Ubacat said

2018 Teas

It’s time for spring teas! I mostly drink greens, light oolongs , & some whites but I do enjoy some Chinese blacks & the occasional pu-erh. Two of the companies I order from are not selling some of my favourites so I have to look around this year. I always order from Yunnan Sourcing and they have a wonderful supply. I still plan on getting some bi luo chun from Teavirve & placing an order for Japanese greens with Yuuki-Cha. I will probably get some oolongs from Taiwain Tea Crafts too. I love their Jin Xuan teas along with the Rose scented & jasmine scented.

Anyone else have some favourite places they are getting spring teas from? I was thinking of trying What-Cha Tea. I tried samples a long time ago and love the “Rhino” white but most of their teas were too strange for me. I have no idea what the shipping would be to Canada on that one anyway but I do like the fact that their teas are from all over.

31 Replies
AllanK said

I still have a lot of Spring 2017 Teas leftover from my two purchases I made to Vadham Teas last year but might get around to an order. They are the only company I have dealt with selling direct from India. They have incredible shipping. As I recall it was just about the same speed as domestic Priority Mail service but from India. Their tea is really good too. I won a contest they ran last year for a free kilo of tea and they sent a kilo of the same tea. You can imagine I have a lot left but it came vacuum sealed in 100g packets so should in theory still be good.

Ubacat said

That’s a lot of tea!

AllanK said

Yeah when I won the contest I was hoping for ten different teas but it was all one tea.

I won the same contest; it was kind on intimidating getting so much of one tea but I’ve enjoyed the tea – and because it was packed into 100g amounts I was able to share it quite easily.

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Leafhopper said

What-Cha has free shipping above $50 USD. I ordered from them a while ago and liked most of what I got, especially the Red Buffalo Oolong.

I, too, have a bunch of spring 2017 teas left and am trying to spend a lot less this year. I eagerly await other people’s recommendations, especially for Dan Congs, Tie Guan Yin, and Taiwanese oolongs.

Ubacat said

I drank down almost everything I had. I was down to only 12 teas at the end of last month. I allow myself to go crazy at this time of year with tea orders.
Have you tried the oolongs at Taiwan Sourcing? They are pretty pricey but wondering if they are worth it.

AllanK said

I have bought oolongs from Taiwan Sourcing and generally liked them. They seem to be of good quality.

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What-Cha has been a big winner for me as well. I have very much enjoyed most, if not all, of their offerings that I’ve tried and I’ve discovered many things that I wouldn’t ordinarily be drawn to. Alistair is just lovely and does his very best to match you and your tastes up to what is on offer as well as very helpful in terms of nudging you towards something that he thinks you might like. He’s usually right.

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Leafhopper said

Ubacat, I’ve tried several oolongs from Taiwan Sourcing and they’re generally tasty, especially the bug-bitten ones. Their Winter Rhythm and Longan Red oolongs are some good budget options, though shipping to Canada under $100 is $15. I don’t think they have any spring 2018 teas out yet.

LuckyMe said

I’ve always wanted to try Taiwan Sourcing but the prices and shipping seem high compared to other vendors. How do they compare to some other players like TTC, Eco-Cha, and BTTC?

Ubacat said

I usually get from Taiwan Tea Crafts and they have pretty good quality for the price. That’s why I wondered about Taiwan Sourcing.

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LuckyMe said

I bought shincha from Yuuki-Cha and a few green tea samples from Teavivre. Also ordered sakura tea and another shincha sampler from Yunomi since I didn’t like the Yuuki-Cha tea that much. Yunomi has been mostly a miss for me, but I keep telling myself I’ll get lucky soon and score something awesome. Last year I really got into kamairicha and I’ll be ordering it again this year once the new harvest is available.

The tea I’m most looking forward to are my beloved laoshan greens. Waiting impatiently to order them from Verdant. They’ve got some experimental laoshan teas this year (including dragon well black tea!) that sound interesting.

Ubacat said

LOVE Kamairicha and Laoshan greens! I find Yunnan Sourcing’s Laoshan green is just as good as Verdant’s and much cheaper.

LuckyMe said

I’ve heard good things about YS’s laoshan green. I’ll probably pick some up with my next order.

