"Covid tongue" and tea experience

 

First published by TChing here.

I wrote about the experience of having covid, me and my whole family, in a recent blog post, with this writing focused more on how it affected tea experience.  I mentioned "covid tongue," or taste impact occurring in that, but I can go further with how it transitioned across the 10+ days of experience, which that didn't cover.

For the first couple of days I was ill enough that I didn't notice a difference in sense of taste beyond what a flu causes, experience in general seeming hazy and off.  At around the third day, when the initial loss of energy was just starting to ease up, and sore throat was at the worst, an odd experience of a metallic taste occurred, even without any tasting experience occurring at the time, without even drinking plain water.

Then over most of the next week the main "covid tongue" theme occurred, a relatively complete loss of sense of taste.  It included tongue based flavor (even sense of sweetness was diminished), and also aromatic compounds dropping out, which is common with colds and flus.  The degree was interesting; I couldn't tell the difference between the tea I drank in the morning and hot water.  Then after a few days it was interesting how that sensation would partially return in the evening; I could get a clear but limited sense of the taste of what I was drinking.

At the 11th day from the start of symptoms my tea still barely tasted like anything in the morning.  For the first time I chose a tea based on trying to drink something higher in quality that may have a better health impact (kind of a random guess, that part), going back to drinking above average sheng pu'er, even though I knew that I'd not be able to taste it.  For the last two days more significant flavor input is coming through.

at the hospital with two covid patients, the day before I came down with it

Across the week I kept drinking teas that would've seemed suitable for that range of experience.  Shu is nice for experiencing during illness, it seems to me, so rich and earthy that a little might come across, or at least the style somehow seems to match.  Early on I drank a musty, over-fermented aged sheng version to get rid of it, to take advantage of not tasting it, and I cleared through some gaba versions.  Later I was drinking more intense, only moderately aged sheng versions, in the hope that part of the taste might blast through in a positive way.  That actually worked; drinking a 2015 Dayi Jia Ji tuocha version would've normally been such an intense experience that it would require using short infusion times and light infusion strength to moderate it, but with this limitation I could brew it a bit strong and then get a sense of that heavy mineral and rich woody, smoky, or toffee input (not exactly any of those, but towards those ranges).

People in tea groups tend to comment that they couldn't imagine losing the sense of experience of tea that they value so much, but for me it's normal to take different kinds of breaks, or to vary what I experience to keep it fresh.  During vacations I'll switch to grandpa style brewing or an imprecise Western approach, and drink more basic teas during that time.  I've even taken breaks from tea, just not recently, since I changed to moderate input volume to get to a similar end point, to avoid long term exposure issues.  

It's too bad about losing that normal tea experience, but I was much more concerned about being healthy again, about other aspects coming up from this running even longer.  I tried out going for a light run before I was really recovered, in case bumping metabolism rate somehow helped, and it did seem to have a positive impact on recovery, but I ended up napping a couple of times later that day to restore my energy level. 

Of course I drank lots of tisanes over that first 10 days.  Maybe that helped and maybe it didn't; hard to say.  The hot liquid at least had a temporary soothing effect.  A Chinese-Malaysian friend recommended drinking coconut water, which I only tried after recovery was well underway, since I had not been out shopping at all for two weeks, the longest gap since the pandemic started.  It's a great time to have a lot of chrysanthemum tea on hand, to use as a filler or basis for other tisanes.  In the past I've enjoyed masala chai as a good match for illness experience, which can work with tea and tisanes mixed as a base, but I ate a good bit of heavily spiced oatmeal with fruit instead this time.

Of course I'm wondering how long this could last, when my sense of taste will fully return.  Unlike most people who do as much with the theme of tea as I do I'm not that concerned; I could take a month break.  It's not tied to any business theme, and the reviewing gets to be a bit much anyway.  You don't fully appreciate what you've got until you lose it, so it will help me in that sense, tied to not taking tea experience for granted.

With breakfast the last day of editing this I tried nearly the last of a Farmerleaf sheng cake I have around, and I think most of that experience came across, two weeks after the first day I experienced symptoms.  I may not be at full sensitivity this coming weekend, several days away, but I'll probably try out reviewing again anyway.  Food is back to being enjoyable too; that's nice.

It would be good if I could include advice to people who get covid, about how to clear it fast, or to minimize these kinds of symptoms.  Try everything, I guess; lots of rest and fluids, take vitamins, drink tisanes, eat oranges and drink coconut water, if it's around.  My son had covid first and I made a huge pot of chicken soup for him and the family, and it was really nice for me to have that myself two days later.  A nasal rinse seemed to help a little; it's familiar to us to use saline and a syringe for that, to offset illness effects and clear nasal passages after swimming to avoid infections.

A friend going through her third round of covid mentioned getting some sun.  That would add vitamin D input, which is supposed to help, but I suspect that just resting doesn't ramp up metabolic activity enough to really get you past it, and getting sun might help restore a more normal metabolism.  For the first few days complete down-time probably is best, but it really seemed to help to get my body up and moving after a more normal energy level returned.  She recommended not getting drained of energy reserve, which goes without saying, but given how covid saps your strength balancing that part can be unique.

the subject is serious, but since we all had it I tried to keep my kids from being too fearful

Experiencing Omicron, and "covid tongue"

 

My family got covid, myself, my wife, and two kids, just not my wife's mother or two aunts that are visiting.

