There are many problems with reviews online. Many people use reviews as a way to filter out the fodder and find good products. Talking about and discussing tea is also an important and necessary part of the learning process and a part that reviews can help to facilitate. Learning in a vacuum is usually a terrible idea and reviews can be a formative part of learning. People who sell products and vendors have realized that online reviews and opinions affect sales and have reacted in a number of ways. On the most basic level, yelp, ebay, and amazon vendors openly ask for and encourage reviews of their product. Fair enough. On a slightly more sinister level, there are paid reviewers of Amazon products that are on the payroll of the producer and are required to give 5 star reviews. This becomes a huge problem when there are only a few reviews of similar products online, meaning one or two five star reviews can propel a significant amount of sales! Many of these problems persist into tea, to varying degrees. While there isn’t necessarily malintent on the reviewer or the vendor’s part, bias and aspects beyond the quality of tea play frequently heavily into the actual review and people’s perception. This article will specifically examine points of bias in the online tea world. (more…)
Author: James
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Yunnan Sourcing’s More Humidly Stored Pu’erhs. 2007 Bo Nan, 2004 Nanjian Phoenix, 2002 Yiwu Ancient Spirit — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #11
Inbetweenisode Episode #11 from James. Discussion is on wetter-stored pu’erh and some recommendations of the recent additions to Yunnan Sourcing’s tea lineup. Teas talked about include the daily drinker 2007 Bo Nan Mountain Yun Wu and the better 2004 Nanjian Phoenix Aroma + 2002 Yiwu Ancient Spirit.
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Teavivre’s Nonpareil Anxi Tieguanyin [Episode 87]
Denny and James review another roasted oolong. This one is from Teavivre and is a mainland (Anxi) roasted Tieguanyin.
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February/March Tea of the Month 2015
I decided I’m going to be announcing these early in groups of three months. This gives me a bit more time to combine orders and collect samples. Please suggest teas in the comments or via email teadborg@gmail.com.
Tea of the Months:
- Wu Liang/Ai Lao (February), I’ll do other parts of Simao later.
- Cheap Yancha (first half of March)
- Cheap Oolongs (second half of March)
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Yixing Teapots — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #10
Inbetweenisode Episode #10 from James. This is part two of a two part series on Yixing teapots. The second part covers some basic attributes, advantages and characteristics of Yixing.
Please check out these additional resources:
http://www.marshaln.com/tag/yixing/
http://terebess.hu/english/yixing1.html
http://terebess.hu/english/yixing1a.html -
Origin Tea’s Mr. Du’s High-Fired Alishan [Episode 86]
Denny and James review a really well-done high-fired tea from Origin Tea. The tea is unique in that the roast has been done at a lower temperature for a long period of time. In this episode we erroneously refer to the tea as Hong Shui, when it is actually just high-fired!
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Pu’erh Regions: Yunnan Overview
This article frequently references and links to babelcarp. Babelcarp is a Chinese Tea Lexicon that is an essential resource for tea nerds that want to dive in further and don’t understand Chinese! This article also sources many maps from a TeaChat thread, original sources vary.
Pu’erh tea has been associated with a specific area for a longtime. The term itself is a location (originally a city, now a province). In this way pu’erh is fundamentally different from oolongs, blacks, whites, or green teas. These teas nomenclature signifies the processing and not the location grown. The nomenclature places pu’erh in a realm with some other different consumables, i.e. champagne, Darjeeling tea, or Roquefort. Over the years these geographical ties have been nailed down in increasingly official manners. In 2006, the Yunnan Provincial Supervision Bureau of Technology and Quality specifically stated that Pu’erh tea is a geographically marked product of Yunnan, using large leaf tea leaves that have been dried in the sun (Zhang, Puer Tea Ancient Caravans and Urban Chic). There is tea grown processed and compressed in styles similar to pu’erh in neighboring areas (Laos, Tibet, Burma, etc.), but according to the geographical classifications of pu’erh this tea cannot technically be classified as pu’erh. (more…)
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Yixing Teapots — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #9
Inbetweenisode Episode #9 from James. This is part one of a two part series on Yixing teapots. The first part covers some very basic concepts, including other resources, modern vs. not, and some basic characteristics of clay teapots.
Please check out these resources:
http://www.marshaln.com/tag/yixing/
http://terebess.hu/english/yixing1.html
http://terebess.hu/english/yixing1a.html -
Xi Zi Hao’s 2008 Xi Shang Jia Xi via Hou de Asian [Episode 85]
Denny and James review a ripe pu’erh from the Taiwanese boutique label Xi Zi Hao (Sanhe Tang). Acquired from Hou de Asian. The tea has been lightly ripened and uses better base material than most ripe pu’erh. A very good and interesting tea.
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Mature Pu’erh [November 2014 Tea Drinking Report]
In the month of November 2014, the tea of the month was Mature Pu’erh. During this month, I had Mature Pu’erh at least once a day (unless totally unfeasible). I’ll still consume other teas, but the primary focus is understanding and building a palate for a specific type/genre/region of tea through repetition. This is the most personal blogging type style of post for TeaDB, and the goal is to stretch my palate as well as give recommendations to interested parties.
Vendors ordered from: