Your experiences with spring 2019 teas

Man, I hope that isn’t true because I’m going to be ordering some Taiwanese high mountain teas soon.

So far I’ve been drinking mostly green tea this spring. The ones I ordered from Yunnan Sourcing were pretty good with the exception of Tai Ping Hou Kui. My shincha from Japan were good but not mind blowing.

I did have a pretty lousy baozhong from Taiwan but it’s a cheap one not from the Wenshan area.

I am finding some of my greens this spring were kind of lacking. I thought it was just me. All the Teavivre greens have been really good though.

Also agree with LuckyMe that the shincha is good but not mind blowing. That goes for even my favourites. I’m hoping the kamairicha’s are just as good as last year.

I haven’t tried oolongs, whites, or blacks yet

I don’t drink a lot of greens, though I sometimes pick up some samples from Teavivre. I’m more concerned about the oolongs and Darjeelings. Where are you ordering your Taiwanese high mountain tea this year, LuckyMe? I was going to do a big order from What-Cha, but their Taiwanese selection is small at the moment.

From what I’ve heard from various vendors, the droughts shouldn’t affect the quality of the tea so much this year as it will the quantity. If you’re buying from a bigger company and/or someone who was smart and had their orders placed w/ farms ahead of time you should be fine – it’s just that there’ll likely be less tea leftover for the people who didn’t have the foresight or funds to secure their tea w/ farmers and suppliers in advance.

Unfortunately, LuckyMe, one of the areas that seems SUPER consistently reported on as having been affected pretty bad by the drought (again, in terms of supply) was Taiwan – specifically the higher mountains.

Of course – it’s ultimately up to the consumer to decide if the quality/taste is the same as normal (which is what we’ve been told should be the case). I just placed a bunch of orders today for Spring teas, largely Yiwu Sheng, so I’m anxious to see what I think of my bounty.

Interesting! Sad to hear that Taiwan has been badly affected. I hope this doesn’t mean that these already expensive teas will go up in price.

@LuckyMe, I’ve heard What-Cha’s Li Shan is good, though it’s currently out of stock. yes, those Nepalese oolongs are tempting, as are the Nepalese black teas. I had the Red Buffalo oolong several years ago and it was great.

Ordering samples from TTC might be a good idea. I’m also thinking about Tillerman and Golden Leaf Tea.

Golden Leaf Tea looks interesting, I’ll have to check them out again after the spring oolongs are in stock. I do wish they (and other vendors) offered tea in smaller quantities. 100g is a lot of tea to commit to especially when you’re drinking solo!

Agreed, especially if you don’t end up liking it. They seem to do this for their less expensive offerings, so maybe it’s not economical to sell less? Still, it would be nice if they included these teas in their sample packs.

West Lake Longjing has a great taste for me, especially the one before Qingming Festival! Have you ever tried that?

I’ve tried and enjoyed a few Dragonwells, though I actually prefer the later harvests because the ones I’ve had were more nutty and easier to brew. However, I’m more of an oolong and black tea drinker.