Fine Tea

That looks like dragon pearls to me, from the pictures I have seen.


edit: in which case it would greatly behoove you and your friend to brew for much closer to 2 minutes!

i have some very mediocre tea experience and am looking for a good direction to branch out. i started with the jasmine pearls, and quickly moved into a few oolongs that i like alot. i've tried a few blacks, and prefer staying in the green, oolong - or possibly white direction. any reccomendations?

i have some nice chinese black teas that i purchased a few years ago and have had stashed away in tin cannisters. are these still good - how long do teas typically keep - and if they are on the older side, can good results be gotten by using more than usual for steeping?

finally, i have purchased a few teas from the Tao of Tea and enjoyed them very much. any experience with this company - quality/value/ etc.

thanks

pu-erh are great teas, an aquried taste but nonetheless great. i usually by a coupl a month to store them, as pu-erh get better with age. im also a huge fan of good japanese green teas. nothing like it.

frankilinsshower said:

i have some nice chinese black teas that i purchased a few years ago and have had stashed away in tin cannisters. are these still good - how long do teas typically keep - and if they are on the older side, can good results be gotten by using more than usual for steeping?

finally, i have purchased a few teas from the Tao of Tea and enjoyed them very much. any experience with this company - quality/value/ etc.

thanks

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Tea (except pu-erh) typically is said to be at it's best for approximately a year. After that it starts to lose its flavor. If you purchased it several years ago, personally I'd just purchase more. Everything I've ever read said about 1 year storage from tea, many places also say the tea isn't really bad after that just that it loses flavor from then on. Thats my understanding.

Kam at funalliance.com is my best source for green and white teas. I'd imagine the oolongs he gets are good too, but haven't tried them. As far as blacks go, I avoid Chinese in favor of Indian.

If anyone is looking for a nice teapot I'd check TJ Maxx, if you've got one around your area. I got a sweet whistling Le Creuset for about $30. The thing is built like a friggin tank.

anarchyburger said:

If anyone is looking for a nice teapot I'd check TJ Maxx, if you've got one around your area. I got a sweet whistling Le Creuset for about $30. The thing is built like a friggin tank.

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They have many different types. Can you pick out yours from the link?

linky

I didn't plan on it, but my current tea binge has all completely suppressed my desire to drink coffee. I used to be 2 cups minimum in the morning then switch to pre-packaged chinese green tea during the day, maybe a cup of coffee in the evening. Now it's all loose tea all the time.

I'm working my way through 3 SpecialTeas samplers, Oolong, Green, Darjeeling, and a 2 small freebie samples of Irish Breakfast and Golden Monkey.
The only sample I haven't cared much for so far is Formosa Oolong Fine Grade #611. Very odd flavor, somewhat reminds me of tobacco. Really tastes nothing like the other Formosa Oolongs in the sampler I've tried, which I thought were quite good (Pouchong #614 and Tung Ting Jade) and had that nice peach-like flavor.

I tried my first Darjeeling this morning, Puttabong First Flush. What a delicious tea! I expected the Darjeelings to be excellent and the Puttabong did not disappoint.

I've opened 2 of the greens so far, one Chinese and one Japanese. Not knowing any better I assumed China green and Japanese green would be similar in taste. Apparently not the case. The Temple of Heaven Gunpowder had a somewhat of a smoky flavor very different from the grassy flavor of Sencha Extra Fine.

I really, really like Japanese green tea. Before I bought the sampler I was already working on a bag of Bancha and Gyokuro I'd purchased from Teavana mid-December. I like how you can get a lift from green tea without being all spun out on caffeine if you drink and equal volume of coffee. It is a really nice evening drink. I can't get enough of it.

I'm therefore in pursuit of Japanese greens. Does anyone have recommended site beyond the dealers mentioned in this thread? I've been contemplating placing an order with O-cha.com. Has anyone ever purchased from them? If so, curious how the tea was.

Scotto said:

I thought I would post on one of my other obsessions - fine loose leaf tea. I know there are other forum members out there who share this obsession. Chime in!

I have tried teas from all of the major online sources, at pretty much all prices. I also work with a diverse cultural crowd at work who are good at bringing me stuff from their homelands. I'll drink a pot of tea in the morning while reading the paper, usually a Chinese red ("black") tea or sometimes an English breakfast blend. In the mid-morning a good Oolong, and later lots of Green tea. I am particularly obsessed with Chinese green teas, especially Lung Ching ("Dragon Well").

I also keep track as best I can of what I taste. I'll attach a spreadsheet as an example for those who are interested. I got lazy for a while, but it has a fair amount of stuff in it for those who are interested in trying some teas. You can also filter it by tea type, vendor, etc. I haven't yet gotten nuts enough to keep track of shaving stuff this way, but perhaps our future B&B rating archive will fix all that.

All right, who are the other tea drinkers out there?


Edited: Apparently you can't attach an Excel file.... Nick?

