Primary Tea Pairing: Young/Fresh Sheng Puer Secondary Tea Pairings: Black Tea or Green Tea Kiesza throws us back to the early '90s with oversized jeans and crop-tops with room-filling sounds by opening the album with goofy sound-board dance floor beats that make you want to move with your session. While continuing where Haddaway left off, we continue this journey of 90's escapism by being thrown into another dance-anthem with a flair of seriousness, and cow-bell silliness. However, we come to a slow halt with the next few tracks to introduce nostalgic low-fi beats that made you want to be in a hazy room with LL Cool J and Tupac. As this album progresses, everything comes to a halt with Kiesza's jaw-dropping reimaging of 'What is Love' by Haddaway. This cover not only stripped this 90's anthem to its bare bones, but it also blew a breath of fresh air to it and made it fresh again. Before gaining speed, this album gains traction as it continues to mosey along (while even sneakily throwing in a famous-guest appearance by the 'Orchestral Hit') before wrapping up with a piano-ballad that sums up the entire theme of the album - now that the fun and flirtation of our secret midnight lover has come to the surface, it's time to get serious and cut us loose. Despite the album wrapped up beautifully, we never wanting Kiesza's godly vocal performances and 90's retro-ism to be cut loose... This album is fantastic to listen to with tea time because it not only reminds us to have fun in life, it makes it okay for us too. Distracting the chaos of our lives is not only fun, we can also enjoy doing so while being reminded that the music revolution in the early '90s can still be funky fresh in our world today. It'll also make you question why we pushed these fresh beats out of the soundscape to begin with. So turn on your kettle, turn the bass up, and be reminded that we can drown ourselves in another reality that's not just tea.... Click HERE to join the discussion on instagram! ~ The Oolong Drunk "Blissfully Tea Drunk"

Hello hello! Last week, we rose the sinking skip of Weyes Blood's 4th studio album, Titanic Rising! While we got a taste of psychedelic vocal-pop, this week's tea and music pairing will make another 180º turn with modernized experimental psychedelic-electronic hyper-pop. This week, we'll be pairing tea-time with Australian artist, Harley Streten -- popularly known by the stage name 'Flume'. Flume's third project, 'Hi This Is Flume', is not just an album -- it's a mixtape. This album is classified as a mixtape because Flume took control over his artistic freedom by having every chapter of this album bleed together. It's safe to say that this an album that's one continual track. With this, Flume took a break from the public eye and made 'This Is Flume'. Every detail in this album was not only sweated over -- it was meticulously planned. To add, one of the added bonuses is that Flume also published a short film with this mix-tape. Not only can you listen to it, but you can also watch it as well! Now, with all of this said, grab your headphones, turn your kettles on, and let's get brewing! (Photo: Property of Future Classic) Album (Mix Tape): Hi This Is Flume Artist: Flume Year: 2019 Primary Tea Pairing: Gu-Shu Puer Secondary Tea Pairings: White Tea or Green Tea Visualizer: Click here 'Hi This Is Flume' opens up to an experimental soundscape that not only captivates you from the second it starts, but it also throttles you into this journey. While we manure our way into this one-of-a-kind soundscape, we're swiftly thrown into a rap verse, before slowly transitioning to a remix of a song by the late hyper-pop, SOPHIE. After the remix, we keep driving down this road by being introduced to another rap verse. The rap-verses not only accompany this album with perfect melody, the carry over the emotions given by this acid-trip of a car ride. While this album continues, and with the visuals, this Cartoon Network-raised shroom-child keeps digging deeper down into the rabbit-hole of self-exploration -- one that would have even made Alice smoke hookah with a blue-caterpillar. While this album continues, especially accompanied with eye-bugging visuals, the album somehow manages to come off raw, sensitive, and spiritual. By the end of the album, our emotions are pushed overboard as we start to feel like we were on this soul-searching drive across the Australian desert with Flume himself. This album is perfect for pairing with tea time because not only is it impactful and emotional, it also works alongside your tea session to help bring you to these emotional self-evident truths. After this album ends, you'll not only feel raw, you'll strangely feel and at peace with yourself. Flume did an incredible job with exploring loss and isolation in his mixtape, he does it in such a way that you feel comforted and reassured as well. For myself, I shed a tear after every time I experience this album. When pairing this album with tea time, you'll see what I mean by that this is one of the greatest electronic, experimental, and soul-searching ethereal albums ever made. However, it's up to you to decide to hop in the car with Harley and go on this journey with him... Click HERE to join the discussion on Instagram! Look out for next week, as we'll have a very special gust taking over next week's 'Music Monday'! Stay tuned! ~ The Oolong Drunk "Blissfully Tea Drunk"

Hello hello! Last week, we visited the revitalized modernization of the 80's with M83's Junk! While continuing on the momentum of retro nostalgia, this week we'll continue to take a blast from the modernized-nostalgic past with another aesthetic-pleasing album that captures the air and stillness of 1970's psychedelic vocal pop-rock, while putting a renovated twist to the general. This week we'll be pairing tea time with Weyes Blood's fourth studio triumph, Titanic Rising. With this tea and album pairing, I highly recommend listening to this album with your eyes closed, wrapped in a warm blanket, and without skipping any tracks. I also recommend listening to this album with a good set of headphones and letting it take you to a meditative high. (Photo credit: Property of Sub Pop Records) Album: Titanic Rising Artist: Weyes Blood Year: 2019 Primary Tea Pairing: Gu-Shu Sheng Puer Secondary Tea Pairings: Rock Oolong or Black Tea Weyes Blood's 4th studio albums immediately opens up to the dreamscape of the early 1970s with a incapsulating classical-instrument arrangement -- only to halt in it's tracks and two you into the dreamy echo-chamber of her haunting vocals; vocals that sound like the love-child of Anne Murray and Janice Ian what are backed by a production that instantly make you feel like you're tripping on organic California-grown mushrooms. The album continues with it's purple-haze and pink-champaign aesthetic by halting the album halfway through to throw you into a cinematic-electronic elevated trip -- turning the rest of the album on its side. This moment, right here, the Titanic was rising from the water-grave to a tie-dye sky. The last half of this album takes you down this experimental nostalgic turn -- making you feel like God enshrined in vulnerability that just took a sheet of stardust underneath the tongue. The album's mid-way turn is not only jaw-dropping, it's a godly masterpiece. This album is perfect for tea time because Weyes Blood's take on this album lined-up perfectly with the opening of tea-leaves, and undoubtedly matched to the timing of a solo session. This album not only helped me ascent into the gates of a floating foggy cemetery, it made me rise above everything that I had left behind on the tea table. When you pair this piece of art with your next tea session, you'll also see why this experimental album is pure perfection for tea and meditation.... Click HERE to join the discussion on Instagram! -- The Oolong Drunk "Blissfully Tea Drunk"

Hello hello! Last week, we explored one of the heaviest albums ever made by the Indie-Rock Queen -- Mitski. However, for this week, I wanted to throw another curveball at you with one of the most genius '80s themed albums of all time. This week, we'll be pairing tea-time with Junk by M83! M83, a French-Electonic band quickly sky-rocketed to fame with their hit-album, 'Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (2011). For at least the next five years, and even now, you couldn't turn on the TV or radio without hearing one of the tracks from that album. While riding on the 80's elects-theme of 'Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, M83 flipped the scrip by going from a spiritual journey to a funky-fresh one. While M83is taking a break from taking on larger projects, heat your kettle, put on your headphones, and be prepared to be transported into the land of Kenny G-inspired saxophone solos, and Punky Brewster... (Photo: Property of M83 Recording Inc.) Album: Junk Artist: M83 Year: 2016 Primary Tea Pairing: Sheng Puer Secondary Tea Pairings: Shou Puer and White Tea In M83's 7th studio album, we're brought into a retro-futuristic world where we're automatically transported to an 80's funky piano-riff, twangy electric guitars, and a 2010's rave-drop. The mental visualizations of VHS-projected neon-colors immediately intertwine with the introduction's serious tone to quickly set the serious, yet goofy soundscape is here to help you grove in your seat. As the album progresses, it gets funkier, goofier, and emotional -- all at the right moments. As the album continues to go on, you're hurdled through outer space and land in a Macy's mall elevator that possesses a poster for an upcoming TV hit -- Punky Brewster. Despite thematically transporting you to a Judi Sheppard Missett jazzercise infomercial, this album takes a serious tone musically and lyrically. One of this album's strengths lies in re-introducing the long-lost music sensation of solos. Yes, solos! This album brings back the musical-solo and features saxophone solos, electric-guitar solos, electronic key-board solos, and even a harmonica solos. With solos and other retro-themes, M83 ties in these themes with the current state of modernized-pop music currently sits to tie in a wide-variety of influences that seem to effortlessly work when M83 orchestrates them together. To add a cherry on top of this mix, M83 also features the vocal talents of Susanne Sundfør and Beck. This album is fantastic to listen to with tea time because it's not only captivating and helps bring out the best in the wheel of emotions this album captures. This album captures child-like nostalgia, and despite being fun, also strikes a strong emotional chord. This album also makes for a great- music-and-tea pairing because it flows beautifully from song to song -- enhancing all of the best attributes of meditating with tea. When this album ends, you will too be transported to the back-seat road trip of your dad's van as the orange highway lights glow into your tea session... ~The Oolong Drunk Blissfully Tea Drunk Click HERE to head on over to Instagram to join the discussion on this week's Music Monday!

