Hit me with some of your favourite teas!
Hi,
New to steepster and newish to the world of tea. Started appreciating “clean” tea less than a year ago and I’m just in the beginning of trying to find my favourite one. So far I’ve only tried a handful of clean teas (all in my cupboard), but I feel stuck and don’t know where to go next. So please, help me on my journey to become the tea-nerd I always was mean to be ;)
you have got to try:
Green oolong: Tie Guan Yin, Jin Xuan (milk oolong), Li Shan, Da Yu Ling etc..
White tea: Yin Zhen Silver needle, White peony
Red Tea (our black tea): Dian Hong, Golden snail/tips/monkey/whatever, chinese Arbor Assamica
Wuyi Rock Oolong: Da Hong Pao, Shu Xian, Iron Arhat
Fenhuang (Phoenix) oolong: Ba Xian, Mi Lan
Shou (ripe/fermented) Puerh: Im not very good at recommending these, others here are
Sheng (raw) puerh: Again, im just learning, im sure others can recommend
buy a lot of samples, some vendors offer a couple of cups for a couple of dollars, much better to buy these, learn, review, and then after you know what is good or not, then buy in bulk. Ive still got leftover tea from when I joined steepster in big bags, whereas my newer tea gets finished because its much better (apart from ones ive bought in bulk to store/save)
oh and join in the discussion here in the threads, ask questions here or under the reviews – make friends with people then you see their reviews, you can see whos active from the forum posts
And, welcome! there is a welcome new members thread, you might get a lot of friends/followers if you post in there
Also, budget per month? & how many teas do you want to try in that budget?
people will recommend cheap as poss but even they can get expensive, but worth it!
Ive seen you drank dianhong from your page, did you like?
For shou puerh I recommend 2008 Dayi Song of Chi Tse from Berylleb King Tea on EBay or any year production of Dayi Golden Needle White Lotus. I think for shou puerh you are better off sticking to the big factories for properly fermented shou puerh. Haiwan and Boyou also have good ripe and Six Famous Tea Mountains have some good ripe too.
Oh, thanks.. having some difficulties finding my way around the site so far, but I’m getting there. And really thanks for the tip about buying samples, found at least one Swedish web-shop that managed that so now I have a few teas to look forward to :D
I really don’t have a specific budget actually, limited cupboard space though :D
Yep, dianhong was one of the first teas I bought and I did like it. Had it again yesterday, haven’t had a sip of it for months, and now it fell a bit flat (could be a storage issure though). The tea I drink most of, at the moment, is Da Hong Pao even though the first sips are a bit on the smokey side for my taste it rounds up very well.
Had a taste of a Singtom Darjeeling a week back, my first darjeeling and I really liked it. Difficult to get a hold of in Sweden though, unfortunately.
its a bit burnt tasting for me as well. The other I mentioned in this dark roasted style – Tie Luo Han ‘Iron Arhat’ is worth a go. the ones I have tried have had a lovely creamy floral taste to balance the smoke.
Ah I forgot Darjeeling! Yeah try some single flush vs 2nd flush to see which you like. I do prefer a good first flush but they are fussy & very expensive.
I quite liked Darjeeling from Arya & Singbulli.
+1 for what AllanK said about those two shou puerhs, I bought them on his recommendation and they are very good for a decent price. Bad puerh is not good at all, and its a hard tea to learn because there is a lot of choice.. The vendor he mentioned – berryleb is generally good, but there are a lot of bad ones on there.
If you are looking for good vendors generally selling good tea I have a few suggestions. Number one is Yunnan Sourcing. They have two websites, a China site or .com site and a US site or .us site. They sell generally good tea and you will rarely go wrong with them. Then there is White2Tea, Chawangshop, and like I mentioned Berylleb King Tea on Ebay. King Tea on ALiexpress is also very good and sells an amazing 4000 different puerhs. He doesn’t actually keep these in stock. He orders from suppliers when you order. Also decent is Awazon or www.pu-erhtea.com. Tuocha Tea is good too. But in my opinion none of these sellers beats Yunnan Sourcing although there are some with cheaper shipping. If you are US you can order from their US site and have your tea in three days. If you are US there is another seller of puerh I like called Puerhshop who sells inexpensive tea but they are often good.
Yeah Yunnan sourcing have a good reputation for a reason, my favourite vendor.
what-cha is great for being able to buy those sample bags though, and other varieties, such as india/vietnam,thailand,nepal, kenya.
Who else does sample sizes for a couple of quid like what-cha do? YS my cart ends up being hundreds every time I go there lol
The yunnan sourcing tea club is another good way to try many different teas, the premium one is $50/month & i look forward to it every time. or you can select different teas, such as jade oolong or just raw puerh
Jingteashop.com for fenghuang dancong, &
mariagefreres.com for darjeeling
are my other favourites but they are quite pricey
Another good thing about Yunnan Sourcing is it’s run by an American who lived in China for something like fifteen years. If you are English speaking there is never a language barrier with Yunnan Sourcing. Some Chinese seller don’t speak English and rely on translation software. Not with Yunnan Sourcing.
Do you have to pay additional duty when receiving packages from abroad?
If not, I’d order directly from China,Taiwan, India, Japan, etc. Better quality and usually way fresher than anything you can get in Europe/US.
Tea is very good at getting through customs without charge anyway, I dont think ive been charged yet, at least in the UK
I have yet to be charged by customs for anything including tea, and I’ve put in some big orders both monetarily and size wise. Even when I order fifteen puerh tea cakes I don’t get charged a customs duty. I don’t even know how much you have to spend to be charged by customs in the USA.
