Tea in Cork, Ireland?

Thanks. I’ve not used what-cha before but am a satisfied customer of both Canton Tea and Imperial Teas, the latter of which is actually just down the road from my home in England. If I have to, I shall order from them, but I was looking for more in the way of instant gratification. :) I’ll keep searching.

Yeah i figured, but thought no harm in mentioning. next day delivery though? :)

True. No harm in that at all. I’m not sure about next day delivery to Ireland though. Might take a few days. I’ll have to wait for my first pay packet and see about a trial order, unless someone comes through with a tea house in the Cork area.

Ah, and you should defo try what-cha – they do really good sample sizes – great company.

do you like oolong? the mini light Zhangping cakes are a firm favourite of everyone that tries them http://what-cha.com/oolong-tea/china-fujian-zhangping-light-roasted-shui-xian-cake-oolong-tea/

What-cha looks interesting and they have free delivery on international orders. They are now on the list, and I shall certainly try the Zhangping when I order. I do like a good oolong every now and then.

I bet he had a bunch of tea he ‘found’ just before moving day. ‘This old thing I thought I had lost it’…… Hi Buddy!

Hi mrmopar,

What you write may be truth and it may not be. I admit nothing, just in case my wife reads this! Still, whatever the case of that may be, I feel sure that a few teas that have aged well in my care will find their way home again at the end of this year’s contract as “What, this old thing that I have had since before I moved out to Ireland?” And no one will be able to gainsay me on that score either. :)

Is it a permanent move or just temporary?

As at this time it is a temporary move. I have a one year contract working on a project to produce an online archive of teaching and research resources about the Vikings. Once the year is up, I don’t know what will happen. I might get further work here, or I might wind up in some far-flung corner of the world drinking my tea from a cracked cup while muttering darkly over an ancient typewriter and cursing the never-ending heat and the incessant buzz of the flies, all to the tune of a badly maintained ceiling fan as it squeaks its way round in ever-slowing circles, never quite stopping and never quite moving the air enough to keep it cool. I imagine this scenario with a Tom Waits soundtrack.

Well I hope you don’t have to do the permanent relocation. And the fan swooshing…..shades of Apocalypse now..

I can imagine “The piano has been drinking, not me” playing in the background

I was thinking of something from ‘Rain Dogs’, TeaExplorer, but now you mention it, ‘The piano has been drinking’ might well be the perfect soundtrack. I’ll hire a one-armed dwarf and a woman with only one eye who is blind in the other to play it! :)

Thanks for the well wishes, mrmopar. We’ll see how the whole maintaining this career change goes. Permanent relocation is unlikely, at this point, but could happen in the future. We’ll see. At least for now I have a flat with an excellent view out across Cobh harbour and the possibility of doing some dolphin or whale spotting from my living room at the weekend. I learnt recently that even Orcas have been spotted in the past. A rare occurrence, but now I shall be even more aware of what is happening out on the water. So, what tea goes with a cetacean spotting session?

W2T’s White Whale?

Heh, that would be a good start, especially considering my lack of ability at actually spotting the darn things! :D

Indeed it is. There are two O’Conaill’s outlets here that I know of and you are right about their chocolate. There is also a Butlers of Dublin outlet. My wife sells the Butlers chocolates in her florists shop back home. I’m partial to those too. I’ll mention Ah-na from North Carolina and see what reaction I get. :)

She says tell them to change their blasted email on Facebook, too! She has been trying to place another order and can’t get a response from them! Ha ha!

I’ll see if I can pop in there sometime this week and get their current contact details. It’s on my way to the station from work so the only issue is actually getting myself to leave work while they are still open.

I did google it and found this email address: [email protected]
Is this the one you have?

I don’t think so. Daughter does the ordering, and I will pass that on right away!

I’ll be sure to check Gurman’s out when I am in Dublin. So far my internet search is coming up largely blank. There’s a coffee shop that sells OP Ceylon and Darjeeling, but nowhere that sells anything of a better grade. :/

Turns out that Maher’s Coffee on Oliver Plunkett Street has a palatable TGFOP Darjeeling. I also bought small packets of Lapsang Souchong and a Keemun Conghou that I have yet to taste. I was listening to the lady in the shop serving other customers, and her discussion of the coffees at least gave me confidence in the place. I’m never sure about high street tea shops, because they usually stock lower grade teas that I often find unsatisfying. I’ll be back there for more of the Darjeeling, because I think it will make a good, easy to get, everyday Darjeeling, until I can afford to buy top quality teas again.

And the Keemun is quite palatable too. I’ll be getting more of that. It’s not up to the standards of the Teavivre offerings I have had, but as an easy and cheap source of decent tea, Mahers is definitely ok.

Nice! A decent Keemun is a must! While we were there we mostly drank tea that my daughter picked up in Brussels. There were both Dammann Freres and Mariage Freres teas. We also had some Marks and Spencer tea but it appears they don’t carry as much as they used to carry. A nice local tea shop would be the absolute best! I am so jealous of your stay in Cork!

And the Lapsang I bought turns out to be nicely smoky with a good solid hit of barbeque and pine resin too. I am lucky to have found three extremely palatable teas in a coffee shop, so at least I shall not go short of everyday tea. Along with the puerh I brought with me, I might just survive!

I’m not hugely familiar with either Dammann Freres or Mariage Freres but I do hear good things about them, and I have never found anything in M&S that I really like. Still, just waiting on the first pay packet and What-cha might well see an order from me.

No need to be jealous, come to Cork for a holiday. :)

The M&S tea was drinkable and that’s about all I can say! It wasn’t great. I also brought puerh! And as for the holiday – we are hoping to get back there late this summer! Let me know if you find a wonderful B&B near the sea! I want to go to Cork, go back to Dublin and then see Newgrange, and then head back north. After that, possibly a side trip to Finland! The kids are going to the Yucatan Peninsula and Chichen Itza in a couple of months, but we are staying home.

Yes, that was my opinion of M&S tea too. I’m always getting caught out by supermarket teas, and I never seem to learn.

Well, if you find yourselves in Cork this summer, let me know and maybe we could have tea together. It would be nice to meet some more of those on here. I’m afraid I don’t know of any B&Bs by the sea, although there are quite a few hotels and B&Bs in Cobh where I am living. It also has a fair bit of Titanic heritage stuff because Cobh was the last stop of the Titanic before it sailed for the Iceberg.

Finland should be awesome. It’s the only Nordic country I have not yet managed to visit. My in-laws love visiting there almost as much as they love Norway.

It certainly sounds like your family are doing some good traveling this year.

Thank you. I’ll check these out when I get up to Dublin.