Hello hello! For today's tea and music pairing, we're celebrating International Women's Day by celebrating Japanese-American Indie-Rock legend -- Mitski. Mitski has always dominated the underground music scene, and despite reaching popularity, still managed to be whatever she wanted to be -- a bad-ass legend in music. In last week's 'Music Monday', we explored modernized-Disco by Jessie Ware. So, we're taking a sharp left-turn by going down the avenue of Indie/Alternative Rock. Put on your headphones, grab one of the recommended teas below, and let yourself be overcome by Mitski's poetic soundscape with one of the best, and highest-rated, albums of 2018. Today, we'll ALL be the cowboy... (Image: Property of Dead Oceans) Album: Be The Cowboy Artist: Mitski Year: 2018 Primary Tea Pairing: GuShu Sheng Puer Secondary Tea Pairings: Black Tea or Taiwanese Oolong Tea In Mitski's 5th studio album, she struck a chord with virtually everybody who listened to it -- regardless of personal musical genera taste. Mitski explores themes of being shaky, yet organized while exploring dark themes of loss, anxiety, and chaos. However, she does this with a low-fi and mellow sound, which only helps drive home the album's theme. The low-fi aesthetic, accompanied by the horns and key-board organ synth, places you in the middle of a 1980's Japanese shopping mall. It's quirky, serious, dreamy, raw, sobering, nostalgic, and emotional. While this album has a pleasing theme, its lyrics hit home. Mitski is able to convey a wide array of feelings and contradictory emotions, which reminds us that life in itself is confusing. Despite how confusing and dizzying our emotions can be, Mitski reminds us that there is calm in the chaos, as she comforts our anxieties by validating them by telling us that our vulnerability can be larger than life -- which is why this album is a perfect pairing for tea-time. However, as of today, Mitski's retired indefinitely -- leaving us with this masterpiece to echo into the further reaches of our hearts With your next tea session, I strongly recommend listening to his iconic album and absorb and be at peace with whatever you're going through. And remember, whenever we feel little, our impact is still large... You can join the discussion HERE on Instagram, and let me know what YOU think of this week's album! --The Oolong Drunk Blissfully Tea Drunk

Hello hello! Welcome back to Music Monday! With this segment, we're exploring different album recommendations for you to listen to with your next tea session! Last week, we explored Lust for Life by Lana Del Rey. However, for this week, we'll be taking a rather unexpected turn into the world of sensuality... For this album, I recommend to turn the music up, don't skip a song, and get ready to take off your clothes while listening to one of the hottest albums ever made, with the sexiest tea session you've ever had.... (Photo: Property of PMR/Virgin EMI Records/Universal Music) Album: What's Your Pleasure? Artist: Jessie Ware Year: 2020 Primary Tea Pairing: Fresh White Tea Secondary Tea Pairing: Fresh Sheng Puer or Green Taiwanese Oolong In June of 2020, UK artist Jessie Ware did the complete unexpected -- she brought disco back. Yes, you read that right -- disco. Her fourth studio album effortlessly explored the world of lust-infused funk, and in turn, released one of the greatest albums of 2020, and also, one of the absolute hottest albums in all of music. In fact, it's #2 on my list of top 15 albums of 2020 to drink tea to. SoI know what you must be thinking, "Disco? Really??" Well, yes. Really. Disco has had numerous efforts to make come-backs by artists such as Kylie Minogue, Carly Rae Jensen, Marina and the Diamonds, etc. But all of their attempts dont hold a disco-ball to Jessie Ware. What any other artist in the past twenty years has failed to understand about Disco is what Jessie Ware effortlessly got right: Sensuality is more than just surface-level sex appeal. Jessie Ware's discography has explored the many R&B/Vocal themes that sensuality has multiple-facets. In What's Your Pleasure, she expands upon showing the yearning that goes behind needing to feel sexy in one's skin. She explores sensuality by flirting with anxiousness, excitement, and even fear. She reminded us that, despite the world falling apart around us, we can still feel the very things that make us all human. With that, read my lips: With your next session, resist the urge to take all of your clothes off while listening to this legendary modern-classic. And once your session is over, remember that the dismay around us in life can all be saved by remembering where you are -- in the arms of a love-affair that you yearn to dance with for another night to come... Click HERE to join the conversation on Instagram! ~ The Oolong Drunk Blissfully Tea Drunk

Hello hello!! A few nights ago, I was lucky enough to be apart of 'Between Two Teapots' -- a LIVE Youtube Show hosted by Glenn of Crimson Lotus Tea! (You can go back and watch HERE). There, I announced this new segment! Essentially, every Monday, I'll be recommending an album for you to listen to, along with a tea pairing, to help enhance your next session! The inspiration behind this session goes back to my friends Shawn and Tabitha. The three of us are in a group-chat called 'Music and Tea' where we all take turns recommending albums to each other, to listen to with tea time. After having so much fun with them, I wanted to extend it out to you. In this series, I'll be recommending albums with the intention of listening to them begging-to-end (with no skips), to meditate to while you have a session of tea! Let these albums take you on a musical journey, and let yourself be submerged with the album, and the tea you're drinking. Now introductions are out of the way, let's move on to the first-ever Music Monday!! (Image: Property of Polydor/Interscope Records) Album: Lust for Life Artist: Lana Del Rey Primary Tea Pairing: Sheng Puer Secondary Tea Pairing: Fresh Gong Mei White Tea Lust for Life is Lana Del Rey's 5th studio album, which dropped in July of 2017, and is one of the most varied journeys Lana Del Rey's discography. The album starts out with hip-hop trap beat-laced bops, and later tails off into singer/song writing masterpieces -- which helped docked this journey from a smooth-sailing journey and drop anchor in the seas of nostalgia and melancholia. This is Lana Del Rey's first album to feature guest singer which include Stevie Nicks, Sean Lennon, and The Weekend. This album ends as it projects audio of a seagull-occupied beach. Waves cash onto shore to further help you absorb its heavy, yet astral and mystical soundscape. This album is an amazing one to listen to with tea time because it's chameleon sound progresses and transforms -- just like a tea-season. Despite the ever-changing lyrical and production, it also keeps a tightly-knit consistency while it hits its theme with a home-run. While this album has many highlights and heavy with estheticism, its dreamy and euphoric production certainly makes the perfect journey to sonically take with you on your next tea session. Just like Lana sings, sometimes the best thing you can do to help is hope. Follow me on Instagram, and share with me what YOU think the album's highlights are when you pair it with your next tea session! Enjoy, and see you next week! -- The Oolong Drunk "Blissfully Tea Drunk"

Hello hello! This year, on January 8th 2021, my blog turned 5! 5 years ago, I started my blog with the intent of reviewing teas. After being mesmerized by seeing a photo of a tea cake, I wondering, “What the hell is that?”. With a fresh fascination, and a few impulsive clicks of an online shopping cart, I was well underway to starting my tea journey. While my journey started months before I launched the blog, tea went from being a seldom treat to a serious endeavor until trying a beeng from Bitterleaf Teas. Ever since then, I’ve navigated through tea to find my own voice — fortunate enough to have an audience follow me through the good, the bad, and the over-brewed. While I’ve been stable and thriving in my current position as a tea blogger, I actually had a rough and shaky start. However, with brewing tea in the community and seeing a lot of ins and outs, I want to ‘spill the tea’ on some important insight and advice for you to sip on when it comes to tea, the tea community, and tea blogging. With this being said, I’m telling my side of the story with this tell-all that takes the form of five stories, lessons, and mistakes in which I’ve had the fortune, and misfortune, of brewing to… With that, let the infusion time begin! 