Asian grocery store teas?

**fsatsil** · 03-24-2010, 07:12 PM

I was in a local asian grocery store today and was browsing the tea section, they had a pretty large selection of tea bags and loose teas. I was just wondering if any of that stuff is any good? The loose teas were mostly in tubular cardboard boxes and metal tins, most were 4-8oz in size and very inexpensive almost all were under $10. Anyone have any experience with these Asian market teas?

These pics are similar to the stuff I saw at the market.

**Carlin** · 03-24-2010, 07:19 PM

Good is mostly subjective. Buy it and try it out :)

Between taking samples from my grandparent's/parent's I have alot of Asian market tea's haha, most of them aren't that bad.

**ouch** · 03-24-2010, 07:31 PM

My local asian market has a wide selection of Ten Tea, but mostly their more pedestrian offerings. Other than than, it's basically a huge aisle of swill.

**fsatsil** · 03-24-2010, 07:39 PM

I was gonna buy some to try buthere were so many different types I wasnt sure which to try. Most of the packaging is in Chinese but I did see some recognizable names like Da Hong Pao and Tie Guan Yin but the prices were so cheap compared to what im used to I thought it had to be to good to be true:)

**Yushiro** · 03-24-2010, 10:28 PM

I see a lot of these even in our local store aisle here in Kuala Lumpur. Most of them are so-so. Having drunk the real stuff, you are definitely getting what you pay for.

**netsurfr** · 03-26-2010, 03:26 PM

Originally Posted by fsatsil

I was gonna buy some to try buthere were so many different types I wasnt sure which to try. Most of the packaging is in Chinese but I did see some recognizable names like Da Hong Pao and Tie Guan Yin but the prices were so cheap compared to what im used to I thought it had to be to good to be true:)

I have tried some of the teas from the local ethnic markets and found them to be infinitely better than teabag tea (generally floor sweepings in a bag). However, it was not until I tasted teas from high-quality sources that I was blown away. White teas, green teas, black teas, oolong teas, pu-erh teas... it does not matter; the difference was remarkable. I guess that is the "glass is half full" version of Ouch's assessment that most of them are pure swill.

**David in Boston** · 03-26-2010, 06:20 PM

Originally Posted by ouch

My local asian market has a wide selection of Ten Tea, but mostly their more pedestrian offerings. Other than than, it's basically a huge aisle of swill.

Tried that and yes you are right.

Swill!

**ouch** · 03-26-2010, 08:37 PM

Originally Posted by David in Boston

Tried that and yes you are right.

Swill!

But as Steve points out, that swill is still better than most bags.

**shamus** · 03-26-2010, 08:49 PM

I really like the Asian Market Tea's. I make a trip into NYC or Edgewater, NJ a few times a year to try and get some good Asian supplies. My favorite is the Hong Kong Supermarket in Chinatown, NYC. Located on Pike Street and East Broadway this Supermarket has all the supplies and Tea that I would ever want. I like to get the Green Tea, in whole leaf, packaged from the mainland. When steeped and brewed in hot water and mixed with black teas from China it makes the best iced tea you can get anywhere.

Cheers.

**fsatsil** · 03-26-2010, 09:33 PM

I went back tot he market and picked up two different Oolongs yesterday. One was a Da Hong Pao in a red colored box with a 50z foil bag inside it cost $7 the other was a Jin Xuan in a metal tin with 20 small 7g vacuum packed bags inside and was only $4. I tried both and both were pretty bad. The DHP was just plain horrible, the leaves were all whole and in good shape but it tasted old and stale and had almost no fragrance or flavor. The Jin Xuan was drinkable but not really worth drinking when there are so many great teas to drink. Well I made a $11 gamble and lost, but at least i learned my lesson that if it sounds to good to be true it probably is. Ill post pics tomorrow.

**arcman** · 05-11-2010, 07:40 AM

I'm not sure about the kind of tea you would find in Chinese shops in terms of pu-erhs and oolongs and such, but you can get some pretty solid green teas from Japanese groceries. Loose teas from Maeda-en and Yamamotoyama are very nice for everyday drinking, they make good sencha, genmaicah, and hojicha. You can usually find some decent matcha powder as well.