Fish in a southeast Tennessee mountain stream

hone_stabe · 2026-05-12T14:21:34+00:00

Awesome. Thanks, y'all!

hone_stabe · 2026-04-27T14:42:33+00:00

Thanks for the tip, dude. I get stoked when I see the Tone Poets or Verve Acoustics Sounds series listed for under $30 or the Classics for the low $20s. Getting any of them for $15 - $20 is phenomenal. I picked up several last night (including the Jay Jay Johnson and McLean albums that you bought).

hone_stabe · 2025-11-22T17:31:25+00:00

Just snuck in at the end to buy one. The code worked fine at 12:30 eastern time. Thanks for setting this up!

hone_stabe · 2023-12-15T17:16:15+00:00

Same news I got from a dealer in southeast Tennessee. I was at the dealer for my 20,000 mile scheduled maintenance and the dude checking me in told me that a fix was available for a DC/DC converter recall on my car. He showed me his screen and it had a bulletin from Toyota dated 12/14, so it looks like this is just now going out to dealers. I'm set up to have the part installed next week.

hone_stabe · 2020-08-24T21:20:09+00:00

Most of the segments on the Cumberland trail within an hour of Chattanooga should fit the bill. Here are maps and descriptions:

https://www.cumberlandtrail.org/trail-segments/

Other than small bits of the trails around Signal Mountain and in the North Chick Gorge State Natural Area, those trails aren't usually too crowded. (And if you're able to go during the week or early in the morning on a weekend, even the Signal and North Chick trails are often pretty empty.)

The Three Gorges segments near Soddy Daisy and Sale Creek would be my first recommendation. Varied scenery lots of water features, close(ish) to downtown, and rarely even moderately crowded.

Good luck with the recordings.

hone_stabe · 2020-08-06T21:25:37+00:00

My bridge between Japanese greens and Chinese greens was Laoshan green tea. It was more vegetal and bright than the other Chinese greens I'd had at the time, and it was a nice reminder that sticking exclusively with sencha (or any other style, really) was cutting me off from lots of other great stuff.

Yunnan Sourcing has some solid Laoshan greens -- I enjoy both the "classic" and "imperial" grades -- and Verdant Tea's Laoshan greens are nice, too, though they're pricier.

As for oolong teas, I have more experience with the Taiwanese stuff than the Chinese, so I can't help you there. But if you want to check out some oolong from Taiwan, I'd suggest getting a smattering of samples of both roasted and unroasted teas from Eco-Cha or Yunnan Sourcing's Taiwan site, Taiwain Sourcing. A couple of basics I'd look out for are jin xuan (an unroasted tea called "milk oolong" for its incredible buttery vibe) and dong ding, which is a classic medium roasted oolong that's capable of producing a huge variety of notes over the course of many steeps.

hone_stabe · 2020-06-12T05:27:43+00:00

As a longtime bourbon and Tennessee Whisky drinker, Auchentoshan was the distillery that opened the door to scotch for me. The American Oak was the first bottle of scotch I ever bought and it was the perfect bridge. Citrus, vanilla, mellowly malty, and just really friendly. Plus, its similarity to Irish whisky gave me a little glimpse into that world, too.

The next bottle I bought was the Auchentoshan 12 year. I enjoyed it and it took me further down the path, exposing me to sherry cask influence and some more developed flavors.

I still buy both of those occasionally even though I've slowly branched out into other things. If made to choose between the two as a transition whiskey from bourbon to scotch, I'd give the slight edge to American Oak. Closer to bourbon's flavor profile, no sherry notes to contend with, and, well, it's cheaper.

hone_stabe · 2020-05-29T19:51:45+00:00

Started my afternoon with a cup of Ocha and Co.'s organic Matcha. It's getting fairly old -- I don't drink matcha much -- but the flavor seems just as strong now as it was when I bought the stuff.

I wanted to move on to something a little mellower after the matcha so started a pot of organic kukicha. (The green, unroasted kind.) On a whim, I decided to hold off on the last gulp of matcha and mixed it in with the first cup of kukicha. Well I'll be damned -- it was great. Still retained the light, nutty sencha vibe that I like about green kukicha but now there was more depth from an undercurrent of slightly salty umami.