1. Rejoice! And Enjoy When first jumping into the arm of social-media in the body of tea, I explored various Facebook groups until I had wandered upon a group, an artery that was strictly pumping the blood and love of puer. Without consultation or guidance from anyone beforehand, I joined with a blind eye. That was until I had posted a photo of a Yiwu tea cake to the group — pridefully bought from an echinoderm-named tea company. While eagerly awaiting a smooth transition into the pack, I checked my notifications to find it full of barks. These were not the paws of praise, but rather, the growls of pure-bred gatekeeping judgment that was directed at the mutt of a blended tea cake that I was now shunned into owning. Safe to say, I took myself off the leash of that Facebook group and never returned to that kennel. While shellshocked, I maneuvered my way over to a steep-name tea forum. While peeling off the layers of facebook-group muddled discombobulation, I quickly sprouted out of my cocoon —airing out the wings of newly found freedom of forbearing and merciful tea drinkers. After dissolving myself into my newly-empowered love for the larger community at hand, the more I realized that this community’s walls were limited to a smaller coterie. This coterie revealed their-self to become toxic through the cult-like admiration of only one specific tea company. While the ruling class allowed for a massive spam-riddle thread, for the clique at hand, they fulminated the pillars that stood strong for the support of any other company. With hypocrisy as the base of ‘open discussion’, I quietly faded out of the doorway and onto the next. While starting to feel melancholy over the awakening reality that the only two versions of tea communities I had belonged to were rather unpleasant, I redirected my attention to another tea-forum that belonged in a sub-community, which belonged to a much larger one. After several years of ups and downs, I voted to post a glowing review of a tea shown brightly onto my tastebuds, and heart. And as I mirrored this light onto this form, I experienced déjà vu. Just as the Facebook group and the previous tea-forum had done before, my passions were now being dismantled by mod-mentality -- all of which were driven by superiority complexes. After accusations of ‘being shill’ were being thrown towards me like arrows at a dart-board, one-too-many bullseyes sent me into a state of desolation. As much as an oxymoron this is, the feeling of isolation was only repaired by leaving the said community to go be on my own. What I want you to take away from this lesson is, no matter what ‘is’ or what ‘should be’, do whatever brings light to your tea table. Drink tea for what you want, not for what others tell you to you should want. After all, you are the one drinking it. One person’s way of doing things may be right for them, but not necessarily for you. The only way to make tea is to make tea in a way that you’ll personally enjoy. Rejoice! And enjoy tea however you goddamn want. 2. Vomit When drinking tea, we all love the art so much that we often share our love of tea with others. Making tea for people who have never had gong-fu tea, especially trying to convert them, is one of the most fun pleasures in self-indulgence we tend to partake in. There is something so entertaining and rewarding when seeing the look on someone’s face when the ‘ah-ha’ moment hits them when trying gong-fu for the first time. Not only do we get to share our passion with others, but we also get to share the passion and history of tea with others. However, when looking back, I can certainly see how I’ve gotten people to dislike tea as well. Despite being well-intent, I inadvertently and blindly turned a few people off of tea as well. The best example I can think of in regards to turning someone off from tea is my ex-roommate. Yes, the same tool-bag from this post here, also gets to appear in this posting. Once upon a time, this roommate and I used to like each other. This mountain-dew chugging Iowan never knew that tea could be made hot, much less made without artificially-flavored corn-syrupy carbonation. So, I took on a personal mission to get him to drink tea and see that there’s more to life besides enjoying big-gulp sized Slurpees in the bed of a pick-up truck. Months went by after failed attempts of coaxing him into trying tea until one day when I decided to brew a 10-Year Old GuShu Yiwu Sheng Puer that I had won in a giveaway. After reaching the tea-sessions peak, my roommate walked by and noticed I was more blissfully relaxed than normal. Without thought, I handed him a cup of aged deliciousness. And when he took a sip, he— Hold on. Side note: One aspect you might dislike about one tea, is an aspect you might like about another. To add, this is also mutually exclusive with the same tea but with different people. What I find to be oxidized basement/infused fruity euphoria, might be what someone else sees as gritty basement-infused dirt and fungus. Anyways, back to the story… When he took a sip, he gulped it back like a shot of Fireball and coke and proceeded to run to the bathroom and dramatically thew up in the bathroom sink — trailing behind a path of stomach-acid infused Yiwu Gushu. It's safe to say, he never tried tea again... 3. Lights, Camera, Acciõn! For this tale, we’ll be sipping on the teas we subscribe to, or in this case, subscribe by. While looking back through the magnifying glass of the Ghost of Tea Drama’s Past, there’s always one miniseries that always stood out to me. While drama is always inevitable in every hobby community, sometimes, the platform predetermines where the director will call, "Action!" While this screenplay got to unfold in the public eye, the production of this one ended with, “…and that’s a wrap.” While a lot of companies break the barrier of being an entity by breaching their consumer’s lives through social media, others take the form of a singular individual — lurking in the shadows of a popular forum where discussion can be liked, disliked, and held openly… This platform has an emphasis on hosting open discussion is geared towards the people. Let's start at the beginning, and air the plot to the origin story that is a tea-subscription company. This origin-story was slated for a popular release, that is until the ego of the lead-role was, undoubtedly, apart of the main cast. The lead-role of this origin story quickly derailed when one of ‘the people’ posted a review of a subscription box — which is geared towards curating a selection of tea for the consumer to enjoy. However, the plot-hole in this saga lies in the fact this subscription company curated a box that included a tea that was laced with an allergen — one of which the individual from the audience firmly stated having when signing up. With a passion for her community, this critic gave a rotted-tomato review of her experience with this subscription. This screenplays director fired back at their critic in the comment section in the form of an adult temper-tantrum — revealing personal information on the critic, and threatening to sue over 'defamation' (lol). After watching this company leaked the critic's personal information, a few internet warriors (myself included) involved ourselves in the thread and jumped to the defense of the critic. After this company’s account was banned for doxxing their critic, this company ended their cinematic performance of victim-blaming with a plot-twist. As retaliation to their banishment from the kingdom, they surprisingly and unexpectedly blocked everyone involved on every-single media platform they belonged to, myself included… Several years later, I found myself surfing the internet when an ad for this company came across my screen. Surprised, I clicked the ad. Upon clicking the ad, I was met with a ‘page not found’ error... Somehow, I was getting an advertisement for a company I was still blocked by. After the cliff-notes of this movie’s events replayed in the back of my mind for the rest of the afternoon, out of sheer curiosity, I looked up this company on a side-account to find that this company sky-rocketed in popularity. This company is now a tea-elite with thousands and thousands of fans. They are now a true Hollywood tale of someone who went from tea-bags to full-leaf tea riches. While we have access to reaching out to companies personally through social media, and while certain entities have made their-self so present on certain platforms, it’s easy to forget that they’re only allowed to project the film of their choice. If you’re a consumer, remember that behind the facade of fame and celebrity, behind these accounts are still people who are running a company. It's business. Rather if you’re a tea company big or small, remember to leave your emotions out of the business side of, well, your business. If your mammoth-sized incompetence allows you to have an old-fashioned ‘fuck-up’, don't throw a fit, apologize for your mistake, and leave your ego behind in the deleted scenes, or, back behind on the cutting-room floor.. To this day, this company has yet to apologize for their actions, nor have they unblocked me and a dozen others who criticized them. 4. Truthfully Told in Fantasy One year after being featured at the Houston Tea Festival as a speaker, I somehow managed to stumble 800 miles further north, and on October 3rd, 2019, ended up at the Mid West Tea Festival. Now in a strange and foreign land, I was arriving in a place where, unlike Houston where Beyonce and Arcade Fire called home, I was smack-dab in the middle of white-people central. While wondering how such a city could survive on such a lack of diversity, I was slated to be a guest speaker at the region's largest convention that was not a gun convention. While at the Mid-West Tea Festival, I was able to lower my sun-shades from the extreme and offensive lack of culture, and easily dissolve in something that didn’t inherently involve dry-rubbed barbecue or culturally-appropriated football memorabilia. I quickly forgot about being in a foreign land and felt at home with my fellow kind — tea drinkers. Except, at the end of the 2nd day of the festival, I embarked on my endeavor to teach the greater tea community about debunking some of the most widely-claimed marketing myths that riddle the tea industry. After feeling proud of myself for explaining the ins and outs of how specific marketing claims manipulate the masses, I looked upon my audience of hobbyists and note-takers to see the hand of a woman raided high in the air. Ready to bask in the glow of newly-found eye-openers, the woman asked a question; the question that turned this experience from a fun one into a disbarring one… “So, I read in a health magazine that drinking tea will substantially lower my risk of getting cancer. Is that not true?” There it was… That question. The question. While this woman inquired about Camellia Sinesis shielding her from cancer, a different kind of cancer got to her instead. After explaining the science behind tea and the manipulation used by money-hungry marketeers, she bowed her head in defeat. While leaving my workshop with a cloud over her head, I heard her mumble to her plus-one, “What’s the point in drinking tea anymore?” If you’re unaware of what the issue with this is, then I’ll spill the tea for you: If the larger tea industry trains its consumers to drink tea on false-hope and wildly exaggerated medical claims, which are driven by marketing manipulation, then the mass market will never allow for people to drink tea for honest reasons. The ‘cancer' now infects the meditation, the history, the culture, the tradition, and the beauty of the leaf itself; the cancer kills any and all chance to appreciate tea’s organic beauty before it ever has a chance to live. However, before we think ill of the woman at the convention, I must ask you… How are you, or her, ever supposed to know if your knowledge of tea is accurate or not? Before you drink a tea that’s been harvested from 600-year-old tea trees or drink a tea that’s going to help you cure a terminal illness, ask yourself the following: Will I be drinking this tea that comes from a personal choice that’s made by the love of tea, or will I be drinking this tea from a personal choice that’s structured off of fairy-tail laced disillusionment? The tea industry failed the woman who sat through my workshop, and not just her, but hundreds of thousands of others as well. Photo: The lecture I was giving regarding marketing in the tea industry. 5. Simmer, Don’t Boil After aimlessly wandering through the trenches of finding a tea community in which I felt like I belonged, I became indoctrinated into a discord-server by other fellow photo-takers and tasting-note jotters. When slowly making myself known in the chat, organized by a personal hero in the tea community, I quickly learned the two tenants of the chat: Every tea must be brewed with boiling water, and metal was the official music genera of the community. While making connections, and navigating separate conversations of the chat, this quickly became the family I woke up to and fell asleep to. This was my new home. Month after month, more and more members joined this family. This family also adopted other tea community leaders, and the more we discussed openly, the more feely I moved in the chat. However, on the other side of the pillow, my virtual family became a crutch that helped me cope with the cold and harsh reality of real life. I was recovering from a terrible car accident, and the foundation on which my life was built was quickly dismantling. After being subjected to the outcome of traumatic events, all rooted in an LGBT+ discrimination case, my social life quickly mirrored my personal life. After a stint in the homelessness ward, and a lengthier stay at the heart-break motel, I was needing to relocate — not just in my personal life, but my tea-family life as well. One after another, the dominos that stood tall in my personal life began to fall and crashed one after another — inevitably landing in the world of tea. My personal life was tainted, and so was my tea blogging life. While feeling displaced in the discord-server for quite some time, and through LGBT+ dog-whistling and micro-aggressions were stated, along with false-accusations and other misunderstandings, I felt like I no longer belonged and I knew I had to leave. So what did I do? I did the only thing that any rational person would do. While standing at the haul of an already sinking Titanic, and in the midst of an argument within the chat, I ignited a fire on the deck and set it ablaze. I took my time in this discord-server, stuffed it in a bottle of alcohol, and molotov-cocktailed my way out of there. While setting the baseboards of big-egos ablaze, and while watching my long-reigning hero turn into a long-reigning enemy, I finished sinking the ship on my way out. While they lived by the tenant that ‘boiling water is the only correct way to make tea’, I poured the boiling water from the struggles of my life and poured it over the relationships that I had. Though already failing, I singed the final cord to the anchor that was barely holding everything together. And long after the water in my personal life went from a boil to a simmer, I looked around and realized I singed the tea leaves in my own life. I was alone again. Without a home. Without a community. Almost four years into my tea journey, I was back at the beginning…. ...or was I? Today, Where I’m Going Tomorrow… Over the past year and a half, I started working heavily on becoming a member of the only club that mattered: My own. After realizing that I need to stop looking out, I realized that I needed to look within to find out what I wanted out of tea. Or, what I wanted out of life. In November of 2019, I took it upon myself to organize the cluttered bins of repression and traumas that I had been holding onto for so long. After I unloaded more and more of this clutter onto the blank pages of a word document, and 8 months later, I ended up unpacking the last sentence of a completed novel. After taking a deep breath of clarity, I looked around and finally realized that after all of the time I had spent trying to find my place in the tea community, I was never going to fit into a place I wanted to be because without even knowing, I was already at the place I wanted to be. I looked around and realized I had weekly zoom tea-sessions to attend to, inbox messages full of people who messaged me on a weekly basis, and a community that surrounded me all along. All I had to do was not only just be myself, but love myself as well. Before I could love others or the community as a whole, I needed to be whole myself. And although we’ll always be chipping away at the tea-brick of life, it’s safe to say that you should always be looking for ways to get the best out of the brew we call ‘life’. So remember fellow tea-drinkers, let others enjoy tea for how they want to enjoy it, boiling water can singe your tea leaves, don’t isolate people from drinking tea by making them something so specific that only you would like, and don’t let false and exaggerated marketing dictate why you drink tea. Also, don’t taint your tea-drinking experience with your personal life, but alternatively, let tea shine a light into your personal life instead. Be kind and loving to everyone around you, and don’t forget to be humble when it’s needed. And above all, try and love yourself, and the rest will fall into place. Over the past five years, my time as a tea blogger has been a chaotic, yet memorable one. For the next five years, I’ll be sipping tea brewed with water that’s heated to 190ºf-200ºf, will be recommending albums to listen to with tea time with my two closest friends, and undoubtedly, will hopefully be having tea with Lana Del Rey in the near future… From the bottom of my heart, I truly thank you for the past five years. Here’s a cup of tea for staying blissfully tea drunk over the next 5 years! ~Cody, aka The Oolong Drunk Blissfully Tea Drunk

Hello hello! Today, in a special blog-post, I will be reviewing Lishan White Tea!! Yes, you read that right! The famed Taiwanese region in, well, Taiwan, is famously known for making some of the best green rolled oolongs in existence. However, when I saw that Grand Crew has gotten ahold of the white tea version of this famous region, I couldn’t help but wonder, "Is that even possible?" However, while becoming a Grand Crew affiliate (and being sent a completely different tea to talk about), I asked them if they could include a sample of this tea so I could deviate from our project, and tak about this tea instead. With that in mind, I also told them (and now reassuring you) that regardless, I will still be 'tell it how it is' — even if it means being negative about any said-tea. With that in mind, here’s my review on Lishan White! Steeps 1-6 Upon my first two infusions of Lishan White, I quickly noticed this tea had the crips tasting notes of bee pollen, along with a faint note of elderflower. With a third-infusion, the crips notes of bee pollen quickly left behind the echoing the faint notes of kiwi-like fruitiness. However, by the fourth infusion, the light floral notes of elderflower quickly became brass and outshone any fruitiness, and by the fifth infusion, the pollen notes turned into the atmospheric soundscape of straw/hay. With the sixth infusion becoming more and more forward with the hay-like notes, a velvet-like texture started becoming sharp. Steeps 7-14 With the strong punch that the bee pollen-driven notes of hay brought forward, a new note within Lishan white made itself known. In the presence of hay, a mouth-drying texture, and notes, of black licorice dominated the palate. After another infusion of black licorice, a faint warming undertone of cardamon, and lilies, made their self radiate over the tongue. With ninth infusion, the cardamon notes became more noticeable as the tea’s texture quickly softened to a lavish creaminess. This continued until the fourteenth infusion, where the tea slowly faded into nothingness. An hour after starting, this session was over. Final Thoughts To start, Lishan White is a tea that typically comes in the form of oolong tea. However, Grand Crew was able to release a limited amount of this oddity. To start, one thing I liked about this tea was how every single infusion of this gong-fu session brought something new to the palate. This tea evolved for every infusion and seemed to cover every aspect of the board. Another aspect I liked about this tea was how delicate it was. However, although I liked how delicate this tea was, it might be one of its drawbacks. The every-day tea drinker may not fully appreciate the complexity of this tea, and without heavy concentration, this tea could easily become under-appreciated. With this tea’s high price point, this isn’t a tea to play around and experiment with. Overall, this was a fun experience. Although I wouldn’t recommend this tea to just anyone, I would say this is a session worth having -- solely based on having a unique educational experience. I started my journey five years ago with the love and admiration of Taiwanese Oolongs, so it was eye-opening to see how this famed-region stood when coming in the form of a white tea… Side note: Because of the high price-point, if you wanted to try this tea for yourself, then you can use the discount code theoolongdrunk10 and take 10% off your shopping-cart for when trying this tea.