My son first came down with it coming up on two weeks ago, on Friday, Feb. 25, with a test confirming that the next day.  Then my wife and daughter on Monday (on Eye's birthday, too bad about that), and I showed symptoms that Tuesday night, with testing on Wednesday not returned until Thursday, by which time I was good and sick.  

Basic Omicron symptoms seem to be dry cough, headache, fatigue, sore throat (with mine fairly intense), possible early high temperature (moderate though, and I didn't get that), limited body aches, and some sneezing.  And "covid tongue."

My sense of taste had shifted a lot over the day I first wrote some of this, Sunday the 6th, even though I was really recovering (all relative, kind of a long process).  The day before that I had tasted metal when I wasn't eating or drinking anything, and the next day my tea tasted just like water to me, with even tongue based sensation seeming to drop out.  I could detect sweetness, but not very well, not getting as clear an impression of the level.  I tried some of my kids' Trix cereal and it seemed sweet, but it could've been Fruit Loops or Fruity Pebbles and I couldn't tell the difference.  Later Sunday my sense of taste seemed normal again, and I could taste later rounds of that same tea just fine.  Then yesterday morning and this morning again nothing from the tea I tried; I couldn't have been sure it was tea just from the taste.

It's all good though; we're all going to be fine, and my sense of taste will return whenever it does.  It coming and going seems strange, and that strange metallic taste "noise" experience was really something.

The kids had an easy time with it, but a harder first day, experiencing mild fever for the first 24 hours.  Then within 48 hours of showing symptoms both were clear.  I'm at day 8 of having symptoms and I'm past the worst, I hope, and feel better, but not normal.  We all took anti-viral meds, and I'm also on anti-biotics for a secondary bacterial infection that came on fast.  That can happen to me with colds and flus too, seemingly an immune system weakness that I should get sorted out.  I had the Pfizer booster a month ago, and two AstraZeneka shots last year, as my wife did, with both of us getting the second within 6 months prior to now.

Thailand's Omicron wave ran late, so that the country has been caught in what hopefully is the peak of it for only a couple of weeks now (but may not be the peak yet):

March 7 capture

It helps place that to review deaths stats as well:

Of course those numbers are under-counted, as all covid stats are, regardless of what pandemic deniers like to claim about hospitals making up cases.  I know people here who "rode out" covid without ever getting an official test result or medical support.

To Americans it might seem strange that this peak relates to approaching 60 people dying per day, which will surely keep increasing.  The US numbers just dropped below 2000 deaths per day, where it had been for over a month (I think; I don't keep track):

Thailand has just over 70 million residents, so between a fourth and a fifth of the US population.  We could be undercounting more here, but it's really just a different kind of pandemic experience.  I've been working from home for almost two years now, and when I go out to run for the last year I wear a mask.  I don't think that really helps, although wearing masks in malls and such might.  The point is that people overreact, which kind of works.

At this point I think a lot of the citizens of every country are going to experience covid infection first hand.  Being most of the way through that process myself I can't imagine how it would've been different without vaccination.  I'm fairly healthy, eating well, not overweight, with minimal health issues (except a tendency to get secondary throat infections), and I run multiple times a week, but then I am 53.

As I write this last edit the story of our experience is that it lingers.  I've been sick for over a week, and my wife for 10 days now, although she did seem to turn a corner yesterday and stop coughing.  We're better, but it just won't end.  Getting a booster apparently isn't a guarantee that you're going to have an easy time of it, although compared to people dying or nearly dying that's what this still is.  

I must admit, I thought that some people claiming they were going into their second week with symptoms might've been milking the experience for extra down-time, but it's real enough.  It's hard to imagine what a bad reaction to a more severe strain would be like.  You would die, I guess, but I mean short of that, still in that other normal range of being moderately sick and it running long.  I hope I don't go on to experience what long / long haul covid is like.

Update:  I finally tasted some tea in the morning!  I picked a 2015 Dayi Jia Ji sheng pu'er tuocha, so there would be a lot of intense flavor to come through, and I noticed part of it.  It even worked, enjoying the stripped-down version of heavy mineral, somewhat warm tones, typically slightly harsh towards wood and smoke range (just not really smoke).  I've been worried that the throat issues never really eased up but I might clear this in the next few days, or at least see it taper off enough that I'm not freaked out about recurring infections or "long covid."

we had celebrated Eye's birthday early, which really worked out.  I'm doing a 70s movie villain look these days, which I'm not completely pulling off.

