JacquelineM

I love a really good Panyang Congou! Did you resteep the leaves at all?

I’m on my second steep presently. It’s sweeter than the first, but remarkably similar in character. Mmmmmm! I will most likely do one more, then let my leaves sit in cool water til the afternoon for a rag tag “iced tea” :)

Do you think it is worth the $$$?

I do. I only bought the 50g size this time around, but I’m going to reorder a bigger one. Angrboda would disagree with me, though :)

Have you tried any other Congou teas from TeaSpring?

They have some great looking black teas there!

Scott – just their Tan Yang Te Ji which is the rough and tumble version of the above. It’s very delicious but I didn’t taste any rose in that one. I taste more of a gong fu black esque taste. Chocolatey and toasty.

Amy, I really like their quality, sometime in the future I’ll order again.

One of the Congou’s I tried from Upton’s had berry nuances.

Scott – I’ve had pastry flavors from an Upton one but never berry. That sounds goooood.

Gosh, a third completely different experience with this one. What is this, chameleon tea? :D

Yes, I absolutely agree that I disagree with JacquelineM above. :D I find the Jing Zhi far too … polished is a good word. Polished. Yes. The Te Ji has more spirit and is a little more rough around the edges. I like that. It adds some wildness which I find more interesting. :)
I’ve noticed that I’m the same way about Keemuns. I tend to prefer the lower leaf grades because they’re more smoky in character rather than floral. I think it has to do with me not really being a fan of those floral aspects at all and it seems that the higher the grade, the more likely they are to be there.

I thought the Jing Zhi was fun to try and I did very much enjoy it when I did, but I prefer the Te Ji out of the two.

Scott and Amy, definitely look into TeaSpring. They offer some really nice things and it all seems to be of a good quality. It is somewhat expensive, most of it, but shipping is so low it barely matters. :) I never have trouble getting my order up to the point where I get free shipping. I have more trouble controlling myself once I reach that point. :D Of course half of that amount is usually taken up by stocking up on as much Te Ji as I can get away with. I have promised myself to explore other parts of China next time though. There is a Sichuan one in particular that I have my eye on, but I can’t remember the name of it right now.

Angrboda, I can relate. Since I began exploring Ceylons last summer, I have realized that I prefer the “low-grown” ones to the high-grown Ceylons that connoisseurs seem to go for. And I even prefer the lower grade of Kenilworth (just OP) to the slightly higher grade (OP1). I am a woman of simple tastes.:)

It’s so practical though, because it’s much cheaper for us than it is for them. :D