About Babette Donaldson
Posts by Babette
Arriving In Hohhot, Inner Mongolia
We arrived in Hohhot, the capitol city of Inner Mongolia, early in the morning and transferred from the train to a tour bus. The plan was to freshen up in the hotel before breakfast and then venturing out onto the Steppes.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Inner Mongolia. But like much of my tour [...]
Night Train To Mongolia
One unexpected delight to the China Tea Tour was the overnight train from Beijing to Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. It was this part of the trip that I first started to appreciate the expertise and commitment of our national guides. I started to realize how many things can go wrong in a schedule as full and [...]
Tea at the White House?
The tea industry enjoyed an huge endorsement during this past year’s election. Whether you vote Red or Blue, if you’re a tea lover you can’t help but feel proud to know that the current White House residents are stocking up on tea. Even the LA Times noticed the Obama staff keeping him stocked with favorite [...]
Highlight of a Tea Room-Crown and Crumpet
Crown and Crumpet celebrate their 1st year anniversary!
We had the pleasure of meeting Christopher and Amy Dean in June of 2008 at the World Tea Expo, only a few months before they opened their lavish new tearoom in Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco. The ‘lavishness’ refers not only to the décor, but also [...]
Meet Dan Robertson
Babette: How did you decide to start a tea business?
Dan: “I went to one tea house too many. It was in Wuyi Shan. A pretty girl took 15 minutes to make me a cup of tea. I watched as she meticulously brewed the tea and thought that it could have been done exactly the same [...]
Notes from Babette
What started as the intention to Blog a Tea Sipper way through China has become a retrospective. Since returning, I’ve been happily sorting through the pictures and memories of our three weeks, trying to distill the best tidbits. The group itself was interesting – tea professionals from Australia, Canada, Lithuania, Poland and the U.S. – [...]
One Last Post from Beijing
These few blog posts barely give an impression of such an amazing city. I’ve tried to focus on things that you might not find with a Google Search. Or might not think to ask. (I’m referring to the scorpions on a stick.)
We were fortunate to have many non-tourist-track adventures on the trip. One was a [...]
Tea Times in Beijing
Beijing Wholesale Tea Market
Talking tea in Beijing is not about the pastoral plantation. One of our first official tea experiences on the tour was to a tea marketplace. Nestled between the tourist sites is a small area that could best be described as a tea mall. It is a huge area with a two-story interior [...]
The China Trip – Again, From the Top
Nǐ hǎo (Hello)
As you may have noticed, I couldn’t maintain regular blogs during the World Tea Tour of China. There were three reasons.
1. Limited internet access and blocks on blogging and social networking sites.
2. Not enough time. The schedule was far more intense than I had imagined. Our Fearless Leader, Dan Robertson, filled each day [...]
Arriving in Bejiing
No airport photos. No beautiful hotel staircases. No streets crowded with bicycles. The first photo I offer is the organic green tea I had at our hotel.
Of course, the aiport photo would have been stunningly beautiful. The new international terminal is remarkable. And the hotel lobby is lovely and welcoming. It is located in the [...]