Hello hello! To follow last year’s tradition, today, I’ll be announcing the top 15 best albums of 2020 to drink tea to! With tea, I’ve taken a heavy interest in meditation with music. With meditation and music, I’ve always had a passion to try and find the best music pairings with different albums when having a gong-fu session. And with this list, I’ll provide the name of the album, and the teas that go best when pairing! In the following, you’ll see an album, a description of the album, and a primary and secondary teas to drink to with these albums! However, to optimize your experience, I strongly suggest you follow the following rules (although not mandatory, it’s highly suggested you follow them). Also, while doing a poll on social media, I said I’d give a shout-out to anyone who guessed any of the albums in the top 10! Only three people guessed correctly. Congrats to teabloom122 of Instagram for guessing album #3, as well as tea_is_intricate_melodys and steepmastersprink for guessing album #2! Lets move on to the rules! Rule 1: Listen to these albums in their entirety. These albums are a journey, and just like a tea session, you cant jump in the middle and start on the seventh infusion (or 7th album track). Rule 2: While listening to these albums in their entirety, don’t skip any of the tracks. To add, especially add, listen to these albums in their intended order and not on shuffle. Let the artist take you on the intended journey. Rule 3: Do not listen to any sample of the songs on the albums, or preview any of the tracks beforehand. Even if you’ve heard a few songs from an album before, don’t make any assumptions on the album as a whole and listen to it anyways. Most singles are taken out of context when an album is released, and when played with an album, can give it a whole new meaning. Rule 4: It’s very important that you take a deep breath, close your eyes, and try to physically place yourself in both the music and tea. If possible, were headphones to immerse yourself further into the music and tea…. Now that we’ve covered a few (non-mandatory but highly suggested) rules, let’s get moving! 15. (Photo: Hugo Comte/Warner Records UK) Artist: Dua Lipa Album: Future Nostalgia Tea Pairing: Fresh Sheng Secondary Tea Pairing: Green Oolongs About this Album: Future Nostalgia’s album roll-out was just like 2020: A collective hot mess. While a series of unfortunate events forced Due Lipa to release this album sooner than plan, and caused her to scrap most of her promotion for the album, she created a groovy retro-synth dance-pop album that’s not only fun, but will have you head-bop along your tea session. While modernized main-stream pop isn’t everyone’s forte (especially me, considering it’s not my favorite genera), this album makes an exception. It shows us it’s okay to groove along with our tea session, and dance along with life with whatever shit-show we’ve been handed. 14. (Photo: Republic Records) Artist: Taylor Swift Album: Evermore Tea Pairing: Fresh Sheng Puer Secondary Tea Pairing: White Tea About this Album: Evermore is Taylor Swift’s second surprise-album drop in 2020, and yet again, switched music genres to tell another story. Starting with country, and evolving to pop, and now alternative/pop-folk, Taylor’s ‘Evermore’ is back-to-back hit after hit, shows her maturity in music and lyricism, and creates an expansive and cohesive world that coats you like a warm cardigan. Not only is this album relaxing, it’s quippy with dozens of one-liners that makes you stop in your tracks and question just like I did, “Is this really Taylor Swift?” If you listen to this album an open mind, this might make you change your mind on Taylor Swift too… 13. (Photo: Anti Records) Artist: Fleet Foxes Album: Shore Tea Pairing: Aged Sheng Secondary Tea Pairing: Shou Puer About this Album: Fleet Foxes is the forefront of modernized alternative folk, and has never disappointed in their previous works. However, in their 2020 album ‘Shore’, they take us down a meditative path that’s not only relaxing, but emotional as well. While bringing the Seattle music scene into your home, this album was perfect to help you meditate, and is one of the most cohesive albums released in it’s genera. While this kind of alternative music isn’t for everyone, I truly believe that with the right session, you’ll be able to relax and explore the world that Fleet Foxes pulls you into with grace, and warmth. 12. (Photo: 4AD Records) Artist: Grimes Album: Miss Anthropocene Tea Pairing: Green Tea Secondary Tea Pairing: Sheng Puer About this Album: Grimes surprised everyone with her atmospheric pre-covid album, Miss Anthropocene. While Grimes has been up and coming in the world of electro-pop, Grimes created an aesthetically heavy and cohesive electronic-pop album that not only makes your heart race, but also pulls at your heart-strings at the same time. This album is not only great to listen to with tea, it’s great for pulling you into a futuristic robotic world, and takes you across the galaxy with a new appreciation for electo-pop…. 11. (Photo: Foster the People) Artist: Foster the People Album: In The Darkest of Nights, Let The Birds Sing Tea Pairing: Green Oolong Secondary Tea Pairing: White Tea About this Album: In Foster the People’s first EP after their departure from their label, they surprised us with a 6-track album that’s not only a love-story that came about in the middle of chaos, it also includes the band’s best-ever vocally-sang song (Under The Moon) and best produced-song (Lamb’s Wool) in their entire discography. In fact, I’d argue that Lamb’s Wool is one of the best produced songs in all of 2020 across all genres, and will make you believe you’re living in a simplistic time where the best fun you can have is hitting rocks with sticks, and walking across a rail-road track while waring a leather jacket. Top Ten: 10. (Photo: RCA Records) Artist: Miley Cyrus Album: Plastic Hearts Tea Pairing: Fresh Sheng Secondary Tea Pairing: Black Tea About this Album: Before I go further, let me remind you to keep an open mind. Miley Cyrus scrapped her plans to release three thematically connected EP’s, and came out with a pop-rock album instead. While I’ve always questioned the seriousness and validity of Miley, this Fifteen-track album left my jaw wide-open after the second-track. Miley takes us down her career 180º shift into an emotional and expansive playing field that won’t only leave you feeling like a bad-bitch, but also makes you re-think pop-rock as a whole. While Miley highlights her best vocally-sang tracks to date, she also gets Billy Idol and Joan Jett to appear with her, to help drive home her 80’s rocker-chick esthetic. Towards the end, we visit a remix of Edge of Seventeen (which includes brand-new vocals from the queen Stevie Nicks), she covers Heart of Glass and Zombie. When the album ends on Zombie, you’ll be left jaw-dropped with a new appreciation for Miley as well. 9. (Photo: Neil Krug/Island Records Australia) Artist: Tame Impala Album: The Slow Rush Tea Pairing: Puer Secondary Tea Pairing: Roasted Oolong About this Album: Tame Impala’s new psychedelic indie-alternative rock album immediately takes you down a meditative trance, this album is an amazing album to get tea-drunk to. The Slow Rush was not only highly anticipated with it’s pre-covid release, it goes down the path of exhaustion that band forefront’s Kevin Parker has with love and fame. While oddly and correctly captivating the fatigue we were all about to have with 2020, this album’s production will make you feel valid in feeling tired with every day life. While life imitated art with this album, this album will not only take you down the mind of the Australian-born artist, it will also make you feel like someone understands how weak and tired we all feel, and in turn, make you feel stronger. 8. (Photo: Columbia Records) Artist: The Chicks Album: Gaslighter Tea Pairing: Green Oolong Secondary Tea Pairing: Sheng Puer About this Album: The Chicks surprised the world by coming out of their 14 Year hiatus, and re-introduced one thing and one thing only to the world: Fuck you, we’re back. Take it or leave it. While Country is on the bottom of the list as far as my favorite genre’s go, The Chicks came back with a powerful gut-punch that will take you into their process with their recovery with the Bush controversy, and lead-singer Natalie Maines’s divorce. While this is the most raw-album released in 2020, this album will also take you by surprise with how heavy and hauntingly dark this album goes, and will leave you at an emotional loss. While I unexpectedly cried twice while listening to this cut-throat album, I truly believe you’ll also be shedding a tear and leave you pleasantly surprised that The Chicks could ever be on this level…. 