Found a Tuocha in East Portland, OR

snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com9/27/05 15: snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com

Hey Melinda, that's a *great* answer. I laughed.

Uho. You got serious on us. I don't like that. Now I'm depressed.

I have a story about platypuses, but you'll have to read it on the other, more appropriate list.

That old dog Lew posted a link previously just because he could. Here's the link he posted:

Sorry. Feel better. I'm drinking a friend's colleague's father's friend's Taiwanese Dong Ding that I picked up from a friend. It looks and feels like a Bao Zhong, and it's pretty damned nice too.

Michael

snipped-for-privacy@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com9/27/05

Swampwater, stePH, is a wonderous soup of life, full of flora and fauna and the makings that feed the food chain right to the top. Me thinks thou dost insult swampwater. Michael

snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com9/27/05

Crymad, would you kindly make mention of a Pu'erh worth mentioning. BTW, I think you're making wonderful progress. Keep up the good work. Michael

Oh, I will. It just won't be for tea.

Are you in or from the area, crymad?

stePH

-- GoogleGroups licks balls.

Even with swampwater being all that you say and more, I wouldn't want to drink it. Would you?

stePH

-- GoogleGroups licks balls.

Melinda wrote: ...

Wikipedia states that although Darjeeling's yearly production of tea is "8,000 to 11,000 tonnes, including local consumption", over 40,000 tonnes of tea are sold as "Darjeeling" every year. That Lipton shit probably isn't real Darjeeling.

On a related note, I wonder about the "Darjeeling" that I buy loose at Wild Oats. It's still pretty good, though. It might be the real stuff.

stePH

-- GoogleGroups licks balls.

The Lipton CTC Assam isn't bad... I don't think it's worth writing home about, but most local Indian markets carry it and it is entirely drinkable. It is very different than the powder they sell in bags to the American market.

Likewise, these days Brooke Bond is owned by Lipton as well. I think it has gone downhill too, but that may just be my tastes.

Personally I think there are better cheap Assam teas available at the corner Indian market, but there are usually worse ones too.

--scott

From what I hear, lots of fake Darjeeling is really from Nepal. Not that Nepali tea is necessarily bad. I have some frankly Nepali tea (Guranse, bought from Teaism) that has a nice honey quality and, depending on the way you brew it, something like the tang you get from lots of Darjeelings.

/Lew

The green tuocha from Tao of Tea is, to my admittedly inexperience palate, quite nice. They're the little single-serving type and two dollars got me seven of them. I drank five cups off one last night, and I'm working on the first cup from another here at work today.

I also picked up an ounce of Sencha Midori (will be my first Japanese green) and an ounce of ginger peach black (scent not encouraging but I'll give it a try). As a bonus, the salesman gave me a little sampling of the "2004 green brick" (maybe half an ounce). If that turns out to be good, I'll buy one and put it away, so that I can celebrate my 50th birthday with some 15-year puerh :-)

As for the ginger peach, if it turns out less than satisfactory I guess I'll be heading back to the Perennial Tea Room in Seattle, which has the best ginger peach I've ever had.

stePH

-- GoogleGroups licks balls.

Scott,

Actually my Indian market is very very small, so this is the only Assam they have there. And sure it's not the best, but I'll tell ya what, compared to any of the general tea bags that are the only things available at my local grocery store...the assam is wonderful. It's all relative. :) Plus, since there are not many loose teas available locally for reasonable prices (I'm not sure I call Rishii or Rep of Tea reasonable in some cases), it's great if I ever run out of other tea (yeah like that's gonna happen).

I don't know if I'll ever try their Darjeeling...like I said, I've bought some bad stuff lately (it was a store brand, cheap and I got what I paid for) and so I'm waiting for my Kyela teas order to arrive. Maybe it will sooth the trauma ::grin::

Melinda

I haven't been impressed by Teaism. I picked up an Assam and a Darjeeling there a couple of weeks back. The Penn. Avenue shop is not far from where I work.

The Teaism tea was stale. It had little flavor, and I have to use twice as much as normal just to get a flavorful cup.

Now, the teas out at Wegmann's were surprisingly fresh and tasty. And I would never have expected that from a grocery store.

I eat and drink at Teaism whenever I'm in Washington, but I'm rarely moved to buy one of their teas to brew at home. This was one of those times. Another tea that's usually good there in my experience is Qing Xiang, an oolong.

/Lew

We always pick up proper rice and burdock root too there.

I am indeed.

--crymad

I'm not falling for your tricky schemes. My mouth is staying shut.

--crymad

Oh, eating there appeared to be a completely different experience. The food that was being served looked absolutely delicious and had a wonderful aroma.

The selection of teas to take home, however...

snipped-for-privacy@gwinn.us/28/05 21: snipped-for-privacy@gwinn.us

We had a little Japanese restaurant in my neighborhood that served a variety of teas and light fare. The teas were unexceptional, but the ambiance was delightful as were the owners. The place went out of business and is missed.

Is this relevant? Don't answer that.

Michael

This is USENET. Relevance is irrelevant. ;)

snipped-for-privacy@gwinn.us/29/05 15: snipped-for-privacy@gwinn.us

Thank you, Derek. Thanks to you my day will be just a little bit nicer.

I'm drinking a Yue Hwa No. 1 TKY, supplied by a friend, which is a Ti Guan Yin tightly fisted and greenly made, but not the greenest possible; it's still flowered, but not quite fruited, that is to say. Any word on this tea?

Michael

You're welcome. Anything I can do to help.

Well, except answer the question.