Eighty Degrees Magazine

(all available issues) - excl. 1,4,5

Issue #18

Start at the edges — press a tea cake and the center becomes hardest to reach, everything else happens at the rim; look at a Japanese tattoo tradition meant to stay hidden beneath clothing; visit a Portland teahouse serving tea through surrounding unrest; sit through a monastic retreat that promised tea but delivered discipline; follow elephants migrating through Assam's tea plantations as flooding reshapes their habitat; and trace the word 'cha' across languages and cultures.

Issue #17

Join a nighttime jasmine harvest in Guangxi, picked the moment the flowers open after dark; see landscape architecture as a way of reading a place; find where tea culture meets hip hop in Miami; and step into Iranian tea customs, patient and precise, and largely unfamiliar in the West.

Issue #16

Sit with heat, not as temperature but as the energy that drives transformation; look at textiles shaped under pressure; find resilience in difficult circumstances; take an imagined voyage into space, where ordinary things turn strange; and watch the seasons turn, gradually and then all at once — with tea as the one constant throughout.

Issue #15

Travel to Assam and trace how Darjeeling tea culture took root in Chiang Mai, Thailand; meet ceramicist Chang Ching Yuan, who works without self-promotion or a signature; revisit The Book of Tea and its surprising origins in Boston intellectual circles rather than Japan; follow teaware from 1660 to the present; make the case for Tanzania's overlooked tea growers; and trace tea through Japanese literature, from The Tale of Genji to Murakami.

Issue #14

Follow matcha's evolution from ceremonial origins to everyday global drink; sip Egypt's traditional hibiscus and mint drinks, rooted in heritage rather than trend; see tea spark social dialogue across divides in Brazil; slow down in Sichuan's teahouses, where pace is the point; and look at antique teaware alongside fine dining, where tea is given the same reverence as wine and spirits.

Issue #13

Sit with hojicha's roasted, smoky character; meet Thai farmers who held onto their land against considerable odds; learn how tea moves through Apostolic communities in Zimbabwe; see cultural bridges through Peter Granser's photography and reflect through haiku; visit tea spaces in Porto and Bratislava; and follow the history of teaware from 1660 to today, an object that has always carried more than liquid.

Issue #12

Trace the mythology and flavor of Tieguanyin, the Iron Goddess of Mercy; step into Nana Chan's Hong Kong tea bar, where tradition meets cocktail technique; dig into chamomile's surprisingly complex history beyond a sleep aid; reflect on tea as a vehicle for personal and cultural change; and travel through Seoul, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and a uniquely Japanese idea about tea.

Issue #11

Investigate why more Darjeeling is sold every year than is actually grown; learn how observing the forest translates into ikebana with Watarai Toru; look at daily tea rituals from Tokyo's chai culture to a Chinese countryside lake; travel through centuries of South American tea tradition and the evolution of Japanese tea bowls; meet Friday Elliott, who tastes sounds and hears memories; and get expert answers to reader questions on tea.

Issue #10

Steep into gyokuro, shaded, slow, and almost impossibly green; learn from a water sommelier how water composition shapes tea flavor; trace the difference between heirloom and clonal tea trees with Shunan Teng; revisit the historic clipper ship races that raced tea across oceans; meet a Lisbon tea professional working in aromatics; browse twenty pieces of teaware spanning continents and centuries; and listen along to a thirteen-song soundtrack for the issue.

Issue #9

Explore yellow tea, the rarest category most people have never encountered; walk across Japan with writer Craig Mod and see how deliberate travel sharpens attention; untangle the difference between fermentation and oxidation; meet Czech potters explaining decades of craft; visit Onomichi, where younger residents are reviving old traditions; talk with artist Morel Doucet about Haitian identity and ancestral tea practices; sit in on a senchadō ceremony; and check in on Asian diaspora communities in post-pandemic New York.

Issue #8

Hear various stories of people whose lives have been affected by tea, converse with a man who found solace in bonsai, explore ceramics, discuss the potential of Indian teas and their place in the world, and go on a hike looking for a treasure on the Mountain of the Moon, have a look at tea spaces, taste yak butter tea in the Himalayas, and have a tea session to learn about the complexities of the pu'er subculture.

Issue #7

Trace the origins of white tea in China; understand quality rating of tea; learn about the inception of specialty tea culture in Central Europe; investigate the origin of Earl Grey; talk about the working conditions and human rights behind the tea label.

Issue #6

Read stories about the transience of tea. Explore the legendary origins of Chinese black tea; learn the struggles of China accepting wine with those of tea in the West; examine how temperature affects brewing.

Issue #5

Look at four of China's green kings; investigate the appeal of coffee and tea; hear the pandemic journey of tea companies; explore tea and food pairings; talk tea with a fifth-generation metal artisan in Kyoto.

Issue #4

Discover the power of terroir and the world's most impactful tax cut; take a journey of discovery of ancient tea trials and trading routes; chat with an olfactory expert and search for laphet yay in Rangoon.

Issue #3

Re-discover the ancient art of making Snow Shan in Vietnam; look at various tea habits in Europe and the violent history between Britain and China resulting in the Opium Wars; travel to Chengdu's old tea houses; drink your way through the Russian Revolution, stroll through colorful Bangkok and Malawi.

Issue #2

Venture to Uji to sit down with an 11th-generation matcha master; explore wabi-sabi; witness the destruction of rooibos crops as the climate emergency wreaks havoc on the plains of South Africa; learn about Brazilian tea production, and explore the perfect gong fu brew.

Issue #1

Meet the debut issue of Eighty and its mission to explore tea's basics, origins, and cultural depth through the eyes of farmers, producers, specialists, and artists; visit a Long Jing (Dragon Well) farmer in China keeping tradition alive amid modern pressures; consider the fight to preserve historic cultivars and origins against mass production; take in a master photographer's new book capturing the visual poetry of tea; and trace the rise of a boundary-pushing Australian tea brand built on design, attitude, and transparency.