any good tea store in los angeles chinatown?

--RE: any good tea store in los angeles chinatown?--

i like Wing Hop Fung (

). 2nd floor has a huge variety of teas, and you can try before you buy. they also have a good selection of teaware at reasonable prices.

Far East Plaza, across the street, often has some ok teas, too, but you can't try them first. They're yinzhen is cheaper there (and when I last had it, better than WHF).

there's also a Tenren in the same plaza as WHF:

Though their selection is limited and...see the recent discussion on here for more opinions of their tea...i've liked their oolongs. That particular store will often ignore non-asians, so if you're not asian, be sure to wave your arms about and scream if you need help.

thanks, 'huge variety' sounds great! will go try them soon, i'll make sure to take my extra long arms for waving :)

Thanks Jason, got to Chinatown - Wing Hop Fung

check it out, they have 20% off tea & tea accessories, until July 10

2006 (but, you do have to buy a 1$ 'store card' to get the discount.)

liked the selecti> --RE: any good tea store in los angeles chinatown?--

I'm glad you liked it! I didn't have to pay for my store card, but I got it three years ago (and have quite a few points on it!)

I think some of their stuff is overpriced, but the selection is great and unique in LA county (that I know of). I don't recall if I mentioned it (this reply page doesn't show old threads), but they also have a store in monterey park that's nicer.

did you buy anything or taste anything that you liked?

~j

SN wrote:

yup, got a couple yunnans (good, the expensive one does taste smoother, and wife likes it better!), keemun (good & cheaper than my 'source'), and qi-men 'red' tea (good), and some regular green tea. gonna get some jasmine, and some others,

thx,

SN.

Jas> I'm glad you liked it! I didn't have to pay for my store card, but I

hey Jason can you recommend any green, oolongs in chinatown? i had some bagged oolong, and some loose regular green, thats about it. thanks.

Hrm. I haven't tried any greens or oolongs stateside this year cuz I bought mine in China. But I recall that last year WHF had a good "spring rain" green, which I think was a biluochun or biluochun analogue. I like vegetal pungent greens and really enjoyed it. Actually, I did taste their hou kui this year, which was alright, but they used boiling water so it was a bit overdone. I didn't buy any.

The oolongs I've had and liked have been "high mountain" oolong and "eternal flavor" or "eternal spring" (they're "spring" happy there) oolong, the latter was a lighter firing than the former, and both were good, but I haven't had the upper grades of oolong (the most i've paid is $60/lb), so my recommendations aren't that well informed. I haven't tried their dancong. They don't carry any wuyi rock oolongs loose, only in a can, and they're terrible.

Their Monterey Park store has a better tea tasting setup, so you might want to try there if you'd like to go through several infusions of each tea before you try it. The Chinatown store is a bit crowded and rushed re: this. In either place, don't be afraid to ask if you want to try something before buying.

other stores: i had a "wen shan baozhong" (quotes here indicate yeah-rightness) that was overpriced and dark at a bigger TCM shop, and it was just ok. I bought TKY from "far east center" last year and it was passable, but nothing like the orchid breadiness of anxi TKY.

~j

SN wrote: