Tea Beginner, help me to start
Hello,
I live in Bangladesh. Recently got into tea. Read many articles, watched youtube videos. World of tea is wonderful.
I grew up with black tea dust brewed with milk and sugar as everyone else in my country. Tea dust is widely available in our country, sold both loose and packaged (ispahani, zerin, tetly etc brands). 99% people here don’t even know there is something called whole leaf.
After watching meileaf videos, ordered from them. Waiting for the tea to arrive. Ordered long jing and crysenthamum oolong. But overall their tea is expensive. Shipping is expensive too. And after joining https://www.reddit.com/r/tea/ reddit i discovered other vendors. Maybe should have ordered from teavivre, as they have much cheaper shipping to my country. Still no vendor in my country. After searching deeper, i found http://cha-walah.com/ . Possibly only place i can buy whole leaf in my country. So anybody has any thought on this seller? If you think they are not good, from where should i buy?
There is a company named Kazi & Kazi Tea (known as Teatulia in US, UK) that sells some broken leaf, under orthodox brand. Orthodox green and black. These are hard to find. But bought them today and tasted them. Green was too bitter, something wet haylike taste. Black did not have enough flavor, but flavor was like our regular tea dust.
I had a nose surgery and after that i can’t taste mild flavors. So should i look for medium to strong flavor teas? So oolongs, puerh and black teas?
Also looking for teaheads from bangladesh. Knowing someone knowledgeable will greatly help.
Note: Posted similar post in reddit, but i got shadowbanned. Don’t know why – https://www.reddit.com/r/tea/comments/6zn0ki/tea_beginner_from_bangladesh_help_me_start_my_tea/?st=j7jcubba&sh=4bbc926b
TLDR:
1. Where should i buy from as i live in bangladesh?
2. Which teas i should try first? As after my nose surgery i have trouble tasting mild flavor.
3. Looking for people to connect to, make friends and such.
If you are in bangladesh, you might be better off with a Chinese, Taiwan, or Japanese vendor. As the shipping will be much cheaper, the shipping costs from EU/EN is kinda pricey to anywhere not EU.
Teavivre is generally pretty good quality and price!
If you cant pick up on subtle flavors any more I would say raw pu erh, ripe pu erh and black tea are good choices. However an older White tea and some oolong tea’s should also be considered.
We offer free shipping from China, you can check us out here: healthy-leaf.com
I just joined this site too although I have been drinking leaf teas since the 1960s
Stick with it after a couple of months you will get used to and greatly appreciate the smooth subtlety of these teas.
For a punchy flavour Lapsang Souchong should surely be on your list – good smoky flavour.
Not sure if they ship to Bangladesh but eBay vendors taste of Darjeeling and aromas of Darjeeling have shipped me quality teas direct from India for much less than American vendors charge for the same teas. Tried a few teas side by side and they were legit. I haven’t had as much luck with Assam teas from eBay.
Some are better than others. The vendors I mentioned are located in Darjeeling and claim to be growers themselves. I’ve gotten some very good tea from them at great prices. That said, there are also many crooks on fleabay as well who sell garbage, especially in the puerh world. A $700 tea being sold for $30 is always suspect. I’ve gotten a few bags of black tea that were a little stale on eBay but most were good.
Any herbal tea recommendation?
I can get fresh peppermint leaves in my country. Can i process them to make peppermint tisane?
I’m from India, and like you I have very limited options for purchasing (non-Indian) loose leaf teas. Shipping from USA is generally always too expensive, and usually the same from Europe, though some offer free shipping for large orders. You should start with Chinese based vendors, especially those which offer cheaper non-EMS shipping options.
I’d suggest you buy sample sets of oolong, sheng, shu, and black teas – teavivre that you mentioned is as good a place as any to start with.
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