Christmas, revisiting the Bangkok Chinatown

 

My wife and I went to Chinatown to buy some Christmas gifts, per usual just a couple of days before Christmas day.  I made two quick stops in familiar tea shops, and bought some tea, but it wasn't mostly about that theme.  I'll pass on what the Bangkok Chinatown experience and feel is like these days, more or less at a low point in between covid waves here.  Omicron should probably pick up and cause us to close contact back down over this month but so far that hasn't happened.

at the subway / MRT ready to put in some kilometers, how Chinatown works out

It was great to be back there.  Logistics for visiting that one shop and the owners I really feel a connection with weren't ideal, because we had to walk a few blocks in the wrong direction to get there, and then to walk back.  It was a little strange going in there and saying that I couldn't stay, buying some tea in a rush versus visiting, then moving on to sorting through blocks of local warehouse market style shops, with some walking in the middle.  

the owners of Jip Eu, my favorite Chinatown shop

The tea was nothing special, just some low cost Shui Xian that I could buy for a number of gifts without spending much on it.  Those were around $3, and probably 200 grams of tea each, although maybe that's not right.  I bought enough one is for me, so I can taste it and see how moderate the quality level really is.

At the end of the rushed path I stopped at a second shop and bought a couple of Dayi sheng pu'er tuochas and some Thai oolong, mostly for one monk who I give tea to who loves rolled oolong, with one of those tuos for me.  I had bought an older Xiaguan version at the first store, one I've reviewed a couple times here; it would be interesting comparing the two.  I think I'm pretty clear on how that would go but it would still be interesting.

I bought some inexpensive Thai oolong at Sen Xing Fa as well, near there

Chinatown isn't dead, at all; it was nice contrasting that experience with visiting Pattaya not so long ago, which is really struggling.  Half of all the businesses in Pattaya have closed over the last year, and bars there are lucky to have some patrons in them to offset costs with some revenue.  We went there because my wife was taking a short training course on how to cut hair, one more odd and likely pointless venture on her part.  Since the kids go to school online and I work online in a sense we can do that from other places, and Pattaya is just a 2 or 3 hour drive away, with some hotels there quite inexpensive at this point.

Chinatown had lots of people eating in outdoor cafe themed restaurants, like a hybrid version of street food dining.  The wholesale oriented shops and market spaces we visited were as crowded as ever.  If it felt like the risk of covid was high I suppose that might've been uncomfortable, even though essentially all of it was outside, or only related to stepping into an open shop briefly.  We did eat in one enclosed restaurant, in Hua Seng Hong, which isn't something we've been careful to avoid over the last few weeks.  Covid stats are pretty low right now, and of course my wife and her mother and I are vaccinated, a process that ran so late that our booster requirement isn't quite timely just yet.

foot traffic picked up later

Thailand just matched the US for vaccination rates over the past two weeks or so, so likely has pulled slightly ahead now.  I just checked that; Thailand has 63% fully vaccinated, and 72% with at least one shot, with the US at 61 and 73 respectively, so nearly even still (with Thailand's stat counts running a few days behind in that Google dashboard).  I probably should skip interpreting what I think that means here, since to some extent it's all anyone's guess at this point.  It must help, having more people partly protected.

There aren't that many tourists in Chinatown compared to Thais.  One might wonder if I can reliably tell the difference, since a tourist from any Asian country could look Thai to me.  I can tell whether someone is speaking Thai or not if I'm overhearing them, but of course I was going mainly by appearance of the hundreds or thousands we walked by.  We might've saw a few dozen "Westerners" over a few hours, including on the subway to get there, nothing like the normal pre-covid case.

It was nice feeling that free, to just be there.  I had missed the smells and the feel of Chinatown.  It's never completely routine to me, always a little like I'm on vacation, even if I'm visiting there every other month or so.  We stocked up on chrysanthemum but didn't really buy much for my wife or I, besides very little tea.  

It's not an ideal place for Christmas shopping for an 8 and 13 year old but we found some interesting things, toys, inexpensive jewelry, and clothes and such.  The night before we checked out a department store, to buy a purse I think Kalani will like, and after visiting Chinatown we crossed Bangkok to a sporting goods store to buy them snorkels, something they've somehow never got around to trying out.  Christmas will be ok.

Later update:  for the kids being 8 and 13 we're at turning point for Christmas not being the same, and they helped exaggerate that by waking up at 5 and starting Christmas without us, opening almost everything on their own.  A year or two earlier I would've been disappointed, but now it just is what it is, at the end of their experience of such things, at least that earlier form.  Kalani is onto how the Santa thing works, even though she maintains the pretense out of respect and hopefulness.

The did love everything.  By far their favorite gift was a 300 baht / $10 Roblox gift card, which my wife didn't want to give them, because them playing games and watching videos instead of joining online classes has been a huge problem for over a year now.  It's what they wanted though.

We were that close to skipping Christmas, since if we had went on a planned trip to Chiang Mai almost none of those gifts would've worked out, and the only decorations we experienced would be in malls and a hotel lobby.  I'm glad we did it, that we changed plans to put emphasis on that holiday experience form instead.  I skipped a dinner outing to put up a tiny (very tiny!) Christmas tree, and to wrap everything, listening to those old "crooner" carols, and it was nice for me to think it all through again too.  Christmas here has never been a match for the old, traditional form I experienced in rural America (PA), but it's nice that we could give them as much of the experience as we could manage.  

