The Tea Thread

Did you try a 2nd and 3rd pour?

JJ

 

Not yet

 

Ok - partially due to this thread I've kicked my coffee habit and have successfully switched to tea. Started with basic Teavana and Tea Forte stuff to see what I like and where my preferences lie. I've settled on "mountain oolong" and green teas as my favorite. I liked the fruitiness of the mountain oolong and simplicity of a good green. I tend to like sencha more than the grassy gyokuro imperial.

What would be the next logical step, any good recommendations?

 

Arizona green tea everyday for me.

 

Den's Tea is a good retailer of Japanese teas for US buyers, located in California. The epynomus Den is part of a family of Japanese tea merchants, and gets some pretty good stuff. I go to Red Blossom tea for high-mountain oblongs, though they are not the cheapest retailer, their quality is hard to match for US-based retailers.

 

So just guessing here but NYC suggests Ten Ren is who you work for.

And if so my question is, do you have any access to 888?

JJ

 

Ah, my bad.
888 was a 'special run' of green Oolong that has Ginseng infused in it.
Much like Ten Ren's 109, 309 and 409 teas which are based upon a dark oolong.

888 is a rare treat.

JJ

 

Note to self, set up a program to watch the ten ren site for that tea. Verdant had a similar tea once, during the first six months the site was in operation. David has never carried it again, I have half an ounce left.

 

Actually vacation in Darjeeling about 2 years ago. In January...brrrr. It was still crazy expensive, but if you go to some satellite towns, it's a lot cheaper because of the lower influx of tourists. Coincidentally my fav was named the same as me. In a blind tasting, I literally thought "This is what perfect tea is supposed to taste like." Matched my mental idea to a T...

 

@Vansen - Thanks for the link to the Tea Masters blog, that's a really interesting website. Of course, the pots I was interested were gone already, but I really shouldn't buy anymore as things stand. I'll have to check out some of their more exotic Oolongs, that should make for interesting drinking.

 

Yeah pots can be addictive, until the collection gets to big and then some rarely get used.
Even so there are some pots that do so well with particular teas you can't let them go…

I have one that just tweaks 409 to the max.

JJ

 

Well, decided to dive into koicha over the weekend. I have some top-shelf matcha, but I'd only been using usucha preparation because I was too lazy to learn how to make koicha. Still not used to the umami, but it's not like it's unpleasant. The main downside is that it takes longer to prepare.

 

Which green tea flavour do you guys recommend?
Usually I just drink early grey tea, but I wanna go healthier!

 

It depends what kind of flavors you like in green tea. First you have to choose if you want to try chinese or japanese.

I tend to like the japanese tea more.

I like mariage frere teas, though I am not so sure how many flavors they have available in the US. I know for sure certain flavors are only held in their European branches in Paris and Hamburg/Berin in Germany.

In the US, you can get them from Dean and Deluca.

For mixed green teas,

If you want a bit of green tea with a hint of vanilla and sweet red apple, I would suggest The L'Opera. Its quite good and is quite fragrant.

I'm not sure if you had the Marco Polo Black tea(probably their most classic and popular tea), but they have a Green Tea version of it which is nice, but I have to admit on the sweeter side.

I've had the Jasmine mandarin(green tea with Jasmine flowers), and I feel this one is a bit more subtle. It has more subdued notes that make you wonder what the difference is. However If you a/b it with regular jasmine tea, the difference is quite apparent, esp at the very end.

If you want something very pure, that has a very calm, clean taste, with a bit of iodine, Fuji Yama Vert is great. I drink this one almost everyday.

If you want something more earthy but tasty, you can try the Genmaicha matcha Emeraude.

There was another green tea that I tried recently that was very good that was more on the grassy side. I'll let you know once I get back home.

IF you want to stay on the Black tea route, I highly recommend the Marco Polo, and the Earl Grey French Blue. Both are absolutely fantastic. We have to have some black tea time to time.

Just make sure that you follow the temperature and steep times for each tea. Generally green teas have to be steeped around 80 degrees for the best flavor, so pouring it in from your boiling water pot isn't a good idea.

 

I tried a lipton green tea indonesian sencha tradition flavoured green tea. Dident like it at all.
Dident like it at all. It tasted too much like some sort of... grass mixed with a cows poop

 

None of the teas that I recommended will taste like that. Mariage Frere is one of the top tea companies in the world. It should not be compared to lipton. I would never recommend anyone to drink lipton. Wouldn't really call it green tea either.

The teas I mentioned cost around 25 a can, so the downside is that they are quite expensive ><. Can guarantee quality though.

 

Thats a little expensive for me whos a student and drink 1-2 cups everyday...
What cheaper teas would u recommend? Twinings better then Lipton?