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I have recently become somewhat obsessed with fine teas also. At work I use a 16 oz Teavana steeper and get outstanding results. In the evening, my wife and I share a pot or two of tea using a Japanese cast iron tea kettle.
I am particularly fond of the green teas and the oolong teas. However, I will sometimes use some flavored teas with mint, chai or jasmine.
As an aside, my cholesterol has been in the 190-200 range using 10 mg or lipitor per day to regulate it. Since I started drinking green tea, my cholesterol dropped to 162. The only thing that has significantly changed in my life if my green tea consumption. I did not relate this to my green tea consumption until doing some research on the internet. This may not work for everyone but I will tell you that it certainly cannot hurt you.

Steve

I am enjoying some Ting Tung Oolong now...it is amazing. I want to get a YiXing teapot for just this type of oolong now.

joselastra said:

pu-erh are great teas, an aquried taste but nonetheless great. i usually by a coupl a month to store them, as pu-erh get better with age. im also a huge fan of good japanese green teas. nothing like it.

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And there is a big difference worth noting. There are two types of pu'er tea: sheng and shu. Sheng is raw, or uncooked, pu'er. Shu is ripe, or cooked, pu'er. Sheng pu'er can be great to drink right away, though most sample the tea early and determine whether it is a good candidate for aging. Some are great right away. Some show great potential and need to rest. Keep in mind that aging crappy tea will only yield old, crappy tea.

Shu pu'er is subjected to accelerated fermentation to make it taste as if it'd been aged for many years. Shu pu'er does not age as well as sheng pu'er. Many who say pu'er tea tastes earthy, or like mulch or dirt, have sampled only shu (cooked) pu'er -- and certainly not the best example, either.

What about tea baggies? At work we have regular liption tea bags... so I get some hot water from the coffee machine and in goes a bag of lipton.

Do you drink tea from tea bags? If so, what kind? Lipton? Tazo? Republic of tea? anything else?

rjv71 said:

What about tea baggies? At work we have regular liption tea bags... so I get some hot water from the coffee machine and in goes a bag of lipton.

Do you drink tea from tea bags? If so, what kind? Lipton? Tazo? Republic of tea? anything else?

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while I prefer loose tea, I work with a Scottish woman who brings back Punjana (?) tea in bags from the UK. it is an amazingly good tea. it's also very strong we use 1 bag to make 2 large cups of tea

Do you drink tea from tea bags?

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Sure, Brooke Bond Red Label with a little milk with breakfast on the weekends.

I hear the Lipton tea bags from India are actually good too. You can get them at Indian Grocers. Since Americans generally don't really care about the quality of our tea (surely because we drink it iced more than anything), we get stuff considerably worse than other countries.

Considering the recent tea discussion, I thought this might be a good thread to bring back.

Well, I was able to resist the power of ONE tea thread, but TWO pushed me over the top. I just placed an order with specialteas for the fine tea sampler and the infuser that one places in a mug. Let the journey away from bags begin!

Another tea thread...

Yes I admit I have TAD...

There is this one cupboard in the kitchen... It has more than a shelf full of cookbooks (worth a thread on it's own), but the rest of it is packed with tea's... SWMBO has banned me from buying more tea , I have to finish what I have first...

If anybody ever visits Stockholm in Sweden, make sure to visit this little shop called Tea Center of Stockholm. It doesn't get much better than this (at least in Sweden it doesn't ).

Question for the Londoners here: is every Whittard store in London the same - I mean does it carry the same range of products? During my visit later this month I'd like to buy a few teas in a tin plus a small Chatsford teapot with the Whittard logo. My guess is that the Oxford Street shop ought to be pretty big...

Okay, my tea arrived yesterday and I had my first cup of non-bagged tea this morning. I normally drink either English Breakfast or Earl Grey (bags), and I take it with a little sugar and milk, so I thought an Assam tea sounded like a natural fit. I tried something called Mokalbari SFTGBOP CL from specialteas.com as part of their "Fine Tea sampler". Following the recommendations on the bag, I added a bit of milk and sugar.

1st infusion: three mins
Delicious but a touch strong/bitter. Also, half a teaspoon of sugar was way too much. Next time I will drop steeping time by 20 secs and cut the sugar in half.

2nd infusion: three and a half mins
Life-altering. Dropped to a quarter-teaspoon of sugar and a splash of milk, absolute perfection for me. I drank the entire mug with a huge smile on my face, prompting loving wife to call me a "dork". Pretty sure she said it with love, though.

3rd infusion: four mins
Quarter-teaspoon of sugar, no milk. Brewed this early and then drank it later in the day over ice. Absolutely wonderful.

Conclusion: I have wasted ten years on bagged tea dust. Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread; there are so few things in life that produce a simple, genuine pleasure, and I am absolutely thrilled to add my morning cuppa to that list.

edit to add: Oh, next up, a Ceylon tea called Kenilworth OP. Is it tomorrow yet???