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Jason Cohen

Jason Cohen

Master of Ceremonies here and on Tea Technique. Previously, Founder and Executive Director of the Tea Institute at Penn State (defunct).

http://teatechnique.org/

Extreme ChaXi: Rocky Mountain Mountaineering

Not content to leave our adventures to the hot and dry desert, we exchanged our crashpads and climbing chalk for crampons and ice axes. Starting the team off with a mid-level alpine route, we hit the trailhead around 6am. Our objective – to summit the ridge-line above Emerald Lake via a

Extreme ChaXi: Moab Desert

We marched into the hot and dry desert surrounding Moab, Utah. A dry wind blew dust around us. Lizards fled from our path. The boulders were hard, smooth sandstone marked with pockets and smooth ledges, leading to high top outs. We found a shady spot, protected from the sun, under

Google Maps Strikes Again

Or: Oops I did it again…. A few years ago I wrote about riding my motorcycle into the jungle of a small Javanese Sultanate by blindly following Google Maps… In theory, that experience should have prepared me for a future of skepticism and hesitancy whenever Google Maps recommends routes, or

Tea Technique Podcast – Editorial Conversations

The editorial team has had a great many enlightening conversations while writing and publishing “An Introduction to the Art and Science of Chinese Tea Ceremony – Book 1: On Theory, Meta Theory, and Culture”, available at teatechnique.org. The conversations have been interesting enough that we’ve decided to publish lightly

Gongfu Cha: Method or Madness?

Hello tea world – remember me? I recently read the article A Foreign Infusion: The Forgotten Legacy of Japanese Chadō on Modern Chinese Tea Arts by Lawrence Zhang (a few years late to the party), and was struck by the claim that Chinese Tea Ceremony is a contemporary constructed culture of

Quarantine Fever Dreams and Grandiose Delusions

TL;DR: I have a new website and book! Please join me at teatechnique.org Way back in 2012, I mentioned on this blog that I was writing a book… (see post HERE). With COVID-19 and the resulting quarantine, that book expanded into a series – and I have completed the

On Glory and Failure

Every village has its idiot, and yesterday – that was me. I traveled to the small Javanese Sultanate of Yogyakarta to spend a weekend away from Jakarta, after working on a new product there the week before. What was I expecting to find in a small Javanese Sultanate? No idea! A

On Travel and Fiends

I’ve been thinking a lot about friends recently. About who they are and how we became friends and why we stay friends. So I knew, when asked, that that I had to attend my friends wedding in Bangalore, India. The expense didn’t matter. The 33 hour plane ride

2017 Summer in Japan and Korea: Onggi Ceramics with Master Anshi Sung

You might remember Anshii Sung, the Onggi Master, from this Guest post way back in 2012… Anshi Sung makes his own clay, hand throws all of his pieces on a kick wheel, and wood fires them in a 250 year old climbing kiln built by the Jesuits. His work is

2017 Summer in Japan and Korea: Tea and art with Mogu Sunim, Seonamsa Temple

Did I mention that I love having tea with monks? Mogu Sunim is a professor of Buddhist Theology at Seonamsa temple, one of he most respected schools of Korean Buddhism and one of the few temples to send their students abroad to practice other forms of Buddhism in Sri Lanka,