7. (Photo: Jewel Runners LLC) Artist: Run The Jewels Album: RTJ4 Tea Pairing: Sheng Puer Secondary Tea Pairing: Hong About this Album: Run The Jewels exploded onto the music scene this year with their most emotionally-driven yet. While being theatrically and intelligently rapped in the same style as Hamilton, we’re all taken down a revolutionary road that harshly and abruptly opens our eyes to the ugly truths and injustices that Black America still faces today. While being taken down an emotional rollercoaster, this album also provides some of the most tactful and intelligent production out of any rap album since Kanye West’s Graduation. While listening to this album, I almost turned it off due to how angry it made me. However, despite being angry, this is a world-changing albums that everyone should be listening to. After listening to this album it’ll make you question your own privilege and upbringing, and leave you just as frustrated as half of America. After this eye-opening crass experience, you’ll too feel ashamed to touch another US dollar bill again, which holds the portrait of a slave-master…. 6. (Photo: Warner Records UK Limited/Asylum Records UK) Artist: Charli XCX Album: how i’m feeling now Tea Pairing: Sheng Puer Secondary Tea Pairing: White Tea About this Album: British-born artist Charli XCX was hit just as hard as any of us during the cover lockdowns. In fact, she took it upon herself to get her frustration and anxiety out on an album, which had a skin-tight deadline. Not only did she create this entire album by herself with limited home-studio equipment in just 39 days, she also live-streamed most of the production and took feedback from her fans. Her fans not only got to write this album with her, they also got to create her music videos for this album and help choose single covers as well. Not only is this one of the year’s biggest achievements in all of Music, she perfectly captured the anxiety and urgency we all felt at the beginning of civid-lockdowns in 2020. While this albums ends on an alarming and eye-opening note, Charli left herself open and vulnerable to the rest of the world. No other album has been made like this, and an album made in this way may never see the light of day ever again. With this special album, Charli continues to revolutionize and throw PC Electro-Pop, and the music industry, into the future. Top 5: 5. (Photo: Anti Records) Artist: Lido Pimienta Album: Miss Columbia Tea Pairing: Puer Secondary Tea Pairing: Rock Oolongs About this Album: This Canadian/Latin artist’s sophomore album hits a punch with her 2020 Latin album. This album not only opens up to the warm and captivating vocal ability of Lido, it also takes you down an emotional journey that expands Latin America, and deep into her heritage. While listening to this captivating and universe-engulfing realm, you look up to realize that you’re dead-center in a tribe’s drum circle, before circling back to a cathartic and angelic ending that begs you wanting more. The emotions she visually paints in this album is enough to break down the language barrier, and although you might not know what’s she’s singing, her journey and emotional rawness is riveting enough to engulf your heart and leave you speechless, and wanting more… 4. (Photo: Dead Oceans Records) Artist: Phoebe Bridgers Album: Punisher Tea Pairing: Sheng Puer Secondary Tea Pairing: White Tea About this Album: Phoebe Bridges’s second album, Punisher, came out of absolutely fucking nowhere. Phoebe Bridgers became an artist that threw herself on the music industry’s radar by releasing this song-writing masterpiece. Not only does Phoebe beautifully reflect the sadness and pain we’ve all felt this year, she does it in such a cohesive way that somehow wraps you in a warm blanket. She ends this album while screaming into the microphone as the song’s production builds-up, and perfectly captures the world-ending feeling we all got felt the US Presidential Election. While the final note is her screaming that transforms into a whisper-screaming into the mic, she reminds us that despite how big all of our emotions and anxieties are, we all have an inner child within us that’s looking for peace that may never come to us. 3. (Photo: Epic Records) Artist: Fiona Apple Album: Fetch The Bolt Cutters Tea Pairing: Aged Sheng Secondary Tea Pairing: Black Tea About this Album: The Chicks weren’t the only artists to come back after a long hiatus. Fiona Apple returned to save 2020 after an 8-year break. Thank God (Lana) that Fiona Apple came back, and came back with this masterpiece. Fiona Apple recorded this masterpiece in her California home, and whimsically and artfully sang about being stuck in our four-walls during the lockdowns. While listening to this album, Fiona grabs our attention and walks us down this artistic path — making us feel more sane after going insane at home. This album is not only perfect for tea time, it’s perfect for meditation as well. This album is like having a much-needed hug and conversation with a long-lost best friend, and not only does Fiona Apple make us feel comforted in a much-needed therapy session, but also leaves us with hope that she’ll return to hold our hand during a troubling time once again…. 2. (Photo: PMR/Virgin EMI Records/Universal Music) Artist: Jessie Ware Album: What’s Your Pleasure? Tea Pairing: White Tea Secondary Tea Pairing: Puer About this Album: Jessie Ware is no stranger to the British and European music industry. However, Jessie Ware dropped her modernized-take on disco with her low-fi groovy-synth dance album, and crossed over into the US and Global music market. Jessie Ware’s take on modernized disco not only revived the genre, she add a massive breath of fresh air into the music industry with this album as well. Jessie Ware’s modernized disco album is not triumphs Kylie Minogue’s take on disco, but Jessie Ware’s album is one of the best albums made across the entire music industry in 2020. This album is one of them most sensual and sexy albums made in the past few years, and unexpectedly takes you down a rollercoaster of emotions as well. While listening to this album with tea-time, you’ll not only feel hot yourself, you’ll find yourself head-bopping to this meditative and seductive pop masterpiece while wearing your birthday suit at the tea-table. Thanks to Jessie Ware, we can all close our eyes, have an incredible tea session, and tell covid to fuck-off so we can all feel attractive not only on the inside, but on the outside as well…. 1. (Photo: Haim Productions Inc/Columbia Records) Artist: HAIM Album: Women of Music Pt. 3 Tea Pairing: Any Secondary Tea Pairing: Any About this Album: It’s always been widely known that the HAIM sisters had a masterpiece up their sleeve, and yet, they made every critic fall over with their magnum-opus, Women of Music pt. 3. In the sister-trio’s third album, they didn’t only create the best album made this year, this album also landed them the Grammy nomination of Album of the Year. This album is as if Fleetwood Mac re-joined in 2020 as three California hipster-sisters, preforming an album on a local bar’s patio under the summer moon-light. Not only is this album freeing and relaxing, it’s arrangement and production is also playful clever as well. While 2020 has been hard for all of us, the HAIM sisters remind us that music can make you forget the current time-line, and take you down this musical path. This album not only has the best production out of any album in 2020, it’s also the prime example of how live-instruments can still be used in new and clever ways, and re-defines how we think about music today. When this album is over, you’ll be left waning even more... Have you heard of any of the albums mentioned? Do you agree with any of the decisions? Continue the discussion over on instagram HERE. Talk to you soon! — The Oolong Drunk “Blissfully Tea Drunk” DISCLAMER: I do not claim ownership over any of the album covers used in this article, and only used them with the intent of celebrating them. This is also protected under the 'fair-use' act, and more information can be found here... https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107