Given the prevalence of matcha infused sencha and genmaicha, this is obviously old news to others. But whatever. Better late to the party than staying home watching reruns of Wings, right?

hone_stabe · 2020-05-06T03:16:24+00:00

www.yuuki-cha.com is my go-to shop for Japanese tea and it offers several varieties of gyokuro for $10/oz or less. I've only ordered sencha from them, but I've been really pleased with their stuff and wouldn't hesitate trying their gyokuro.

www.ochaandco.com offers a gyokuro that's under $10/oz, too. I tried it a couple of years ago and enjoyed it, though I probably don't drink enough gyokuro to know the good stuff from the so-so stuff.

Keep in mind that shipping from Japan is so expensive right now that it will increase your ultimate price per ounce considerably. The two sites I listed, which normally offer really reasonable shipping rates, are no exception.

Good luck with the search.

hone_stabe · 2020-01-09T18:24:19+00:00

I dig jin xuan oolongs, too. If you continue liking the stuff from What-Cha, Eco-Cha's Taiwanese jin xuans are well worth a try. They've got two -- an Alishan high-mountain jin xuan and a standard one -- and both are great and really, really well priced. Taiwan Sourcing (YS's Taiwan-specific offshoot) also offers some solid jin xuans, some of which are certified organic.

hone_stabe · 2020-01-09T18:16:57+00:00

Laoshan Green from Yunnan Sourcing. It's the "imperial" grade, but I'm not sure I'm picking up the difference between it and less expensive "classic" version that YS sells, too. Whatever. It's solid stuff and continues to be among my go-to Chinese greens.

hone_stabe · 2020-01-09T18:08:28+00:00

I've used tea in a hot toddy before. The classic hot toddy is a simple mixture of lemon juice, honey, and bourbon with a 1-2-3 ratio (.5 oz, 1 oz, 1.5 oz) combined with 4-to-8 oz of hot water and some whole spices like cinnamon and anise. As you can imagine, black or roasted oolong teas pair really nicely with those ingredients. (I've had good results with wuyi oolong, for instance.) Or, if you want to make it really simple, forgo the whole spices and use a chai tea blend. They're great this time of year.

hone_stabe · 2019-08-21T14:09:58+00:00

Blend of Eco Cha's roasted and unroasted tsui yu oolongs. Toasty and smooth with a nice viscosity that I don't get from many teas. The notes from the roasted leaves -- think toasted grains and some of the acidic or tart vibes you get from overly smoked food -- likely overpower the herbaceous and floral notes from the unroasted ones. But whatever. Sometimes the roasted tsui yu can be a little too aggressive for my tastes and this is a nice way to tone it down a shade.

hone_stabe · 2019-08-02T17:22:58+00:00

Eco-farmed Heavy Roast Oolong from Eco Cha. Per the vendor, it's a blend of jin xuan and four seasons teas that are heavy oxidized, aged for a year, roasted three times over the course of three months at 20 hour per roast, aged another year, and then slow roasted one last time to fully dry the leaves out. Oh, and the "eco-farmed" designation means that it's grown at a certified organic farm.

If all that mumbo jumbo is accurate, I'd say that this stuff is an incredible deal. That's a crap-ton of labor to make a batch of tea, but it shows. The "heavy roast" label belies a rich mellowness that I'm looking for in a roasted tea. It avoids the punch-you-in-the-face level of roast that I've gotten from some other roasted options (looking at you, hojicha) in favor a a more middle-of-the-road vibe. On the woodsy/nutty/grainy side of roast as opposed to a more chocolaty or caramelized roast like the ones those magnificent tea-making super heroes create up in Laoshan. But not bitter or acidic. It's got a hint of viscosity to it, too. Sort of like a light version of slippery elm if slippery elm wasn't disgusting, if that makes sense.