Christmas at home 5 years ago; covid prevented planned visits for the past two years

It's funny how every year it seems new to my wife, who is Thai, that each time she asks how many gifts I think they need, and how things work out with Santa giving things and also us.  Her take is that she hopes this is the last time we need to go through this same form of the experience, and unfortunately she is partly right about that, that a 9 and 14 year old will relate the experience differently.

Merry Christmas to all readers!  I hope that your life has a bit of extra magic in it, and that if it's not these traditional forms then it's something else that helps you connect with a feeling of hope and positive reflection.  Everything is ok, and it's going to be ok, even when parts aren't working out.

of course the Charlie Brown Christmas special came to mind setting up that tiny tree

Covid status in Thailand

 

I've not been on this subject lately, how the pandemic theme goes here.  I wouldn't say that it's interesting in the same way Olympics news or space flight developments might be, but at least it might be informative of how that theme goes in other places.  

In talking to people during meetups it often came up discussing their local experience, especially related to my friends living in India, Vietnam, and Germany.  I'll keep this mostly about Thailand.  And I'll not settle into research points much, although all the issues point back towards that context.  I was just talking with Ralph about the new concern that the Sinovac vaccine may not be as effective against the Delta variant, but it seems like there's not enough data to really tell yet, with only one new study mentioned when looking around a bit.  All those details will be clearer as the stats become available, in some cases too late for related decision making, but in general underlying uncertainty is just the typical context for a pandemic.

We're in the middle of what I view as a third pandemic wave in Thailand.  I suppose people could view those larger summary conclusions differently, as any number of different counts of waves.

It almost looks like there wasn't a first wave at all last year, doesn't it?  The one that shut the country down in March through May 2020 related to daily case numbers not so much over 100.  December's second wave, which ran into January, approached 1000 per day; that was much worse.  This plateau is at 8000 cases per day.  At the start of this current wave in April there were still only a few hundred deaths in Thailand from covid.  That number of deaths closes in on a total of 3000 now (2791, as of July 13).  That's a former daily mortality rate in a number of the hardest hit countries.

All the same the country has been closing in stages over the last two months.  Restaurants just closed a week ago, malls the day before yesterday.  Those restrictions aren't stopping the increase.  The faster spreading delta variant is the obvious main cause, but it might not only be that.

About six weeks ago there was talk of the virus gaining a foothold in poorer neighborhoods, where people are crowded together more, where once it became entrenched there would be no way to ever clear it.  I suspect it was far too late before this wave even started, back in March (2021).  Looking back all of March was a flat looking wave; interpreting that is tricky.  It seemed like the virus went nationwide back in December and it wasn't ever going to work to end the spread, as occurred last year.

Onto what life is like here now.  People aren't necessarily panicked, but restrictions do get old.  It was funny talking to my mother about how they were relieved that the virus experience was wrapping up in the US, while case counts and deaths were still far higher than in Thailand, even taking into account the four times higher population level.  They're finally on par now, per person, maybe with Thailand edging ahead.  Or at least that was true prior to the recent uptick in US cases.  

But we are "locked down," probably to a degree that many people never were in the US.  Or maybe it's more similar in both places than it seems; last year people went out once a week, and only once a week, to buy groceries, and you still see people out buying food for that day and the next.  My wife goes to a grocery store a few times a week, and doesn't avoid other errands.  We do work and go to school online; there's that.

in a closed mall (the grocery stores in them stayed open)

A mostly online friend, who I've only met once, is here now, in quarantine to enter the country.  That's unique to only some countries.  Using such an approach Thailand kept the country disease free over the span of time from May to December 2020, by isolating everyone coming in for 14 days, with almost no exceptions.  Then undocumented foot-traffic border crossing is what brought the pandemic back, at first widespread within immigrant communities, but soon after nationwide.  That friend had been in Cambodia, which is now experiencing a renewed pandemic outbreak.

It can be hard to place stats in relation to what might be getting missed.  Thailand has leveled off number of tests at 60,000 per day or so, and up until recently Cambodia's were even at 6500 per day.  Thailand has 8 times the number of current cases, and 5 times the population; it seems worse here.

A recent spike in number of tests conducted there, over the past week, could be a main cause of the case count spike over the last week.  Thailand kept finding new virus "hot spots," places like prisons, manufacturing facilities, old markets, and construction sites, where a round of new local testing would turn up hundreds of new cases.  Or thousands; the prison system was so impacted that for awhile the stats for case counts in prison rivaled those found elsewhere.

It's interesting checking the US daily testing count for comparison; it's at 385,000 now, trending down, but at the last level over a million daily tests were conducted from February to April.  The opposite of what we're seeing here for escalating testing leading to increases in cases could work backwards.  The positive rate just doubled there in the US, under 2% for awhile to approaching 4% now.  In Cambodia that had been holding steady at 15% and in Thailand it doesn't show stats.  I guess if the average tests conducted were just over 60,000 for three months and a daily average was 4,000 (hard to average, given it's upward slope) positive percentage should be in the range of 6%.