Hello hello! 2020 has been a chaotic year. To add, I ‘m a chaotic person and love chaotic things. This year though, I finally met my match with chaos by drinking an entire 50g beeng in one setting. Inspired by Cwyn's Death by Tea Blog where she brewed a 100g tea-gourd in one setting, I decided to brew a 50g beeng of 2018 BangDong — sent to me by Crimson Lotus Tea! In a social-media event, I started this brew and continued it throughout the week, including doing an Instagram LIVE-Stream (click HERE to watch), and got to interact with you guys on day 2. However, now the ‘insani-tea’ event is over, how did the rest of it go? Let’s find out! Dimensions: 50g tea for a 470ml teapot (1g per 9.5ml of water) Infusions: 42 Days: 5 Water Temperature: 200ºf Amount of Water: 19,740 ml/ 5.2 gallons of water Day 1: (infusions 1 - 4) On Day 1, I brought this beeng out and quickly realized it wouldn’t fit in my tea-pot. (which is typically used for blooming tea. Since size mattered in this infusion (hehe), I broke the beeng in half to get it to fit. The first infusion started with a flash-steep. I poured my flash-steep in a coffee pot, which is typically used for pour-overs, and proceeded to pour into ten gong-fu teacups. With the first infusion, the tea was rather soft, smooth, and progressively opened up. However, by the third infusion, the beeng started to open up more and more — causing the flash steeps to become more and more powerful. Due to the tea’s strength, and high leaf-to-water ratio, I made a more concentrated effort to make the flash-steeps, well, quicker. However, on the fourth infusion, I was able to get a flash-steep that made this tea's texture come out perfect. It was smooth, sweet, mellow, and mediative. However, I took a break, and didn’t return to this session until the next day… Day 2: (Infusions 5 - 12) On day 2, I took the tea out of the fridge as I stored the entire teapot in the fridge overnight. I sat up my tea table, and started recording on Instagram LIVE. During the LIVE, which lasted about 20 minutes (you can watch HERE), I was only able to get through 5 infusions. Each and every infusion became bitter and astringent with light and floral undertones. However, the tea was still opening up, and the beeng hole was still intact and compressed. After doing another round of flash-steeps, the tea’s bitterness and astringency started to slightly subside. However, while still on flash steeps, I was losing control of the session. Later in the day, I came back to the session and kept going back to the flash-steeps. After a while, tea’s flavor was almost all lost to the bitterness and astringency… Day 3: (Infusions 13 — 20) On day 3, I kept flash-steeping this tea. However, before starting my infusion, I noticed some of the tea leaves were drying towards the top of the teapot — despite being in the fridge with the lid on. While the notes started to mellow out, some of the tea leaves began to mellow out in flavor. Nonetheless, I noticed that since the tea leaves were drying out, the tea’s body was astringent — similar to how a puer tea tastes when left in a very-dry area for too long. After 7 infusions of failing to make this tea work, I put it back in the fridge…. Day 4: (Infusions 21-34) On day 4, I opened this tea to find that, despite my best efforts to re-seal the tea leaves in a thick layer of foil, tea leaves towards the top were dry and crunchy. The nature of the tea leaves changed, and because of the change, the tea’s very-faint floral undertones had disappeared completely behind a layer of liquid-bitter and astringency. After frustrating myself to come up with anything decent, I put the teapot in the fridge for one last time. Day 5: (Infusions 35-42) On Day 5, I decided to give this tea one more go. I noticed that the tea-leaves were beginning to get slimy, and when brewing, the colour of the liqueur was foggier and foggier. Although the liqueur kept getting foggier since the first overnight stay in the fridge from day 2, today was very noticeable on how much foggier the liqueur was. The tea leaves were now breaking down, and because of so, the tea-filter I was using for this tea kept clogging, and the tea was almost impossible to brew. Though, after managing to get a decent number of brews from day 5, I finished the session and put an end to the insanity. Conclusion: When I say this, I truly mean it: Cwyn ran so I could walk. Given that 2020 has been an absolute shit-show, I decided to take control of my own chaos and have fun with it. This 50g beeng of BangDong by Crimson Lotus Tea is, in its own definition, a beautiful tea. However, with such a massive session, I quickly lost control of the brew. With a session this large, I concluded that it’s best to drink this tea on the same day. Putting the tea in the fridge overnight changed the physical properties of the tea leaf, and in turn, made it more and more difficult to get something out of the leaves. With that, I felt like I missed out on a huge opportunity by getting something more out of this tea by not brewing it more than I did on day one. If I were able to do this over again, I would hold on to this tea and wait until I had a group of friends over to help me drink it, and not let it go to waste. Regardless of everything, I was able to glimpse at the beauty of this tea, which added to my frustration when being unable to replicate it on the following days. While this tea session was an encapsulation of the craziness of 2020, I’m reminded that we once had a glimpse of beauty, and with time and patience, we will be reunited with the love and joy of living freely; the love and joy we continue to lust for every day...

Hello hello, Friday morning, August 7th 2020, I woke up and something was wrong. I’d normally turn over on my back and open my eyes before reaching for my phone. Except, I couldn't. I was stuck on my stomach, and I couldn’t even open my eyelids. I must still be asleep, I thought to myself as I lied there. Except, my skin was covered in chill bumps all over like having a bucket of beads poured all over my body, and I was lying in a pool of sweat. I need to get up, I thought to myself as I was now more awake, and realizing something is terribly wrong. I start to move to turn over, except for when I turned over, every single muscle from my head to my toes immediately erupted in an ablaze of sharp-lava-infused pain. The pain was acute yet specific to every single music that was being moved — so much that I almost let out a scream as I struggleed to turn over. Now on my back, I forced myself to lift my head — muscles shaking as I struggled to turn over and open my eyelids as I realized I couldn't move my neck. I was still freezing all over despite the blankets, as I huff and puffed as hard as I would when jogging around my neighborhood. I tried to catch my breath, and as I did, I could feel every fiber in my pecks rip apart with every inhale — almost at a point of gasping for air. My nasal cavity was numb, and I was dizzy and light-headed from struggling to catch my breath. I lifted my arm to reach for my phone and struggled as my arm, shoulder refused to move — almost as if someone was sitting on my entire body. In the time it took to wake up and turn over and get my phone, thirty minutes had gone by. I want to panic at the pain and my slow moment, but I couldn’t. I also realized that at the clock, I slept for fourteen hours that night. I felt perfectly fine before bed. How can I be in this much pain overnight? I kept trying to think of something logical, but couldn't. I opened my phone to dial 9-1-1, and in the process of doing so, I forgot what I was doing, or who I was even dialing. Now, after struggling to dial 9-1-1, an hour had gone by singe initially waking up. After struggling to formulate words, and realizing that most of what I was saying was coming out a mumbling blur, the 9-1-1 operator stressed that I make it to the ER, and asked if I needed an ambulance. After remembering that I don’t have insurance, and financially strained since lock-downs, I couldn’t afford an ambulance. I hung up, struggled to get dressed, and got to my car. From waking up to turning over, to calling 9-1-1, and to getting a shirt on to sit in my car, it was now three hours later. I paused for ten minutes to catch my breath and continued to the ER. One and a half miles later, I arrived an hour later at the emergency room at Cox Medical Center in Springfield, Missouri. I explained to the front desk all of my symptoms, as they told me to wait in the Covid-designated waiting area. At some point or another, while struggling to sit up-right in a chair, I got up walked over to the receptionist's desk to ask about how much longer. While waiting for them to acknowledge me, I leaned against the wall and fell to the floor, as my legs were too weak and too hot to stand up anymore. Two receptionists rushed over, and frustratingly urged me to get up and off the floor. While assisting me to my feet, I asked how much longer. With an annoyance and sharp attitude, they told me that I’m in line like everyone else. Although I stressed to them that I couldn’t physically sit upright and it hurt to do so, they irritatingly pointed out that I could lie down on a window ledge. An hour after lying on a hard, cold piece of granite for an hour, while struggling to catch my breath and shaking from the fever, a nurse walked over to me to escort me up, and held me up-right as she guided me to my room. Now in my room, I still couldn’t move without the siting and burning sensation — including the weight and difficulty of breathing. After doing a few tests, and showing a high-fever, they took a covid test and concluded my body was violently reacting to a viral infection. After a doctor came in, he determined that