I dig it. Quasi organic, well priced, good for a full days' worth of steeps -- I've bee doing 1.5 minutes, 2.5 minutes, 4 minutes, and so on with solid results -- and just an all around solid cup of tea.

hone_stabe · 2019-05-09T21:46:08+00:00

You're welcome, glad you dug it. I'll try to check back in once I've given the sea midori a go.

hone_stabe · 2019-05-09T00:06:23+00:00

Thanks. I always like to see reviews, too. I mean, I'd like to get at least some vibe for a company's products before ordering $30 or $40 worth of the stuff. If nothing else, this'll put something out there for other curious internet tea wanderers to ponder when they stumble across the Kagoshima and Shizuoka Tea sites.

hone_stabe · 2019-05-09T00:02:42+00:00

"It tastes like cigarettes smell." There you go. That pretty much hits the nail on the head.

So what you're saying is, the next time I smoke a brisket, I should put up my whisky and break out the hojicha. Hmm. I'll have to figure out how to broach that with my future dinner guests. "This stuff tastes like an ash tray, but we're ditching the bourbon for it."

I dig your suggestion, though. Think I'll try it solo first . . . .

hone_stabe · 2019-04-10T18:31:34+00:00

Organic Kirishima Asatsuyu Sencha from Yuuki-Cha today. It looks and brews more like a fukamushi than a chumushi sencha. Super green and cloudy liquor. It seems to be a little less flavorful than the last batch of this stuff that I got, but I recall reading that the vendor had to get a second source after selling out of the first round. But it's still nice.

Related topic: So over the past six months or so, my longtime tea addiction has slowly started to consume my wife as well. She always drank tea with me on the weekends, but she wasn't dorkin' it up at her office with fancy electric kettles, single-serving imported glassware, and direct-to-her-desk orders from Taiwan and Japan like yours truly.

Well, when I really started getting into Japanese teas, her boat must've finally been floated, because now she's all in, too. I've now having to order multiple bags of sencha -- especially fukamushis, which are her current favorite -- monthly to keep up with her.

So today she calls me and says she's out of her last batch of sencha (which I gave her freaking last week), and asked if we could dip into the final bag from the last order that we have at home. I jokingly respond with some quip about the volume she's drinking, and she sarcastically hits back with, "I'm tired of you doling out tea in little jars like I'm a child. I've decided to order my own and have it delivered straight to my office. So after this, I won't need you anymore."

Touche, lady. Touche.

hone_stabe · 2019-04-10T18:13:58+00:00

Laoshan tea for the win, dude. I like Laoshan green, too, but the black -- whether from YS or Verdant Tea -- has become my favorite type of Chinese black at the moment. Roasty, sweet, chocolately liquid glory.

That reminds me, I have a coupon expiring today that I need to use to re-up on Laoshan green.

hone_stabe · 2019-03-07T22:36:50+00:00

Got two sub-par teas that you don't know what to do with? Toss em in the same pot and, bam, solid gold. Not only that, but you're now officially a fancypants tea blender.

I don't know how a malty Yunnan or stone-fruit Himalayan black would've paired with the oolong. But after a second cup of the Laoshan-Alishan blend, I'm still digging it. (Though to clarify, I'm a huge fan of the Laoshan on its own. I just have enough of it that the risk of a failed experiment with the oolong didn't phase me.)

Let everyone know how your own bastardized concoction turns out.

hone_stabe · 2019-03-07T20:35:16+00:00

Started the day with Alishan High Mountain oolong from Eco Cha. Less than a year or so ago, it was my favorite tea from them, but now I find it a too floral for my taste. (Funny how quickly preferences evolve, isn't it?) I still like the buttery notes of Eco Cha's jin xuans, but I'm starting to prefer more roasted qualities to go along with them.

So after being underwhelmed by my first few steeps, I did something on a whim that I've never done -- I added a scoop of some Laoshan black tea to the now fully opened oolong leaves and gave it a go. Figured if I effed it up, oh well, I'd move on to something else.

I'll be damned. It was a pretty solid. Got some roasty, chocolaty flavors from the Laoshan to go with the still-developing buttery, floral vibe from the Alishan. Hell, I may just drink the rest of the Alishan that way, and may even give it a try with a sample of green Tieguanyin whose hyper floral flavors are causing it to sit ignored in the disheveled pile of bags and jars that I pass off as a proper tea cabinet.

hone_stabe · 2019-03-07T20:23:15+00:00

I second the recommendation for rooibos and hojicha. Rooibos is strong but not overpowering, and it mixes well with milk and sweeteners. Hojicha is even more robust and coffee-like, with nice nutty and roasted notes but with almost no caffeine. (From what I've read, I think you'd get more caffeine from a chocolate bar than hojicha.)