This seems to keep mixing between daily life experience and those stats.  The two pair together more than it might seem.  I've had no daily life impact from the case count increasing from 2500 a month ago to seeming to move past 8000 now but the feel of the pandemic depends on those numbers.  If I had been going to malls and restaurants my life would've changed a lot over the last week.  If I owned a restaurant the change could be extreme, maybe the difference between financial losses and bankruptcy, if the restriction stays in place. 

One strange life-experience change:  I started running wearing a mask in the last month.  It's possible to do that; I wasn't as clear on how it would go prior to trying it.  The first day I wore a special running mask designed to hold an N95 mask insert and that was rough, and from there on I just wore the relatively ineffective outer mask part, a kind of thick but open plastic mesh.  Other runners were split on whether to skip the sidewalk and outdoor mask requirement or observe it, which I understand completely.  I was running during the afternoon in over 90 F (35 C range) heat for some weeks, getting the most out of an unseasonal heat wave, some extra heat conditioning training.

Now as we drive around my wife points out more and more areas recognized as hotspots.  Probably all of Bangkok is a hotspot at this point, and soon enough all of Thailand.  The vaccination level and rate is a problem, related to that; about 15% of everyone has had at least one shot, so not so many.

That looks like 4 million "at least one dose" additions to get to the current level of 9 million, and maybe a million and a half more "fully" (or not quite that), so it could be 5 1/2 million shots over a month?  That's a long way to go, covering 70% of 70 million, moving up from 3 million fully vaccinated to more like 50.  The pace will have to change to get that completed this year.

Again the stats side and life experience mix.  Those numbers are a bit abstract but we live out being where we are in relation to them.  My mother-in-law and I have had one vaccine dose, and my wife none yet, so none of us are fully protected.  The country being relatively closed is an extension of all that.

On the cultural side, we don't really have the same type of pandemic denial here.  Some people really aren't so into wearing masks, but even that is more rare.  You have to keep in mind that 2700 people have died here versus 606,000 in the US too; it took about 250,000 deaths there to really get the most opposition-inclined conservatives to give in that there was a pandemic underway.  People here accepted that it was a real threat back when there were 100 deaths; that's why the country was able to eliminate it in about two months in 2020.  To some extent that perspective change is what let it become so widespread now; people know there's a pandemic on, but they don't always care, past wearing a mask and washing hands more.

Last year people made a bigger deal out of being isolated, in most countries.  Not just related to perspective about it, and personal practice; it was more of a thing on a few levels.  As we ratchet up controls and restrictions here we never completely get back to that feel.  Maybe it's just familiar now, or the relative risk is easier to place?

One might wonder, how does all this relate to the generalities one encounters about cultural perspective?  Are Asians, and Thais, really less individualistic, less concerned about personal freedom than Americans, and do they accept cultural norms better?  Sure, but it's just not quite that simple.  On the Thai side perspective on the pandemic is also a personal theme, not uniform across an entire country. 

There's no completely equivalent liberal / conservative divide here, and people move on to basic understanding faster (that there is a pandemic), but perspectives are still diverse.  In the US there did seem to be that split in perspectives, with the liberally oriented locked down hard last year, and conservatives following whatever views and practices they happened to embrace.  In the end it's not as different as it would seem at a distance, since going out and running errands over the past month hasn't felt so different than it did prior to the pandemic, except for the masks and hand washing.  We get it that the disease really is all around us now, so it's a little different, but after a year and a half of that seeming to be the case, at least to some extent, it just seems normal.

I feel bad for Vietnam; this is going to be rough for them (source)

Talking to Narendra, a Nepal tea producer

 

photo credit Ralph; everyone takes better captures than me

I wrote an interview post covering more standard background on Narendra Gurung awhile back, here (and white and black tea reviews, and a later black tea review).  He just finally met with that circle of friends for the online meetups I keep talking about.  

It's always nice talking to people I already feel familiar with and know a lot about, and also to new people, for learning from more of a blank slate, and this worked as a pleasant form of the first case.  I'll cover a few points we discussed, as usual with this not really intended as a summary.

Issues related to tea production in Nepal

Nepal produces some great tea, better than they really should be able to given their limited history, but according to Narendra their industry faces some serious challenges, especially related to small producers.  On the growing side implementing organic production is very problematic, both difficult and costly.  It's hard for growers to evaluate requirements for tea production in terms of soil nutrients, and soil compound level testing practices are not well-developed.  This is problematic enough for standard tea production, but all the harder for trying to balance organic inputs, for example substituting natural fertilizers for mass produced chemical versions.

Narendra's tea farm, discussed more in that earlier post

Another serious challenge relates to the business and regulatory infrastructure for export.  There isn't a mature wholesale network developed that makes it easy for small farmers to sell teas for export, or for domestic distribution, with domestic demand not able to support the highest quality level sale at sustainable pricing levels.  The same applies to development of tea processing businesses.  As things stand now options for both are limited, with regulatory constraints not set up to facilitate further development of both types of channels.

Of course all three of these factors mentioned also relate to a level of general economic development.  We didn't talk specifically about sales and distribution logistics, about specific infrastructure channel development for moving goods and supporting these steps, but issues like that have been developed extensively within Thailand over the past 20 years, and they were probably as far along as in Nepal now prior to that.  These problems also represent business opportunities, in addition to being current economic restrictions or roadblocks, but a global downturn from this pandemic experience doesn't help support making those development changes.  Prior shipping options narrowed significantly last year, and international demand for all sorts of goods dropped, along with the health of individual economies all around the world.

