I’ve never really considered doing: one post, one tea reviews on TeaDB. It’s the most standard type of tea blog and I don’t think I have much to add beyond what many of the blogging warriors have done so already. I’m also not great at waxing poetic in tasting descriptions nor do I have the photography skills of some others. Nevertheless, I’m making an exception. For many of the nicer teas we’ve brought onto the show viewers have complained that we’re not doing the tea justice by chugging 7 or 8 brews in 15-20 minutes. And they’re 100% right! We’re not going to film 1.5 hour episodes and are drinking fast out of necessity so we can cover more than just 2 or 3 infusions of these teas. In short, it’s not how we’d drink the tea in any other circumstance.. (more…)
Category: Drinking Report
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Early Yunnan Sourcing Production Aging Mini-Report & Some Pu’erh Thoughts
Many of the original pu’erh productions by western-facing vendor were in the 2009 or 2010 and principally done by Essence of Tea and Yunnan Sourcing. A lot has changed since then, and while there’s the odd production that has stayed somewhat consistent (i.e. YS Wuliang) both vendors are making from very different gardens and areas now. All of the retastes are still available, and despite them being double (or more) of the price originally sold the pu’erh market has risen meaning most are still reasonably priced and attainable as mid-range, dry-stored tea. (more…)
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Give me Guangdong or Give me Death. Factory Tea Report
Young pu and now factory tea. Aren’t you the guy that published that super-negative Xiaguan report. At least young pu’erh is popular in our western pu’erh community. Who the hell is talking about factory tea in the west? Other than the odd cake here or there, or a LP/Toby group buy most of our pu’erh drinkers are chugging White2Tea, Bitter Leaf, Yunnan Sourcing, Essence of Tea, Crimson Lotus, etc. Then we have another collection of drinkers buying up Yangqing Hao and Wistaria. Factory pu’erh is the neglected child, that is championed amongst some old school drinkers, a group of drinkers that isn’t really represented in the western pu-sphere. (more…)
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FOMO. 2016 Premium Young Tea Report
If you have been living in a cave with your pu’erh stash for the past 15 years and arejust reemerging to restock your stash, I have some news for you. You should’ve bought apple stock. And google. And loads of pu’erh. Young pu’erh is expensive now. There was a time not so long age when three figure young pu’erh was considered an outrage. Now it’s commonplace and very easy to spend over $100 for a tiny little 200g beeng that may not even be that good. (more…)
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Wistaria Pu’erh Mini-Report [April/May 2016]
Wistaria (website) is an iconic, Taipei teahouse. The building itself is nearly 100 years old and lived through its share of history. As a teahouse, Wistaria and it’s proprietor (Zhou Yu) have played an important role in the development of modern chayi (tea art) and tea culture in Taiwan. For tea folks or people traveling to Taiwan looking for a tea experience, it’s usually one of the first places on the list. The tea menu is a mix of Taiwanese tea, older teas, green tea, pu’erh, etc. It’s also relatively English friendly with an English menu and a conversationally fluent staff. (more…)
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Mature Pu’erh Report [March 2016]
I drank through these teas in March of 2016.
The last mature report was about 16 months ago, but with my Taiwan trip approaching I figured it was about time to drink through my lingering pile of samples.. This report is a mix of teas I own, teas still available from western vendors, and other teas that have since sold out. After traveling through Taiwan and Hong Kong in October my feelings on the market have changed a bit as the limitations present in the mature pu’erh market out west (really a subsection of already a niche market) have become increasingly obvious.. (more…)
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The Box. Aged Oolong Report
The aged oolong market in the west leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the time the teas are usually significantly flawed (re-roasted/sour), overpriced, or more often than not both. A couple years ago, I was lucky enough to sample a number of aged oolongs from Tony of Origin Tea that were offered off-shelf. This helped to give me some perspective on aged oolongs, but also move me into the cranky, old curmudgeon category of a drinker who seems constantly dissatisfied and cynical with the online tea scene at least for this tea genre. Don’t get me wrong, I’m nowhere near an expert but I have gotten a taste of the Taiwanese market to at least know that the idea of aged oolongs being good value teas with consideration to age (true in TW) is not extended to the western market. (more…)
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The Much Delayed Taiwan Oolongs Teas to Age Report
Better late than never, right? I announced this tea of the month about a year ago and have had samples sitting around forever. The original goal of this report was to find some decent oolongs to age for the future. The samples from Mountain Tea and Teahome, two vendors that each had a few inexpensive options for roasted oolongs. Because these were acquired a while ago, they’re mainly teas from Winter 2014. (more…)
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HK Report
Big thanks to those that contributed knowledge and time to helping make this a successful trip. You know who you are!
Hong Kong is a very different place than Taipei. Not having been to either, I naively expected a few more similarities. They’re both just big cities in east Asia, right? HK is dense, dense, dense, and built vertically and in general is far more commercial and fast-paced. While I’m more naturally inclined towards somewhere like Taipei, HK has a lot of very nice things that I greatly enjoy, especially the food. Dim Sum, Chinese bakeries, all cheap compared to Seattle prices. Yumm… We spent ~10 nights in Taiwan and four in Hong Kong. The first couple days were used doing relatively standard tourist things (going to tall buildings, Victoria Peak, Star Ferry) which left a bit of time for tea shopping. (more…)
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Shopping for Tea in Taiwan
Forever alone.. Being a pu’erh addict in the west is a lonely endeavor and how we intake information and buy tea is in all likelihood very different than the average Asian pu-head. We’re often resigned to the tea table/closet all by our self. If we’re lucky we can get a good friend/significant other to come over once a month to humor us but we’re mainly drinking alone and talking to each other on instagram.. It’s no wonder why teapets are so popular..
In the western tea scene… 65ml teapots are in high-demand.
In the western tea scene… we get teeny, tiny boxes of tea shipped monthly.
In the western tea scene… a cake is most definitely not a sample.
In the western tea scene… we occasionally indulge with **gasp** multiple 200g cakes that we we still have trouble getting through! (more…)