Tokoname Clay of Seiji Ito's Hands
First day in Japan and already a day 'late'. A day late in meeting a man who has been crafting clay from Tokoname into tea vessels for...
Jeff Fuchs
- Oct 10
- 1 min
Lobsang - A nomad's 'simple' views
A morning of brittle cold that brought the eyes to a standstill in Darlag, southern Amdo. Lobsang watches while his two sons source ice...
Jeff Fuchs
- Sep 4, 2021
- 1 min
Omu, The Strong
Arriving to a new camp and homestead, Omu sets about going through an unending list of ‘musts’. One of the musts is securing tent ‘fly’...
Jeff Fuchs
- Aug 3, 2021
- 1 min
Leaf Journeys, Leaf Ageing, and the Heights
It was upon the months' long journeys along the Tea Horse Road that the big-leafed 'assamica' material and eternal panacea, tea, would...
Jeff Fuchs
- Jun 30, 2021
- 1 min
Pomo - The Girl Who Could Do it All
'Cheshi' in the early morning in her family’s nomadic camp of Shin’zhu’gong at close to 5000 metres. I continually messed up her name,...
Jeff Fuchs
- Jun 9, 2021
- 1 min
The Tea Sessions' Latest Column - Masters wear Flip-Flops
Few have had quite the leaf influence upon me, as has Mr. Gao (aka Dr. Gao, Master Gao, or just Master). From his understated approach to...
Jeff Fuchs
- May 24, 2021
- 1 min
Interview with Tea Biz - Informality shouldn't be lost
A few thoughts shared in a recent interview with Tea Biz here. In the great rush of tea paraphernalia and in the increasingly creative...
Jeff Fuchs
- Apr 27, 2021
- 1 min
A Pass, The 'Feel', and Karma's Chai
The mind wanders back to a pass, a blizzard, and that wonderful thing that exists still: instinct. On a day of few words along a portion...
Jeff Fuchs
- Mar 26, 2021
- 1 min
Tea Horse Road Chronicles - The Tea That Never Came
A simple tea room in Weishan, Yunnan, and one of the only tea rooms in my life that I failed to actually have tea in. Weishan was another...
Jeff Fuchs
- Mar 9, 2021
- 2 min
Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Part Goat and a Little Part Human
Over the course of years since meeting Dorjè I’ve written and pondered much about him. “Part goat and a little part human” was how he was...
Jeff Fuchs
- Mar 7, 2021
- 2 min
Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Choices, No Choices, and some Courage
Ascending up to the Sho La Pass in northwestern Yunnan in May there would always be a chance of weather issues, but it would still be a...
Jeff Fuchs
- Feb 27, 2021
- 1 min
Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Tea and Bloodlines
On foot our team of four puttered and wandered west (often faintly lost) through the Nyanqen Tanghla mountains in Tibet towards Lhasa....
Jeff Fuchs
- Feb 21, 2021
- 1 min
Tea Horse Chronicles - The Bend
It was here at the ‘first bend of the Yangtze’, at Shigu, in Yunnan province that the Mongolian armies of the Yuan Dynasty crossed the...
Jeff Fuchs
- Feb 19, 2021
- 1 min
The Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Remnants
Within the tidy remnants of a former ‘Tea and Horse Trade Office’ in Mingshan County, near Ya’an in Sichuan, Jamyan and I wandered for 25...
Jeff Fuchs
- Feb 9, 2021
- 1 min
Tea Horse Chronicles - Fields vs Forests
Blankets and ridges of green stimulant leaf lie in rows near Puerh. Here the leaf is entirely industry. Gorgeous industry, but still...
Jeff Fuchs
- Jan 28, 2021
- 1 min
Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Way Out, and Out Again
Yeshi and I shared tea with this old memory palace of time. Goat milk and butter were used instead of yak variations. The tea was deadly...
Jeff Fuchs
- Jan 23, 2021
- 1 min
Tea Horse Chronicles - Blessings and Warnings
It was from this patch of grassland near Napa Lake, just north of my home in Dukezong (old town of 'Shangrila') that our expedition...
Jeff Fuchs
- Jan 14, 2021
- 1 min
Tea Horse Chronicles - Tea's Value
“Tea is our everything. I don’t know where it comes from but we take it every day in the morning, afternoon, and night. Our children...
Jeff Fuchs
- Jan 7, 2021
- 1 min
Tea Horse Chronicles - The Hostess, The Keeper
A nomadic hostess (nemo) offers up a smile to our sun and grime battered crew near Ala Jagung, Tibet. The smile that comes from living so...
Jeff Fuchs
- Jan 5, 2021
- 1 min
Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Jokhang Boys
After 52 days of trekking from my then home in Zhongdian (aka: Shangrila/Jiantang/Gyalthang) in northwestern Yunnan, a small celebration...