Most discussion was positive, to be clear.  We talked about how good Nepal tea is too, and how it can be so, even with these apparent limitations.  For me personally it's a main favorite category.  Especially their white tea versions tend to be distinct, and very positive, with great intensity and complexity, a nice mineral aspect base, pleasant sweetness, and floral and bright citrus range. We didn't really get into why that seems to be the case; it must be terroir related, and also tied to local processing styles.

that Nepal white tea, one version of it

It's no surprise that in Nepal more people drink plain, flavored, masala chai-themed, or CTC teas, versus the high quality orthodox tea I was just referring to.  I just mentioned this in relation to US demand in talking to Jason McDonald, a US tea grower, about how that same thing is a main demand limitation in the US.  It's true in India too; Darjeeling stands on the same quality level as most of the best orthodox tea produced anywhere (with some limited volume, truly exceptional range quality produced by longstanding tea traditions in China, Japan, and Taiwan), but CTC teas are most popular there.  It's also like that in Thailand, and in Russia; basically everywhere.

six years ago I reviewed a masala chai from a Nepalese intern at work

The divide implied here doesn't really hold up, that the amazing, exceptional oolongs, black teas, and pu'er produced in China is appreciated and enjoyed by most of the people there, or even a significant percentage of the population.  It's not like that.  People in China drink local teas, and as elsewhere "tea enthusiasts" seek out the best quality from that range.  It's just that this awareness and demand is based in an old, native tradition there, so it surely is taken up by a broader minority than in the US, for example.  But still by a minority.  

Several of my best friends in Bangkok have been the families of friends of my children, most from China and Japan, and in none of their cases were any of them remotely aware of high quality tea types.  They drank whatever teas turned up at their local grocery stores.  It's my impression that the "artisian / specialty / craft" food themes that became very common in the US in the 1990's is not really a global phenomena, and may or may not ever become that.

Huyen's capture version, with Ralph showing a Nepal tea he had handy

another of Ralph's captures

Tea evaluation

Back to talking to Narendra, an interesting tangent about tea description came up.  This is the kind of subject that no two tea enthusiasts, vendors, or other professionals would see in exactly the same way.  Intuitively it should be possible to clearly and objectively describe tea character, and this should support informing consumers about products and sales options.  The opposite turns out to be more common, and perhaps more true.  Tasting and description are at least partly subjective, so that an optimum for vendors might be to pass on a clear impression of a tea without committing to describing specific aspects, which consumers would interpret differently.  Which is tricky, of course.

On the one extreme evaluation processes come up, and use of tasting wheels to help clarify a range of potential aspects, along with aroma training kits to help train tasters to make those connections.  For me writing 1500 word tea reviews so frequently one might imagine that I'm "bought in" to such potential for objective analysis.  But I'm not.  I think that Ralph, Huyen, Suzana and I would describe the exact same tea experiences very differently, using different aspect descriptions, and focusing on different aspect category ranges within a given tea trial (feel versus flavor, for example, or seeing different aspects as quality markers).  Brewing process differences, and varying device and water types used, would probably lead to us not have the exact same experience, even if the dry tea product was identical.  We didn't really map out all those divides in discussion but we did talk around a little of it.

flavor / aroma wheel discussion keeps coming up, last covered here last year

It's hard not to drift towards a "what's next" context when discussing any problems or limitations related to tea production, marketing, sales, or tasting, especially related to themes about undeveloped potential.  We didn't really push on to that range so much. An hour-plus discussion only goes so far, and identifying the scope of issues comes before guessing at potential solutions.  

It's a real shame that Nepal makes such good tea, with international awareness of that still building, that small growers there face all the challenges they do, and then a Covid-related global downturn stalled all the development work people like Narendra were trying to do.  He's not bitter about it; past a certain life experience level it becomes comfortable to "work with what you've got."  He is looking forward to getting back to that work; that doesn't need to involve resignation to acceptance of current conventional limitations.  Economies will open again and more planes will fly, and experiences like tea drinking will seem more important to more people again.

Thailand takes the downturn on the chin but limited range of impact can make it seem more acceptable, or normal.  Foreign tourism has dropped out here, something like a 15% loss to the economy, but other sectors are doing better.  It's hard to get a feel for how other countries are doing, for example how this has impacted Nepal.  I suppose it would always depend on the business sector and the individual.  Tourism is probably less of a factor there but indirect or overall impact must be considerable.  Every country has restricted normal forms of life experience, out of necessity.  It was nice to focus more on tea in discussion, a happier subject, as we tend to in most of those talks.  

When Narendra asked Suzana about the pandemic status in India she was clear and direct about it; India experiences a complete nightmare now, an unthinkable death toll, across many local areas.  You can sense the stress she experiences from loss and concern over personal risk.  But Indians are grounded, philosophical, optimistic, and resilient, if a little prone to superstition in some personal cases.  They will be fine, as we all will be.  

