Fresh tea harvest

[javyn]

My tea from Hong Kong finally came in today after taking one and a half weeks. Ordered from Funalliance.

I got Shou Mei (Long Life Eyebrow), and decided to try the pre-rain Long Jing (Dragonwell) 2006 harvest, even though I have never been much of a green tea fan. I've never had fine tea this fresh before, exciting!

I am drinking the Long Jing now, and have to say it is definately the best green tea I've ever had. The greens I've had previously, were Yamamoto brand Sencha and Imperial grade Gunpowder, neither of which I cared for. The Long Jing has the slightest vegetal taste, to remind me that it is actually a green, otherwise it is so delicate I'd mistake it for a white tea.

What really has me jazzed though, is the look of the Shou Mei! As far as white teas go, Longevity Brow is on the low end of the totem....but what I got in today looks better and fresher than the most high-end Silver Needles I've tried! (It cost more than any of the Needle teas I've drank, too.)

Here are some picts:

Some Long Jing in the gaiwan, wet.

Long Jing

Shou Mei

I'm drinking Long Jing now.

 

[ouch]

As a confirmed "tea-totaler" I understand how you feel. Enjoy the score.


For the last two years or so, I've only drunk oolongs. I prefer the lighter Tung Tings to the more heavily oxidized Ti Kuan Yins and Formosa "Champagne" oolongs. Some greens can be nice, but I never seem to be satisfied with anything but the best Long Gins and Pi Lo Chuns.


Nice to see someone using a gai wan!

 

[rtaylor61]

I used to get some green stuff that looked a lot like that. However, we never tried steeping it. Wasn't bad in brownies!

Randy

 

[javyn]

Didn't care for brownies, but I liked putting it in one of those lamps you fill with water

ouch, I read Shou Mei can compared to the lighter oolongs. I've tried Iron Goddess and thought it was too woody tasting. It was from an asian grocery though, who knows how old it was.

 

[ouch]

Unfortunately, there are no real standards for tea. One purveyor's "imperial" is another's "standard".

 

[Scotto]

Looks good! Now to brew a pot of my own....

 

[ouch]

At 9PM? Better make it decaf.

 

[Ken]

Ouch,

Two excellent sources of green tea are the Imperial Tea Court in San Francisco and Ten-Ren teas in a number of cities. Both sell by mail order. There are any number of excellent teas at Imperial. Ten-Ren sells an outstanding green oolong (the finest grade of the green oolongs they list). Their finest grade green is also worth trying.

Ken

 

[Scotto]

Imperial Tea Court is ridiculously overpriced. For most of us who aren't professional tea tasters you can get excellent quality teas for much less money. Ten Ren is just OK, IMO. For me, if you want upper-middle class end teas, Inpursuitoftea.com is the place to go, and for most everything else, SpecialTeas.com. Needless to say, this is all my particular experience and opinion, and YMMV.

 

[Ken]

Scotto,

My mileage does vary. I'm not sure which Imperial Tea Court or Ten Ren teas you have had, but many of them are superb. Expensive, yes, but compared to wine, even very expensive tea is cheap.

Ken

 

[Ken]

Scotto,

I have never ordered from inpursuitoftea.com, so I checked the site. Their most expensive green tea (matcha aside) is $75 per 1/4 lb. Imperial Tea Court's most expensive is $95. Pursuit's most expensive oolong is $45 per 1/4 lb. ITC's is $55. Not big differences. Moreover, ITC has many more green teas than Pursuit at very reasonable prices. You can find many "upper-middle class end" teas there, as well as still less expensive ones.

Ken

 

[ouch]

I, too, have had much better success with inpursuitoftea.com and specailteas.com. Much better price to quality ratio than Imperial tea. Just make sure you brew it in a necessiteas.com pot.

 

[Scotto]

Scotto,

I have never ordered from inpursuitoftea.com, so I checked the site. Their most expensive green tea (matcha aside) is $75 per 1/4 lb. Imperial Tea Court's most expensive is $95. Pursuit's most expensive oolong is $45 per 1/4 lb. ITC's is $55. Not big differences. Moreover, ITC has many more green teas than Pursuit at very reasonable prices. You can find many "upper-middle class end" teas there, as well as still less expensive ones.

Ken

Whatever floats your boat... You might wish to compare the least expensive teas offered in a category, for example (like a Lung Ching), to see what I mean. For the average tea drinker, you are better off elsewhere.

 

[Ken]

Scotto,

I don't necessarily disagree that Imperial Tea Court is not the best place for the "average" tea drinker. On the other hand, why be satisfied with being an average tea drinker? Tea is cheap enough that you can look for outstanding teas wherever they may be found. A quarter pound of tea makes about 50 cups (and that's not counting multiple infusions of certain greens or oolongs). If you have a tea that costs $100 per quarter pound, it comes out to $2.00 a cup. That's the equivalent of a $10 bottle of wine (with five glasses per bottle). I'm not suggesting that one should spend that (especially on tea that is not of high quality) or that good, modestly priced tea is to be ignored, but the best teas that I have had from Imperial Tea Court have been exceptional. There's room for both inpursuitoftea.com and Imperial.

Ken

 

[javyn]

For a long time I was happy with my 5 dollar Upton Darjeeling, swearing I'd never need or want to buy anything more expensive...well that sure didn't last long lol. I comfort myself now thinking "at least I'm not into Pu-erhs, where some aged bricks can end up costing as much as a car!"