Basically me entire living room is dedicated to tea. Tins on a bookcase and boxes full of puerh in Ikea storage units and stacked along them.
I’ve been nailed twice with customs, both from UK, I had to pay $20 for 2 50g teas, it sucked.
I saw Boychik on IG recently got hit with like $250 customs fee. It can happen.
edit, should also mention I think getting nailed on customs is likely from mail method use. The times I’ve been nailed, tea or not, was DHL, Fedex, UPS since they use their own customs broker.
Also, I would recommend getting a 100ml gaiwan & 100ml cups. or about that anyway.
makes puerh & oolong much more fun to drink.
Also, white2tea do 3 different puerh sample sets, free shipping for these as well:
http://white2tea.com/tea-shop/product-category/tea-sample-sets/
Welcome to Steepster!
Here’s some of my favs. Sometimes I list a vendor and sometimes not.
Greens: Long Jing (Dragonwell), Bi Luo chun, Mao Feng , Rizhao, Nan Jing Yu Hua Cha (Grand Tea), Sencha (Right now my fav is Karigane#22 by Kettl but Yukki Cha & Yunomi have some good ones as well), Anji Bai cha, Jasmine Pearls, Laoshan Green (from Verdant, although Yunnan Sourcing is now carring one & I haven’t tried theirs yet.)
Whites – Silver needle
Blacks – Laoshan Black (Verdant Tea – Again Yuannan Sourcing is also carrying one that is getting some good reviews but I haven’t tried it yet.), Imperial Gold needle by Yunnan Sourcing
Oolong – Rose Oolong by either TeaAve or Taiwan Tea Crafts. Jasmine oolong by either TeaAve or Taiwan Tea Crafts, Milk Jin Xuan (Tealyra has a good one and so does Taiwan Tea Crafts but a good one of this tea can be found in many places)
Raw Puerh – Mandala has some really good raw teas (and ripe too) I don’t buy a lot of this type of tea but you can’t go wrong at Mandala.
Most of my tastes are based on the types of teas I love: buttery, floral, sweet, slightly astringent, grassy, nutty.
One word of caution; it’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you try to try all the types of teas at once. If you have a huge budget to throw at the project that could actually work out really well; just keep ordering diversly and going the mailbox will be a daily adventure. Otherwise for me it’s nice to keep it organic, try lots when it works out that way, or cycle through types and regions, and not be too concerned when the pace quiets to some extent.
Black teas and mid-level roasted oolongs are my favorite, Wuyi Yancha in particular (the type Da Hong Pao is an example of, a related group of oolongs from the Wuyishan, Fujian area). Dan Cong are also very nice, well worth trying, but better examples are costly (perhaps $1 a gram range), and even mid-level versions not as inexpensive as some types. I’d think lightly oxidized oolongs would be a more natural starting point. Related to those two countries, you might buy related teas from What-cha, or look into Hatvala and Toba Wangi as original sources for teas (but shipping from other countries initiates a trade-off balance between good value and high shipping costs; clearly the way to go at high volume, not so great for limited 50 and 100 gram purchases ranges).
Not to complicate matters further, but trying teas from different source regions versus just different types is one more level of variation. I’ve been on teas from Indonesia a lot this year, and Vietnam last year, with some nice teas from Nepal mixed in, like Darjeeling, but different in style. Black teas come in a huge range, and are sometimes nice for being good value teas. If you are looking into Yunnan Sourcing for pu’er they do sell lots of different nice black teas to (not that I’ve tried any from them, but a tea friend has been cycling through those recently).
As for sourcing, it would be good if you could connect with someone in your country that’s been down this road. They’re out there, just maybe not so easy to find. Tea shops are great to visit because you can try a tea before you buy it, typically, taking the surprise and risk out of it, and it’s a good place to talk about brewing, or buy another piece of gear. Another caution: it’s easy to drink Wuyi Yancha (Da Hong Pao and such) for some time before ever finding a good example of one, and then discover they’re even better than you thought. Or at least that was my experience. I help moderate an International Tea themed group on Facebook; I don’t know if there are any Swedish members (I’ve been trying to figure out how to map that), but it may work to find connections there (or there’s always google search and other forums):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1647370545538088/
As others have said, start with small quantities, preferably samples, until you figure out what you like. Two companies that have a broad selection of teas at good prices and lots of samples are Harney and Upton.
https://www.harney.com/
http://www.uptontea.com/store/home.asp?afterCart=/store/home.asp&
Harney often runs specials with free shipping for orders greater than $25 (usually $50). Upton seldom runs sales, but has good pricing.
I also like Teavivre because they have high quality, free shipping for orders above $30, and lots of samples, but they are limited to Chinese teas. I’m a big fan of their keemun, Dian Hong, and oolong.
http://www.teavivre.com/
My recommendation is to build upon what you already know and gradually expand your experience via samples. Place an order with lots of variety at one of these shops, drink the teas for a month or two, and then figure out what you liked. Repeat.
You can get a better idea of what the teas are like using Steepster. Click the “Teas” icon at the top of the page, then at the right-hand side, under companies, click the first letter of the name, then find the company name in the pull-down menu, and click it. This gives you a sorted list of highest rated teas. Read the reviews and see if you would like the tea.
Green: An Ji Bai Pian, Long Jing, Bi Luo Chun, En Shi Yu Lu.
Oolong: anything from Nilgiri.
White: silver needles
Black: Here the thing becomes more complex: Talors of harrogate yorshire tea, Assam CTC to mae massala chai with milk and honey, twinings earl grey (I’m going to taste the UK version this weekend), Twinings english breakfast, an Assam from vahdam teas (malty caramel flavour) and darjeelings in general (I prefer second flushes).
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