It reminds me of updating my Mom about a personal trial related to my kids (which I haven't shared here; I could get to that), that it's all ok, even though it's not really ok.  My kids are grounded and resilient; they'll be fine. And Thailand will pull it together and get vaccination coverage ramped up, so we can move off this pandemic isolation theme that never completely ends here.

their bright spirits are consistent

Keo, looking older with really long hair

a mentos and Coke science experiment

Switching to online contact during the pandemic

First posted to the TChing site, here and here.


It's not that novel an idea to ramp up online contact over this pandemic period; I'm mostly just passing on my own experiences with it.  This post was originally going to be about the potential to move expo / conference events online, since that came up in Facebook group discussion two weeks ago.  I've since seen just a little of an example of that, covered by Elyse Peterson in a post here  (called a Virtual Tea Festival).  I didn't see much of that event, only parts of two sessions, because it was held from 2 to 6 AM here in Bangkok, but the videos are now posted online.

Soo Chung, who was a presenter in the Tealet version, and who initiated that Facebook discussion, is also planning an online Nomad Tea Festival in July.  It would be nice if this pandemic was over by then, wouldn't it?

Beyond not attending online tea conferences in the past, I have very little prior exposure with online meetings or tastings related to tea.  It's a theme that has been coming up ever since Google Hangouts made that kind of connection relatively simple, which was years after Skype made basic two way video calling easy and free.  I just never got to it; I like drinking tea alone, and talking by text message is generally enough for me, maybe except for talking to my Mom.  I talk in online groups about tea, and of course write a blog, and have done real-life open tastings, and online work meetings; all those themes just never linked.  Until now.

I tried it, talking to online friends in India and Germany.  I've met both, that friend in India just the once, but we talk online, in part related to me being an admin for Suzana's tea group on Facebook (Tea).  I've met Ralph a few times here in Bangkok, maybe 4?  We mostly hung out at Jip Eu, the Chinatown shop I visit most, but also visited a Thai temple at one point, and did a tasting session at my office building.

meeting Ralph and Jaba Borgohain (more on that in this post, and this one about a cool wild Thai tea) 

Using Zoom worked out.  I've only ever talked through video using Skype, Hangouts, Messenger, Wechat, Line, Whatsapp, and Microsoft Teams before (the last we use for work).  It's odd discussing an experiential theme like tea drinking through an online medium.  We actually did taste some teas, although due to the time difference I ended up drinking a few extra rounds of a Myanmar sheng I wrote review notes for earlier, versus doing the whole tasting, since I don't usually drink tea in the late afternoon. 

Both of them tried samples I'd passed on, both Thai teas from the same vendor (Tea Side); cool it worked out like that.  One was a small batch produced Thai shu and the other probably a wild-source Thai black tea.  Of course it does work to share tea experience through discussion, it's just not as shared an experience without syncing the teas being tasted.

that first meeting with Suzana and Ralph (on IG here)

It was just as interesting hearing about how the pandemic goes where they are, and their own personal experience of it.  I'd talked with three tea contacts in Italy a couple of weeks ago (by text) and it had been interesting looking ahead to roughly what a lot of other places are experiencing now.  It's just what you would expect though; experiencing social isolation, anxiety, and personal loss.

In Germany they're a bit strict about monitoring the social contact restriction guidelines, and people are fined for violations.  Apparently in India getting beaten by a police officer is a potential form of reprimand.  Interesting!  Here in Thailand anything goes (kind of like always), with lots of people walking around in my soi (side street) not wearing masks.  So far that's not going badly, because voluntary isolation and company closures seem to have leveled off the spread of disease.  Malls and restaurants are closed here, except for take-out; I mean police don't check who is walking around, and why.

It's a positive idea that maybe many of us might gain exposure to some unfamiliar ways of connecting through this, a potential bright side to an otherwise problematic time.

more photos (courtesy of Suzana) from a later meetup, with Huyen (who is mentioned a lot in my blog)

Huyen's brother Dung and sister-in-law are local Vietnamese tea experts, too long a back-story to cover here

this session ran long; lots of tastings and showing off teas and gear

it's crazy the range of tea and teaware Huyen and her family experience and use

Ralph showed a nice collection of pots as well

other visitors dropped by

even Kalani sat in

the next meeting version

Chinese tea producers talk about corona virus experience

First posted in TChing.

This title sounds a bit more extensive than the post will be.  I asked a few online friends in China (contacts, if you'd rather) about their experience with this virus issue, and they passed on some thoughts.

it was no time ago we were uncertain of risk but still going out

I'd hoped it would come together better than it did.  It had seemed the human side of the story was getting lost in the first six weeks of reporting on it, and the fear and unusual restrictions within China were special conditions not being considered elsewhere.  As everyone knows the entire country was essentially closed down for a month, then not completely re-opened after.  Then the accounts passed on by contacts in China were mostly just about people missing the normal New Year holiday experience, and being bored in isolation, and concerned.  Economic impact came up; it's hard to imagine how extensive that would be, or how long it would take for full effects to trickle down.  I'll share some input all the same.

as a parent this picture had an impact on me

My good friend Cindy of Wuyi Origin described the general earlier status:

So from 26th [of January] the government took fast action, and did not allowed the  people to gather together, and not go outside. Each village closed the roads in order to protect the village's people.  They did not allow outside people to enter their village. For example Wuyishan has 3 high speed ports (highways?) but the government here closed that.  No one can stop in Wuyishan and enter here from high-speed ports before the 18th  of Feb.


