TeaDB

Category: Drinking Report

  • 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…)

  • 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…)

  • All I Want For Christmas.. YangQing Hao Report feat. Grill

    All I Want For Christmas.. YangQing Hao Report feat. Grill

    YangQing Hao is a Taiwanese brand of pu’erh teas ran by Yang, a collector of old pu’erh. Other than the odd production here and there, Yang produced the bulk of his teas in the mid 2000s. Nearly all of his teas come from Mengla County and Yang can be seen viewed as a greater Yiwu area specialist. A small selection of these teas were originally sold by Houde and later by Origin, but have been sold out and unavailable for a couple years. Thanks to Emmett and his group orders nearly all of Yang’s catalog has become recently available at Taiwanese retail prices. (more…)

  • Tea Reports 2015 & 2016, Soliciting Feedback & Looking Forward

    As many of you may have noticed the tea of the month reports haven’t exactly been on schedule. They’ve often gone longer than expected and I still have countless unfinished samples which I am trying to drink through. First things first.. I’ll be finishing the last two reports at the end of 2015, Taiwanese oolongs to age & the box (aka aged oolongs). While it may seem premature to brainstorm/discuss how to continue these sorts of reports, it often takes a time to get these together without placing extraneous orders. These reports are the most personal tea journeyish projects that I do on TeaDB, but I’d certainly be curious to solicit some feedback. (more…)

  • Loving the Crane is Hard to Do. Tuition/Xiaguan Report Log for the Newb [August 2015 Drinking Report]

    Loving the Crane is Hard to Do. Tuition/Xiaguan Report Log for the Newb [August 2015 Drinking Report]

    After such wonderful raw pu’erhs in previous months, why subject yourself to lowly factory tea. Believe me. I asked these questions many times. So why do it? (a) I really need to do a stash check and determine how these teas really are. (b) I’ve made alot of mistakes in buying pu’erh, wasting both space and money. Many of these were my tuition, and I think it can be an illuminating exercise to look back and reflect. If you’re only interested in my opinion on young or old premium tea you can probably stop reading and come back when the younger Menghai County report comes out in a few weeks. (more…)

  • 5+ Year Old “Menghai County” Raw Pu’erh [July 2015 Tea Drinking Report]

    5+ Year Old “Menghai County” Raw Pu’erh [July 2015 Tea Drinking Report]

    Shoutouts to Dignitea, Brian (double B), and Hster for providing teas for this month and allowing the content to be what it is!

    By now you know the drill. I drink a bunch of teas following a certain theme. Blah, blah, blah. This month is Menghai County. One problem.. Menghai County is big and I have a ton of teas that qualify. So, like the Yiwu reports (1, 2) I’ve split this in two. So why am I doing 5+ year old Menghai County tea first? Simply, I’m more calibrated for these semi-aged teas because I more recently have been tasting through similarly aged “Yiwu” teas. (more…)

  • Not Quite so Young “Yiwu” Raw Pu’erh [June 2015 Tea Drinking Report]

    Not Quite so Young “Yiwu” Raw Pu’erh [June 2015 Tea Drinking Report]

    Big shoutouts to Dignitea and Brian (double B) for providing teas for this month and allowing the content to be what it is!

    Welcome to Part 2 of the overly-indulgent Yiwu report. Part 1 was young teas and was composed principally of western vendor’s own productions. This month represents a portion of not quite sp young teas, marketed and sold as Yiwu. With a little over 20 teas, it’s shorter than last month. As most pu-heads know the landscape has been very dynamic in the last 20 years. Even though much of the tea from this month is only a few years older than Part 1, it’s a very different era. I’m also going to be preemptively splitting my Menghai County report into two (July and August). (more…)

  • “Yiwu” Raw Pu’erh [May 2015 Tea Drinking Report]

    “Yiwu” Raw Pu’erh [May 2015 Tea Drinking Report]

    Big shoutouts to Carolyn, Richard, Dignitea and several vendors for providing teas and others like Shah8 for their recommendations! A brief disclaimer: This report should be taken as my own personal journey into tea and not as the ultimate, definitive anything.

    WTF Part 1!? These reports have been getting progressively longer. Rather than do something sensible, (a) get an editor to reduce flab and misspellings or (b) allow my mom or girlfriend to chuck out samples/stage an intervention… I stuck my middle finger out and indulged.. That’s right! This report is even longer than the previous one and will be released in two installments. The first will cover the young tea and the second will consume the Yiwu with some age (somewhat arbitrary set as 8 years). (more…)

  • Yancha (Wuyi Oolongs) [March 2015 Tea Drinking Report]

    Yancha (Wuyi Oolongs) [March 2015 Tea Drinking Report]

    Big shoutouts to Brian, Carolyn, and Richard (+vendors) for providing several of the teas for this month and allowing the content to be what it is! I hope you like long-form content, because this tea of the month report is truly massive.

    In the month of March 2015, the tea of the month was Yancha. During this month, I had Yancha 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. (more…)

  • May/June/July Tea of the Month 2015

    Here’s the announcement of the next batch of tea of the months. Feel free to drink alongside, give suggestions, etc. Due to being egregiously and hilariously over my tea budget, I’m not sure how much I will be able to accommodate specific requests!

    • Greater Yiwu, Mengla County + Youle (May 2015)
    • Menghai County (June 2015)
    • Aged Oolongs (July 2015)

    (more…)