Lately I've been drinking Yue Guang Bai, a white chinese tea made from the Yunnan Large Leaf varietal in Simao, Yunnan and I'm loving it. The taste is really sweet, with fruity notes of cantaloupe and apricot.
Here's a pic I took of the dry leaves. Hope you guys like it.
Does anyone have reasonably priced recommendations for loose green tea or oolong for someone living in the UK?
I've done a search on amazon, and I'm completely lost at the array of options available to me...
I brought back some from China, but I've already finished them
Does anyone have reasonably priced recommendations for loose green tea or oolong for someone living in the UK?
I've done a search on amazon, and I'm completely lost at the array of options available to me...
I brought back some from China, but I've already finished them
There are a number of excellent ocha suppliers in Japan who quickly and easily ship internationally. Whether they are reasonably priced is a bit subjective though.
I'm contemplating another order from Thes du Japon this evening.
Not yet. Actually, it was more than another week before I finally got around to ordering anything. I ended up going for a yume-wakaba sencha, some tamaryoku-cha, and some Uji matcha to replenish my dwindling supply (and I was a skinflint with the shipping options). I'll let you know what I think when they arrive. But I'm kicking myself now for not grabbing some gyokuro too. I may have to make a quick visit to Den's site to remedy that - I see they are offering a sakura sencha at the moment too, which probably needs to be tried.
There are very few things in life that I spend money on (I am an actor and thus poor); I normally scrimp, save, and generally browse slickdeals to get out as cheaply as possible, wherever possible. However, there are some things that are exceptions to my frugality. Those things are: computer hardware (and even then, it's priceerformance king), audio equipment/instruments, and tea. I spend an offensive and absolutely unreasonable amount of money on tea.
I live in Napa, so I usually get my tea from Red Blossom tea company in the middle of Chinatown in San Francisco. They have an online store as well, and they are the REAL DEAL. Very well connected with several generations of private farms and they do amazing tasting sessions. I sometimes find myself in there doing flights for 2 or 3 hours. Highly, highly, HIGHLY recommended.
Last winter, I found a new company in SF: Aroma Tea company (they have an online store as well). Now, I walked into this place on a whim between performances in downtown SF, found it on google maps. And I was blown away. It's not like Red Blossom - luxury, refined, artful, elegant - at all. But holy hell, do they have some good tea (and a respectable knowledge). What really got me, was the guy in the store was very personable and VERY casual and at first eye of me (I'm a young looking man and I don't wear suits) probably assumed I was a tourist or local with simple tastes and some curiosity at first - and the shop has an excellent sense of humor - so he was sort of pitching me some of their "house blends" with very creative names. As we talked a bit more, he caught on that I was knowledgeable, and started pulling out the big guns. I had a fantastic time and spent an obscene amount of money and I'll definitely be going back. Fun place and good quality product. The top end stuff is still expensive as hell, but c'est la vie.
As for my tea tastes, I enjoy Japanese greens in the spring and of course gyokuro when I'm feeling decadent and less poor than usual, but mostly I drink a variety of oolongs, black and green both (I do not enjoy black tea, and still can't manage to get into puerh). Mostly a fan of high elevation green oolongs, alishan etc, but I've recently been experimenting with semi-fermented batches and I find it's really interesting - the depth of flavor and changes of character over the course of many infusions is really enjoyable. That said, I really enjoy a good dark wuyi oolong as well when I want to be bombarded with roasted notes.
Showed up over the weekend, so I dove into the Tamaryoku-cha today.
With a fairly low temp/short steep (70°C for 70 seconds) it makes for some lovely and surprisingly complex flavours - faint fruitiness (dried berries?) and grass, slightly more pronounced mineral, and a wonderful nutty finish. There is just a hint of astringency that I like in my tea, which almost completely disappeared on the second infusion, and came back with a vengeance on the third infusion because I got distracted and let it go for about 4 times longer than intended. .
This one is much less complex - a lower quality tea for sure - but delightful, simple, and full of flavour.
The cherry blossoms add a floral sweetness, but also a bit of spice - almost the tiniest hint of mild cinnamon. (sorry, I'm rubbish at gustatory analogies)
North Indian tea Meri Chai ( presumably of Assam area)
I prefer to buy black teas from supermarkets. This pack of 250 g. ( 8.8 oz) costs 2 or 3 dollars. I tried to buy much more expensive black teas from specialized tea and coffee shops but I didn't find them really better. Though green teas are another story.
I noticed that Northern Indian black teas are more light in color after brewing. For example, the same amount of Ceylon black tea or classical black Lipton tea gives me much darker color. This Assamese tea is a bit fruity in taste.
That is interesting as most India teas I have had experience with have been red. Does it actually taste like Chai tea?
I still can't figure out why India has a popularity of red teas? You would think we would find more black tea with them, from the British influence?
I've just been given some of the best Chinese green tea I've ever had. A gift so don't know the price, also found an Indonesian black tea which is nice. I'll post pictures of both tomorrow when the sun comes out. Strange as I think this Indonesian black tea is mixed with something else. It does not look like just tea leaves, more research to do as nothing in English is written on the package.
That's the fun of tea, the unknown mysterious nature of it all.
Actually this tea from Assam which I have written about is perfectly a black tea. It's just a bit lighter than for example Ceylon tea. I confused with another Northern Indian tea which is called Darjeeling and which is an originally Chinese tea grown in northern India. It is classified as a black tea?
"While classified as a black tea, Darjeeling teas are almost always less oxidized than a typical black tea," says Schreiber. The unique flavor of Darjeeling comes from Chinese tea genetics mixing with Indian terroir—plus the intricacies of harvesting and processing. It's lighter and less astringent than most black tea, but more layered and complex than most greens.
Just a light colored, fruity pleasant pure green, that anyone would like. Some of the best China tea I have ever encountered.
This is the link they post on package to purchase, though don't know if these represent new containers? Tea is the same I think?
http://jointaobao.com/b/Shaoxing-shangyu-2015-fresh-tea-tea-green-tea-longjing-tea-bright-white-green-tea-tea-250-g-box-refinement-packing-gift-box/11086968.html
My picture shows 125 grams posted, though link is for 250 grams for $35.58 USD. Free shipping world wide!
I'm very close to Java, where a large portion of the worlds tea is grown. I have decided to soon post maybe 10 different packages of our local tea. Not be be a tea snob but to me none of it compares to British Black tea like Ahmad?
http://www.ahmadtea.com/
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erformance king), audio equipment/instruments, and tea. I spend an offensive and absolutely unreasonable amount of money on tea. 
