Adjectives.

snipped-for-privacy@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com4/28/05

Marketing. The inscrutable West. You need to be on your toes here.

Michael

Historically tradenames used among traders and not sellers. The terminology has creeped into retail. I buy Imperial Gold Oolong from my local tea shoppe but really is a lightly oxidized TGY. I recently conjectured that Dong Ding and Green Jade Pouchong is the same tea. The only consistency there is no consistency in names. I don't mind the names but to paraphrase Sasha, It's the taste stupid. My green bings arrived from China with the wrappers in shreads. The cakes were intact but some flaking so I got a nice green potpourri blend courtesy of the Post. The seller included a commercial sample of sweet tibetan yak butter instant tea. He said the salty version was only good for 10 thousand foot plus plateaus.

Jim

Mydnight wrote:

descriptors

Sure, it's in the taste, but it's also in what you're willing to shell out even if you are being stupidly cheated. They can lie about too many different variables to try and increase the value of the tea for me to say it's "only in the taste." I am out to always try to find the best tea for the best value, and by now, I usually know when I'm being terribly cheated at shop. If I am going to have to pay out a bunch of cash for some tea, I want to be damn sure it's worth it. My next major purchase will probably be some good TGY depending on if what they are saying about the spring pick turns out to be true. Some of the high grade autumn tea is quite excellent still, and it can be stored for longer than spring tea.

hiya, mydnight.

hey, i was wondering if many of the chinese greens you see commonly from north american tea vendors are readily available at a typical chinese tea shop? teas like spring blossom pekoe, three-cup fragrance, green mist, melon seed....the list is nearly endless, and it seems as if every year i see tea names that are new to me. is the variety just over- whelming there? .................................p*

It really beats me; truly, and it's why I posted this originally.

Chinese tea marketing goes as far to say what kind of tea is it on the container and sometimes the price. If it's of special origin, like Xi Hu Longjing or Huangshan Mao Feng, it will say that in extra big characters on the container. There are no fancy names or neon lights in the common teashop, just a business guy trying to make a buck and a consumer trying not to get cheated. heh.

Green mist might be Yun Wu Lv Cha; it translates to Cloud/Fog (maybe mist) Green tea. Melon seed might be the type of tea they have in Fujian where they take out the center of a Yuzi (pomello) and dry the tea in it, letting it absorb the flavor. I'm no sure about the others...have any Chinese names?

I've been trying to buy Lu'an Gua Pian (melon seed) for years. The last vendor 'unstocked' as soon as I placed a order. I got a sample from another vendor so I'm curious what the leaf should look like. This sample looks like thin twisted green leaf you find anywhere. So is there anything that belies the adjective?

Jim

PS: If you saw this before, blame it > hiya, mydnight.

I thought others had purchased Lu-an. From previous venerable post 'slice' is more correct than 'seed'. In my case I would say 'slivers'. My common variety twisted leaf was an incorrect use of adjectives. It would be hard to descibed a recent Karatina green tea from Kenya. The dry and infused leaf looks like sprouts.

Jim

Space Cowboy wrote:

I was under the impression that "melon seed" refers to the shape into which the leaves are formed, sort of melon seed like. No?

Michael

Space snipped-for-privacy@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com5/3/05

There was a discussion about the meaning of Pian previously in the group. The leaf looks like it went through the cutters on the enlongated axis. The serated edges then curled a tiny bit. How many Chinese did it take to line up the leaf on the drying racks? The seller mentioned the Chinese use of ideograms/pictograms to describe nature is beyond the Western imagination. The Chinese kept such meticulous records of nature for medicinal purposes how come they didn't discover Evolution? The bug on top of the leaf for yang was the same as the bug on the bottom of the leaf for yin except for adaptation. More pu adjectives on the way: a bag of green Tibetan yak pies, a bag of blemished red eye Hsiaguan tuo wrappers.

Jim

Michael Plant wrote:

snipped-for-privacy@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com5/3/05

'slivers'.