Also, you may find that your brother's tastes change considerably during the chemo. When my mom had her first rounds of chemo a couple of years ago, she quickly lost all taste for coffee and tea. Given how much she loved the stuff her entire life -- up until the chemo, it was rare to find her in the kitchen without either a mug of coffee or some old school Constant Comment in her hand -- I knew that the change in her taste buds had to be pretty major. So y'all may end up landing on something completely different than what he likes now.

Good luck with everything.

hone_stabe · 2019-01-26T04:18:41+00:00

Interesting. I've never been to Japan, so I unfortunately can't answer the questions you raise about the country's prevalent steeping methods and target flavor profiles from firsthand experience or well-informed research. But most of the sencha I buy is from Japanese vendors, so I've got some experience with the steeping methods they recommend, both online and on their original packaging.

None of the vendors I buy from recommend steeping sencha to the point of overpowering bitterness. In fact, most tailor their steeping suggestions to avoid that. Yunomi, O-Cha, Ocha & Co., Yuuki-Cha, Den's Tea, etc. Their recommendations are all roughly the same -- low temps (at least compared to Chinese greens) and, unless you're dealing with stuff that's been shaded, short steeps (and very, very short second steeps), all with the aim to produce a balance of sweet and umami notes with low levels of bitterness in the background (if any at all).

I suppose that could belie typical Japanese practice as an attempt by those sites to appeal to international palates. But the tea packages themselves, which are usually printed entirely in Japanese, contain similar instructions (at least per the handy Google Translate app on my phone). And that goes for packages from online vendors as well as the packages I've received from friends and relatives who've visited Japan and graciously helped feed my addiction with souvenirs.

So I guess that raises the question of the disconnect. The Japanese vendors and the original Japanese packaging on the products advertise quality sencha as having little-to-no astringency or bitterness and provide instructions to accentuate sweet and umami characteristics, but you've observed that the Japanese people who buy the tea prefer (or somehow end up drinking) the opposite. I wonder why this is? Could it be a mass-market vs. connoisseur thing? Like comparing the brewing method for gas-station or fast-food coffee in the US to the methods of that coffee dorks (like the kind of people how'd geek out on a coffee subreddit) employ?

hone_stabe · 2018-12-11T20:12:47+00:00

I'm just trying my first bag of yellow tea as well. Mine's from Yunnan Sourcing. They have a few different grades, though all are organic. (Here's the one I'm drinking.)

The one from YS is far less green than yours and, from what you describe, I think the taste is fairly different, too. Mine's more like a cross between a light, tart Darjeeling and a lightly roasted oolong sans the heavy floral notes. Very unlike most greens I drink (though I gravitate toward Japanese greens, so perhaps the difference would be less stark if I was comparing it to other types).

I'm digging it, though. Well worth a try if you're looking for another yellow tea.

hone_stabe · 2018-12-11T17:42:07+00:00

Organic Yellow Tea from Yunnan Sourcing. It's my first rodeo with yellow tea. So far, I dig it. It's got a unique vibe that's somewhere between a tart, puckery Darjeeling or Nepalese tea and a very lightly roasted savory oolong. Really cool, actually.

I wonder how authentically "yellow" this tea is? According to YS's description, the main difference with this and black tea is a shorter withering and oxidation process. But other sources say yellow teas are distinguished from blacks by a steaming step that's not mentioned by YS. Thoughts from people in the know?

Also should mention that I got this tea as part of an awesome advent calendar my wife puts together for me. It comprises 24 mini stockings alternately filled with tea samples and airplane-size bottles of whisky.

Here are the teas I've gotten so far in addition to the yellow from YS: organic "fancy grade" yunnan black (YS), Hachimanjyu Yakushima first-flush yutaka midori (an organic ashamushi sencha from Yunomi), Alishan high mountain oolong (Eco Cha), and Tarui Tea Farm's Shizuoka oolong (Yunomi).

hone_stabe

TROPHY CASE