What I like about Verdant is they specialize in laoshan tea. That’s where their majority of their green, black, and oolong teas are sourced from. While other vendors stock the standard laoshan green, Verdant offer quite a few additional varieties: laoshan bilochun, pine needle, flat pressed, reserve/1st flush, herbal, and autumn harvested tea. I reach for laoshan tea more frequently than other Chinese greens and the different varietals keeps things interesting.

Ubacat said

Yes, Verdant does have quite a collection of Laoshan teas. I’ve ordered from them in the past and tried out all the Laoshan teas. They were all good.

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Leafhopper said

Yes, Taiwan Sourcing’s prices are higher than those of other vendors. I haven’t had enough Taiwanese oolongs to really compare them and I haven’t ordered from BTTC at all, but I prefer TS’s high mountain oolongs to Eco-Cha’s. (I actually like Eco-Cha’s bug-bitten teas a little more, but they’re only available through the tea club.) TTC might actually be a better option, although their large selection means that some things will be hit or miss. I think with Taiwan Sourcing, you’re basically paying for curation and higher-end options like their DYL or Li Shan Tieguanyin. Floating Leaves is another company with a well-curated catalogue, though the prices and shipping are similar.

Eastkyteaguy, do you want to weigh in on this?

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To Leafhopper’s point about Taiwan Sourcing being more expensive than others… I have no idea what their pricing framework is like, but it doesn’t mean that you are paying for ‘premium service’… it could just be better tea. As an example, I’ve seen JinJunMei tea from the same farm range from $80 / kg to $1000 / kg. I’ve seen Hou Kui from $50 / kg to $200 / kg. You get the idea. So if Taiwan Sourcing (or others) have a more expensive tea… it could just be because they purchased a higher quality, better tasting tea.

As far as spring teas – going to shamelessly self-promote here… we have one spring tea up so far (Alishan Jinxuan), and will be adding a whole bunch more in mid/late June after returning from our sourcing trip in China / Taiwan. Already found a fantastic wild Huangya to add, and expect to be adding many more great teas as well.

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Leafhopper said

You’re right, Taiwan Sourcing might simply have better tea. I suspect this is the case with Tea Masters, whose high mountain oolongs can go for over $30 per ounce. But at this stage in my tea education, I can’t say that for sure. The point I was making about curation is that Taiwan Tea Crafts usually has over a hundred teas at a time from the past year or so, while Taiwan Sourcing and Floating Leaves have substantially fewer. I don’t know if that affects the price, though.

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LuckyMe said

I haven’t tried Taiwan Sourcing yet, but the reviews on Steepster seem to be about the same as Floating Leaves, TTC, and others. Mostly good, a few great, and handful of not so good teas.

Fewer teas doesn’t always mean better quality teas. I tried a Floating Leaves high mountain sampler pack recently and didn’t find much difference between their oolongs and those from other shops.

TTC isn’t as well curated but they have a massive selection. Everything from inexpensive daily drinkers to experimental batches to competition grade tea.

AllanK said

I have put in about three orders with Taiwan Sourcing, not counting the one for my Anta Pottery Clay Boiler, and everything has seemed high quality and I generally liked what I got. However I found I don’t finish off Oolongs when I buy them and they don’t age like puerh so I have not ordered from them in a while.

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Totally fair. As I said, I haven’t actually tried Taiwan Sourcing. I just know that sometimes people think our Oolongs are a tad expensive, but I know for a fact that we’re simply paying more to the farmer for them and I think the quality is worth it. In fact, I believe that if other shops had oolongs of the same quality/price, they would generally be at least 50% more expensive (and I can support this with data).

I wouldn’t want other shops to potentially suffer from the same misinformation.

boychik said

I went on your site and your oolong selection doesnt state the harvest. is your Dong Ding from 2017? earlier?

AllanK said

Yes I agree you should state the harvest for fresh oolongs. They can go bad quickly if you are talking green oolongs.

boychik said

I don’t mind DD be from previous years. In fact I always prefer roasted teas 2-3yrs old when roast is settled and I don’t like them fresh. But knowing the year would be helpful

Sorry for the late reply here… In China right now with poor internet and no gmail notifocations!

Both our DongDings are winter 2017. We are flying to Taiwan tomorrow to meet with the farmer and taste all the 2018 teas.

We will be sure to add more descriptions regarding picking times upon returning.

We are also planning on doing an Instagram livestream in a day or two with the dong ding farmer, and hopefully while picking DaYuLin as well.

boychik said

No worries! Good luck on your sourcing trip.

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