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__________________________________________________________________ KUMIKO KOGA visited Comins in Bath in October 2018 - this is one of a series of blogs detailing some of the insights from her visit About Kumiko Koga [pictured below]: Kumiko is the fourth generation of her family business established in Yame (Fukuoka) in 1938. Her mother is the current head of the company and Koga is next in line to take over. To have two women in these senior positions, even today, is rare in Kyushu and Japan which made Koga's visit even more exciting. __________________________________________________________________ In this video Kumiko is preparing gyokuro, a high grade tea which is...

In 2017 with the closure of Darjeeling I travelled to the Dooars to learn more about this lesser known region.  This area is far less well known that the nearby Darjeeling hills but there is much to be discovered here as beautifully described by the Department of Tourism West Bengal :  "The Dooars or Duars are the foothills of the eastern Himalayas in North-East India around Bhutan. Duar means 'door' and the region forms the gateway to Bhutan from India. ...... This region is divided by the Sankosh River into the Eastern and the Western Dooars. The Western Dooars is known...

‘Milk oolong’ is a tea we have been asked about for many years and one that has a great deal of confusion and misinformation surrounding it. Milk oolong is a Taiwanese tea which has a distinct ‘milky’ flavour. This flavour, however, is so unique that it has created an interest that stretches beyond established tea drinkers and into the mass market. This is where the issues start, as where there is demand there are always those who want to cash in and capitalise, without an eye on maintaining quality and authenticity. In countries such as the UK where many drinkers...

At this time of year many of our customers start to enquire about iced teas. As you can imagine we don't serve the stereotypical 'iced tea' with aded sugar, citrus and fruit! Instead we celebrate the natural flavour of the teas we serve with absolutely nothing added. When it comes to making tea in this way there are two main methods :- >> The first is to brew the tea normally and then let it cool, until it can be placed in the fridge to get down to chilled level. Add some ice and its ready. >> The second method is to...

And so on Day 7 I woke in Huangshan city and waited for Sooha.  It hadn't been the most peaceful of nights - I was placed on the very top floor of the hotel in what seemed to be the only occupied part of the building.  Quite spooky would be putting it lightly..... I was returning to see Sooha after my trip to the area in Spring 2017.  Before I update you I'd encourage you to take a read of my blog from last year .  This return to Yang Cun represents one of the really important and equally difficult parts of sourcing...