I just spent a wonderful half hour in "In Pursuit of Tea" in Brooklyn.
Sebastian was great, subtly correcting my pronunciation of "gaiwan" and showing me short movies of tea picking & making in India & China while making me a couple of cups of the Silver Needle Pu-erh which was, if possible, even better than Lew's review of it.
I left with some of each of their Pu-erhs.
As I type, I am sampling the Tibetan Mushroom Pu-erh which is great. Not as subtle or sweet as the silver needle but very flavorful with nice nuances.
Thanks for the recommendation guys!
--Tom
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------------------------------------ "Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto." Terrance
I'm glad to hear you had a good time over there. The films are fun, aren't they? I'm do to visit myself since I'm out of some of my favorites. Did you try (or buy) the aged Lu An? That's the fermented green that comes in a bamboo basket topped with big dry leaves. Tastes of earth and beets. Wonderful. But, the Silver Needles Beencha Pu-erh takes the prize. Nothing else in its class.
Isn't it gettin' on time for those winter Bao Zhongs to start rollin' in?
I'm almost completely out of Oolong. That is *not* a good thing. BTW, and on the subject of Oolong, have you tried Big Apple down on Howard Street, Manhattan? They're pretty cool, they have good stuff, serve formal gungfu -- beware the killer strength though -- and they'll talk with you too, not unlike the IPOT guys. It's Lew's find. How could it be bad?
Let me add that what Michael undoubtedly means by "formal" is that you get gongfu tea service with all the tools and accessories. The atmosphere is far from formal, though: it's loose and relaxed. They'll let you do the brewing yourself if you prefer.
First, Lew is of course quite right about formality at Big Apple. I was referring to the fact that they use gungfu set ups and run the entire routine of heat-ups, rinses, washes, and steeps. The atmosphere is indeed informal, though.
Big Apple is on Howard Street on the North side between Broadway and Lafayette, closer to the latter. You walk up some steps, if I recall. Their sign features "internet," I think. They have a couple computers, and it costs something like six dollars an hour to connect. Not so bad. Lew will have to chime in with a more specific address.
Dean MacinskasBfDKb.444$ snipped-for-privacy@nwrdny01.gnilink.net1/6/04 13: snipped-for-privacy@junk.com
Dean,
I'm at something of a lose here myself -- wish Laylage were around; she knows -- but it seems Brian of ShanShui down in Washington DC is a major player. For me these are finicky teas, not in the brewing but in the finding. Sometimes they're great and just right, sometimes too "viscous," sometimes too thin. It's the melon flower flavor and aroma that hook me. The year before last, IPOT offered a really great one. Last year's IMHO was not as fine. I'm just an amateur, though; the mood of the moment weighs in heavily. (All the above about Bao Zhong.)
More generally, Oolong-wise, I get off on the IPOT Monkey Picked Competition Ti Guan Yin, although I've been out of it for quite awhile. Some remarkable ones I've tasted from Taiwan Tea. I had an aged dark Oolong and a Li Shan from The Oolong Tea Store in New Jersey that I liked a lot. Also, I've enjoyed those I've had from ITC, but I don't enjoy their prices. I tend away from the flowery light green Oolongs and more toward the complex ones with a (slight) resiny, steely, and or woody overlay. The truth? I usually like the one I'm drinking at the moment best.
B&M? Took me a couple minutes. Bread&Mortar, Bread&Roses, Bread&Tea. Got it now. I buy teas from The Big Apple (Something) in NYC on Howard Street between Broadway and Lafayette, a gungfu tea place with internet.I've been known to buy at Ten Ren's shop, but less and less, since they're too big now for my tastes, having bragged to me about their hundreds of locations in China, PR of, that is.
Thanks for your thoughts. I'm still exploring Chinese Oolongs, trying to better understand their character. I live in the Philadelphia area, there is only one real tea store in Phila that I'm aware of and its hours don't correspond to mine very well. Most of my explorations are by necessity done through online vendors, which prompted my original note.
My usual tea of choice is Darjeeling, and thanks to another thread I now think of Darjeeling as Indian oolong. I've had the Gopaldhara WT-8 from Specialteas and thought it extraordinary - the only Darjeeling from which I've ever been able to get good multiple infusions, probably because of the bold leaf style. If this is the wave of the Darjeeling future, I for one am all for it!
Some of the Chinese stores have teas. I've been doing a cross comparision between a Specialteas sample Tung Ting and a Tung Ting I bought in the Hong Kong grocery on Rising Sun and Adams. The Specialteas Tung Ting is better but the cheaper Tung Ting is certainly drinkable. We've had some threads in the past about Chinese store teas. The consensus seems to have been that they varied.
I placed an order by web with Specialteas on Sunday and it arrived today. I believe they have an out and out Darjeeling oolong -- search for all oolongs.
True, but that reduces them to an internet site . The last time I stopped at HoT ( a Monday morning, ~9:30 am) they were closed. I cannot find their hours on the site; I guess I'll have to call them.
Their prices seem high, at least compared to the internet sites I frequent, but I suppose something has to pay the rent.
I took a walk through the Oriental market tea section at Wing Phat plaza on Washington a month or so ago. A huge selection, but as most of it is labeled in Chinese, choosing some would be the equivalent of buying a bottle of wine because one liked the label. The prices certainly seemed low, but I suspect one gets what one pays for. Mostly bagged tea, as I recall. I guess "supermarket" tea is pretty much the same the world over.
A long time ago I tried Specialteas Poobong Black Musk Oolong (#191), and was distinctly underwhelmed. But my tastes have evolved somewhat since then, so perhaps I should try it (or some others) again.
The Hong Kong and a couple of supermarkets in Chinatown have some that's labelled in English in cans. I've discovered a few brands that appear to have chronically weak tea (the boxes with the beveled off corners if I'm remembering correctly), and a SeaDyke oolong that's has a very strong fragrence when you open the outer box (double boxed, with a metal box with two lids on the inside). Some of the prices are in the $2 an ounce range (haven't tried those). The Hong Kong also has some ginsing flavored teas and possibly some other elite teas behind a counter.
I also ended up once with the Puerh that's simply called Black Tea.
Dean MacinskasllTKb.110$ snipped-for-privacy@nwrdny02.gnilink.net1/7/04 07: snipped-for-privacy@junk.com
major snippage...
I don't know if I would say that. While Darjeeling is neither green nor black, it isn't quite "Oolong" either, unless processed that way. Some of the growers are processing an Oolong style Darjeeling tea and it's really nice IMHO.
Me too. Maybe try Kyela Teas in Montreal. Kevin, the proprietor, sells nothing but Darjeeling.
I think Poobong Black Musk is a real outlier. It's very different from the other Darjoolongs I've tasted. When I tried it 3 years ago, it gave off a combination of Darjeeling tang and the kind of cocoa-ish thing you find in a lot of China blacks.
Wen Shan is a small district in Taiwan which produces the best bao zhongs and perhaps more generally the best oolongs I have ever had in my life. The chance receipt of some of this tea started me off as a tea fan. And yes, it is expensive. I have connections (Taiwanese friends) and even when they buy it there it still costs a lot. A bit less than $70 per quarter pound, but not that much. Taiwan's labor costs are a lot higher than China's remember. That said, I've never bought from ITC so can't say how imperial their imperial tea is. You could ask them what prizes it has won.
Oh yes, remember that good bao zhong can be used several times (within a couple of hours I would suggest), so the value is better than first appears. And, since not much is used (judging by weight, not volume) it isn't a bad deal.
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