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…)
Category: Oolong
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TeaHome’s Mid-Fired Dongding [Episode 149]
Getting back to our roots, with a mid-fired Dongding from Teahome. Sweet, aromatic, and easy to drink.
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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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Teahome’s Legend of Dongding — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #71
Another oolong!? This one is the Legend of Dongding, a very reasonably priced, decent tea from a very underrated vendor.
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Global Tea Hut’s January Tea Club — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #70
Another review of the tea club. This is of the Taiwanese-based magazine Global Tea Hut puts on featuring a small amount of “Old Man Dongding”.
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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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Cha Ceremony’s Premium Rou Gui [Episode 141]
Sample provided courtesy of Marcus at Cha Ceremony. This is a dark roasted Rou Gui that’s a nice change of pace to the pu’erh we’ve been quaffing.
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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…) -
Tea from Vietnam’s Gui Fei Oolong [Episode 138]
OMG!? They’re reviewing something not pu’erh. Already off the beaten path, this episode is Tea from Vietnam’s bug-bitten Gui Fei oolong.
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Bana Tea’s Jade Buddha Da Hong Pao [Episode 133]
A Yancha from Bana Tea. This is a fun drink from Linda Louie and a nice change of pace from all the pu’erh we’ve been quaffing!