IAMGABBYJ said

Best tea company for quality tea

Hey guys. I’m quite new to the tea world and I don’t know a lot. I wanted to know what are some really nice tea companies for non-flavored teas like Pu-erhs, aged whites, Oolongs and so forth. Any information on tea would be amazing!

38 Replies
AllanK said

I would have to say I think Whispering Pines has some of the highest quality teas but I am fond of Simpson and Vail at www.svtea.com for quality tea that won’t break the bank. And if you are looking for puerh or anything from Yunnan, China well I think Yunnan Sourcing can’t be beat. Yunnan Sourcing has two websites, www.yunnansourcing.com ships from China and www.yunnansourcing.us ships from Oregon.

oceanica said

Verdant tea, lots of different teas. Very high quality and excellent customer service.

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Mr Tea said

Hello and welcome to the World of tea :-)

I am not sure if you live in the UK or not but there is this great tea shop in Covent Garden, London called The Tea House that have been established since 1982. They sell a very nice range of what you are after. I know that they also have an online shop facility if you do not live close to London.

If you are looking for very good quality then doing your own on a tea company that specialise in sourcing and selling tea will pay very good dividends.

Typically countries like China have huge manufacturing plantations that source their tea on the lower plains of tea estates where they can operate their equipment. Due to higher turnover of tea, the quality tends to not be as good.

The more specialist tea is produced from local farmers as they would adhere to their own traditional customs. They may have a small segment of a tea estate higher up on the side of a mountain that can alter the potency of a tea.

The quality of a tea is based on four determining factors; the altitude, latitude, the climate and the soil.

It would be best to speak with independent tea shop owners and ask where they harvest their tea from.

Let me know if you need more info :-)

Oliver

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mrmopar said

Sample a lot before you commit to full cakes. Some good sellers for me apart from the ones above from Allan I agree with.
King Tea- no sample sizes but good pricing
Berylleb King Tea
Chawang shop
Tuocha Tea- no sample sizes but good pricing
Farmer Leaf
Essence of Tea
Tea Urchin
Mandala
Bitterleaf
WhatCha
TeaLife.HK
LiquidProust
There are probably some I forgot but all are good on this list.

AllanK said

It should be noted here that one recommendation here while good is currently on what seems like a permanent hiatus, Mandala Tea. They were an excellent shop but they closed down their website some five or six months ago now with the theory they would reopen. I personally at this point doubt they will reopen. If they do reopen I definitely recommend them.

Garret said

Hi John, Hi Allan! Just to assure you that we are not on a permanent hiatus. Since closing the retail shop here in Rochester, we have been restructuring what we are doing, getting back to the basics, refining our wholesale tea activity and deciding what might come next. The website has been shut down since 8/22 when we were relocating the business and then I took a nice backpacking trip in order to start to get my internal bearings back and see what my heart was wanting to do moving forward.

So… we’ve been filling lots of orders with customers via email and telephone by emailing Paypal invoices and sending the tea out. I’m happy to help however I may. We will also send out an email from our newsletter contact list soon with the available teas and unveil a new way of getting our finest teas out there. I’m excited for the potential and looking to stay excited with what we might all do together, bringing in new, one-of-a-kind teas.

And Allan… I’m sorry the holidays and the madness here got away from me and I did not return your phone call. It got wild here. But rest assured, we are in business and we will continue to be. Thank you for reaching out.

My best to each of you.

With much gratitude,
Garret

Babble said

Yay! Glad to hear Garret. I was worried we lost another tea vendor.

Mackie said

I’m so excited to hear that :)) I have not stopped checking the site to see if anything’s changed

Everune said

Hey, Garret, is there any chance you will be open up again by March? My birthday is in March and it would be a great gift.

Garret said

Everune - Sorry I missed your question. Email me at garretmandalatea.com and I’ll be happy to help you get an order together. I can email you a list of currently available teas (as of yesterday). I’ve just been sending Paypal invoices and shipping out tea for right now and it’s been fun having the personal interactions with the customers! Thanks!

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Arby said

I don’t drink a ton of straight teas, but I’m going to second Liquid Proust, Yunnan Sourcing, King Tea, and Whispering Pines. I have tried straight teas from all of them and been impressed.

Grand Tea and Zen Tea have not been mentioned here, but I enjoyed the straight tea samples I received from them.

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Lot’s of good recs already; one not mentioned that is great for both puer and aged whites is White2tea. If you purchase a white from them, make sure you try boiling it on the stove. After ladling out a cup (with at least some water left in the pan), you can add more water and keep on boiling.

AllanK said

Yes I like White2Tea but only wish their productions were full sized 357g or 400g cakes instead of the 200g standard they make.

I often have the same wish. Then again, smaller cakes make it easier to apply the “cake is sample” axiom. Somewhat of a toss up in my mind.

Rasseru said

I guess it depends on the tea price/funds – I just got a really nice dinky 125g cake from bana tea, usually i wouldnt be able to afford it but i could because of the size.

Or the other one is that I LOVE vendors that make sample sizes the same price as bigger cakes, just the correct fraction. Much respect to those who do this

Rasseru, can you cite some examples of companies which do this?

Samples without a surcharge are definitely nice, but they are like free shipping in my mind. Just as free shipping means the shipping price is added into the cake price, so do uninflated samples mean that the sample cost is added into the price of a full cake.

I think there is a balance in how much to upcharge for a sample (and how much of that cost to roll into the price of a full cake), and I’m not certain where it lies.

Rasseru said

I cant remember who does it exactly, i have noticed it before though.

I’m trying to think who it was & i cant remember

Dr Jim said

White 2 Tea is one that is doing samples without a significant surcharge, though it varies. Example: 2016 post truth; 6.50 for 25 grams times 8 = $50, vs $49 for a 200 g cake. 2016 Heart of the city: $12×8 = $96 vs $89 for 200 gram cake. 2016 teadontlie = $9.20*8 = $73.60 vs $69 cake.

Rasseru said

it may have been w2t made me think of it

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Nicole said

Shang Tea has excellent aged white teas.

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Mackie said

Verdant tea is a bit pricier, and has had a bit of controversy over the years, but if you’re looking for black teas especially, I honestly cannot recommend Li Xiangxi’s teas enough

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IAMGABBYJ said

Thanks so much you guys!!! This is very helpful

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All kinds of Pu-erhs, aged whites(4 years old Yue Guang Bai), Oolongs in JK Tea Shop. www.jkteashop.com

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Everune said

I like Verdant teas, they give a special deal for new customers, 5 teas for 5 dollars.

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