Another contact mentioned how although this sounds extreme he actually approved of it, since that extreme measure was for the benefit of the entire country, and was probably the only way to stop virus transmission effectively.  I'll get back to that other input but wanted to also mention Cindy's take on the impact on the economy.


Several doctors and nurses lost their lives in this incident.  And in China many enterprises face bankruptcy. It is really a big  influence on the economy. In Wuyishan now, 80 percent of the shops are not open [to be clear that was a bit earlier, maybe different now].  All the hotels and  restaurants cannot start the business until the situation is stable.

...One of my cousins invested in a  hotel in Wuyishan.  He invested a lot of his family's savings, and borrowed some from others.  This will cause very poor business for his hotel, like SARS in 2003.  That lasted almost 2 years, then everything went back to normal...


I just saw a FB post warning that business layoffs in the US are likely now from the slow-down of panic, without any remotely similar cause or condition as just occurred in China.  That doesn't make US business problems any less real or valid, just pointing out that a consumer spending slow-down and completely closing down a country for a month are two different kinds of things.

Here's a tea related article on that:  Retail Impact of COVID-19 is Devastating for Tea and Coffee Shops in China and Italy.  This isn't a research post about that topic though; I'll add a bit more first-hand impression.  This more recent input about a return to normal is from Philip of Yiwu Mountain Tea:


I returned to Guangzhou as businesses are officially allowed to open under strict guidelines.  everyone has to wear a face mask.  I was temperature checked 5 times en route.  I have to register electronically and get checked with my WeChat account whenever I arrive at a destination saying where I came from.  At my business I am required to log and temperature check all visitors.

I also hear that there are offshore Chinese going through Thailand as there are no direct flights to Chinese destinations.  Not that I think the risk is very high but then again you never know who is doing what abroad.  The UK has seen a sudden rise in confirmed cases in the last couple of days.


The restrictions could seem like they might not go over well in the US, but we are doing exactly those kinds of things here in Bangkok now, just not consistently, and it's not mandatory (but scaling up).  The security guard at my office checks my temperature sometimes, just not always.  In an earlier discussion comment (from before the re-opening mentioned in that comment) he had mentioned the other issue I'm getting into here, secondary impact, also tied to tea status:


It's been a very quiet month - normally a lot of new year feasting and visiting of distant relatives would be par for the course but this year it's been more sit and chill and try not to think about the worst.  We have elderly with poor health so we have to be extra cautious, especially with hospitals so poorly equipped in this region. 

It's also a case of worries since Spring tea will come soon and visitors may bring in dormant virus late, or nearly as bad,  not come at all and lose income for the year.  That would be a disaster for  cash flow for everyone in the local tea biz. It's also very likely that there will be a shortage of hired labour, and in combination with a very dry year so far,  it's going to another low production year even if people are ready to buy.


I personally am not so worried about paying more for tea, although I am concerned for the health of people everywhere.  Especially in my own family; my wife's mother is in her late 70's, and not in great health, and she matches way too much of the profile of the highest risk cases for this virus.  I'm sure that my wife and kids and I could get it and ride it out but that's not as safe an option for her.  I think my parents could weather it too but hopefully that won't be tested.

Those are just fragments; others said more.  Those comments seemed to capture how this crisis is occurring across more than one dimension, even if they really didn't add much detail to the human cost some have suffered.

People tend to frame this by looking at the number of flu deaths in comparison, which isn't completely unfair (16,000 so far for this flu season).  The mortality rate is the main concern, probably around 2-3% versus .1% for the typical flu (or at close to 4% dividing out confirmed deaths versus confirmed cases, which is surely incomplete per both stats).

a Farmerleaf video on how this will affect tea production, and one on William's quarantine experience

Later update:  a lot has changed in the week since I wrote this initial post draft.  The US is shutting down now, and I've cancelled a family vacation for the end of this month, and a trip back to the US in May for a wedding seems unlikely.  It's too bad; I've not visited my family for a few years.

None of that changes China's experience with the virus from the first two months of this year, but perspective on it seems different, since that's now a shared experience.  This is why I had a problem with the human cost being overlooked there; even beyond the deaths, which are personal tragedies, and related economic impact, it seems wrong to just write off the fear and uncertainty experienced by an entire nation.  I hope this goes better for the entire world than it now seems that it will.

This situation is bad enough but learning more about risks and protection steps helps balance out sensational media reporting.  The Center for Disease Control offers tips for prevention here, and advice on steps to follow if you become sick.  It should help to replace blind fear with taking well-informed steps for protection.

the most recent version, another week later; definitely scary

March 15; numbers went up a lot in a week

the early draft version on this dashboard site from March 7, 2 weeks ago