something was wrong. Unlike most traditional covid patients, my lungs were experiencing a dry-inflammation. They held me for several hours and made sure no fluid was building in my lungs. After putting me on a hold, and due to the lack of fluid in my lungs, they determined that I wasn’t experiencing the pneumonia-like symptoms that they typically saw in covid patients. They also explained that they were limited on supplies, and because of the inflammation, that unless a lung shut down completely, there was nothing they could do. They gave me an inhaler to help the inflammation, and while gasping for air, they guided me out of the ER and sent me home. Now at home, twelve hours after my initial arrival at the ER, I sent a group text to both of my roommates explaining to them that I’d be self-isolating. I also explained to them that I tested for covid, and they should get tested too. I lied back down, realizing I haven’t had food all day. With the pain of moving and breathing, the emptiness from not eating was drowned out. An hour later, my newer roommate placed food at my door. That night, I slept for nineteen hours straight. I woke up again and still had a fever. Although the inhaler made a mild-improvement, and along with ibuprofen, nothing was improving. After going to the bathroom, getting another roommate-made meal from my door, and watching an episode of Golden Girls on my desktop, I went back to bed, called all of my family for the next hour, and went back to sleep. Fourteen hours later, now Sunday night, I woke up and still with a fever. I got a missed call from the hospital, and upon calling them back, they confirmed my covid test came back positive. They also told me that I and my roommate were to self-isolate for two weeks. I texted the roommates the update, ate another quick meal, and lied down. I got a call from my other roommate (not the one feeding me), saying that he shouldn’t have to miss two weeks of work because I got sick. He was angry and was making accusations; almost as if I chose to be this ill on purpose. I hung up on him, turned over, and dozed off. While dozing off, I heard him talking to the other roommate and said, “Well, fuck that. I’m not staying home. It’s not my problem. If my co-workers get sick because I’m carrying it from Cody, then that’s his problem; not mine”. I fell into another deep sleep — now heartbroken. I woke up again, now Monday, after another 16 hours of sleep. I text a few friends, as one brought me food from my favorite restaurant in town. I also tried sitting upright and watched more Golden Girls. After three hours of sitting up and watching TV, I check and I still had a fever. I also noticed that this time, I was breathing harder and harder. It now became so hard to breathe, that I had to consciously make an effort to breathe in and out. I was starting to panic but was so tired and in so much pain, I started to close my eyes again. I forced my eyes awake, went over to my desk, wrote something down on a piece of paper, and went back to bed. While awake, I had enough brainpower to text my mom and grandmom that I loved them, and as I went to dial 9-1-1 again, I turned over and fell asleep. I woke up 14 hours later to see my phone had died. I also checked again, and this was now day 4 in a row with a fever. I could breathe a little better than than the night before, so I ate some food, charged my phone, and lied in bed. I repeated this for another two days until my fever broke — making it almost 6 straight days of fever. I got enough energy to go over to my desk and start cleaning up some of the trash. While there, I saw the piece of paper that I had written. And on this piece of paper, I had a list of phone numbers to family, passwords, and banking information, as well as a hand-written letter giving one of my closest friends power-of-attorney to handle my things, and a letter to my friends — telling them how much I loved them. I read that piece of paper, collapsed on the floor, and began to shake and teared up. I had no memory of writing this paper and barely had any memory of anything else from that day. Why didn’t I go back to the ER? Why didn’t I dial 9-1-1? I kept asking myself these questions while trying to come up with a reasonable answer, but couldn't. I was so physically drained and disoriented that I didn’t even mentally make the effort to do more. I was now more scared, and panicked than before. I crawled into bed while gripping that piece of paper and cried until I fell asleep… Now twelve days after getting sick, the Health Department called me to tell me my self-isolation was to be lifted. They also conducted a short interview of all the places I had been, who I was exposed to, etc. It struck me as odd because, in those twelve days, others could have been spreading it. It felt wrong. I went to drink tea, and when I did, all I could taste was bitter. And after several days of drinking tea, I had several panic attacks -- afraid I'd lose my taste forever. What's the point of a a tea blogger who can't taste tea? I'd ask myself that daily. I went into a depressive episode and had several full-blown panic attacks when fearing I'd lose my taste forever. Thankfully, after a month and a half, I was able to drink tea and most taste it like normal again. However, since getting sick (now three months later), I’ve been diagnosed with chronic asthma, chronic fatigue, and since my white-blood-cell count is still abnormally off, they’re screening for a wide variety of autoimmune diseases, and also, cancers. Currently, my chronic fatigue is so bad that I can’t go on a shift at work without wanting to fall asleep standing up. It takes several hours for me to get out of bed, and on some days, I can barely do simple tasks such as take a shower or do laundry. I even tried to exercise by going on a short-hike (something I’d do regularly since getting sick), and after posting a photo to the tea subreddit, I was bed-ridden for three straight days. I also got a second job that doesn't start until January, but currently, struggling financially due to my limited physical capabilities of getting sick. I'm running out of savings to keep paying for doctor's visits, and I’m scared. However, to help with finances, I did start a Patreon page to help introduce new people to tea and do tea-education in hopes of financially making-up for some of my doctor's visits (feel free to join and help support me at the link at the bottom of this article). Although my plethora of health issues, and despite being terrified of my next doctor's visit, a piece of me is still grateful to be alive. I also opened my Instagram to find SO MUCH love and support from everyone in the tea community, that it made me cry of happiness. However, despite everything, I still drive by town and see nightclubs and bars packed-full of people not wearing face masks. Packed restaurants. Clubs full of people, not taking this any more seriously. Being reckless with the life they have, not caring if it’s thrown away. And although I did everything right (stayed at home, didn't go out, always wore a mask, kept distance, etc.), I still got it. I was one of the unfortunate ones. As I sit here still struggling to breathe and awaiting my next test to help find out why my health is still failing. As finances grow, a piece of me breaks inside when seeing all the crowds. These are crowds of people who are mindlessly throwing something away that my doctor doesn’t think I’ll ever get back… Number of days with straight-fever: 6 (140 hours) where it wouldn't break Number of days without taste: 44 (1,056 hours) Number of days with chronic fatigue: 105 days (2,538 hours) and still ongoing Weight lost in the first two weeks: 12lbs Number of days with severe asthma and severe breathing issues: 105 days (2,538 hours) and still ongoing Click the link below to support me by joining my Patreon, where proceeds will help go directly to my doctor's visits/medical bills. https://www.patreon.com/theoolongdrunk Thank you for reading, and also, please be safe... --Cody "Blissfully Tea Drunk"

Hello hello! Today, I announce my new series on Patreon! Due to covid, I’ve been unable to fulfill the promises I've made to appear at speaking engagements, along with teaching you about tea in-person. However, since tea-education is one of my absolute favorite aspects of meeting all of you in person, I've decided to continue to do so through Patreon! With this Patreon, I’ve decided to start my very-own tea-education series with my ‘tell it how it is’ attitude. I will continue to educate and reach a broad-spectrum of tea, and various tea-related topics! Below is the link to sign up for my Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/theoolongdrunk However, despite launching my official Patreon, my regularly-scheduled posts on the blog will not be affected whatsoever. Nothing on the website will change! Hope to see you there! ~Blissfully Tea Drunk