New member intro and questions

Welcome from an American in China!

1. I am a teacher, but I would really like to open up a teashop here in China sometime and learn about that business. I think an honest shop would do well...since there aren't that many around this area. heh. I don't think I'd want to work in a factory considering the conditions on most plantations, but I'd surely open a shop.

1. My first reaction was of shock. I had done the bag version of "Oolong" and "Green Tea" for a long time, and after my first trip to China after drinking loose leaf....I was sold for life. One of the main reasons for me coming back to China was so I could get my tea again....I missed it so much. That should tell you the power tea has over me....heh.

2. I checked out Chinatown in Toronto, and the few shops I found were sub-par. I was treated pretty rudely, but they may treat you differently because you are Chinese. I guess they thought I knew nothing about tea whatsoever, so they just tried to sell me some rubbish tea.

1. Change color? It depends on how much you handle the pot...if you only play with it for a few minutes each time you use it, it will take a long time for it to age. Rub it for a few minutes each day, and you should see noticeable results more quickly.

May I ask where in China you originally hail from? Different areas have different specialities when it comes to tea.

snipped-for-privacy@rogers.com/8/05 19: snipped-for-privacy@rogers.com

Well, my advise is to stay that way -- forever, if possible.

That makes good sense. Where are you located?

They await you.

That lets me out.

Not so at all. I'm mean spirited, sharp, and I smoke cigars. I don't suffer fools wisely. It takes all kinds. Snoopy would be a nasty hound too if he weren't so damned stupid. (See what I mean?)

That's a worthy dream. Mine is to go to China and travel around hugging the old trees that have supplied my Pu'erh and my Dan Cong. (I guess that wouldn't count as career path, would it?)

Having been raised by Lipton teabag dunkers, I was pleasantly surprised until I came to my first green Pu'erh which was on the far side of disgusting. (I have reevaluated since then, but solely for the purpose of being accepted in the tea community -- another one of my many faults.)

I don't, but isn't Capital Teas in Toronto, and can't that fellow whatshisname help you? Meanwhile, please do share here whatever information you get in this regard, since many of us ask the same question. I intend to get letters of introduction to various tea folks around China before I go.

Well, your vendor was right. But, the changes are so subtle sometimes that the lay person can't perceive them. When you become an expert like the rest of us, you too will be able to see the changes, even after the first steeps. Seriously, it can take more or less time depending on the type of tea you are using to raise your pot, not to mention the density and type of clay. Patience is the key word here.

Or not so great posts. Welcome aboard, Katie.

Michael

Don't rush. It is a lifetime of discovery. If you have access to ethnic shops that includes Chinatwon buy the commercial teas the rest of the world drinks. I don't think anyone here is a tea master but knowledgeable people who have opinions. I don't compare teas but know what I like in a pot. The only tastebuds that count are yours. I'd recommend switching to a glass pot because color and presentation is just as important as taste. If your pot is glazed it won't behave the same as unglazed. When it comes to tea personalities there is only idiosyncratic Rorschach quirks. Over the decades I've weaned several expatriate Chinese professionals off the coffee pot. I wandered down to my local tea shoppe and bought some eastern/oriental beauty and guess what the grasshoppers missed this batch.

Jim

tamkatie wrote:

masters. If

Which would be unfortunate, if you were trying to buy Pong Fong.

According to the last links on the subject

Pong Fong is Eastern/Oriental Beauty, Bai Hao, Champagne Oolong. No evidence of grasshopper munching. It was mainly whole leaf with some fragments but nothing that looked chewed. I don't think this means more than any other potential tea pest.

Jim

Eric Jorgensen wrote:

Hi, Katie and Welcome!

I'm only an expert in what I've experienced. Hope that will suffice.

Sorry, I haven't given it much thought since my focus is as a consumer.

I don't clearly recall my first reaction except that it was favorable. I was a child, in Honolulu, and my parents frequented Chinese restaurants as well as some Japanese and Korean on occasion. It was just something that was part of the landscape. I came to prefer it simply because loose green tea tasted a whole lot better than the tea from Lipton teabags that my dad got in other restaurants. I kept fiddling with those trying various combinations and amounts of sugar, milk, and lemon, finally giving up on non-green teas until a friend's mom turned me onto Bigelow and another friend turned me onto catnip tea and chamomile.

Sorry, I can't answer the rest as they go beyond my scope of knowledge and experience.

I was too quick on the trigger. You helped my gimp. It definitely wasn't Puff tea.

Jim

Space Cowboy wrote:

...I delete me...

Are you from Toronto also? I went to Tian Ran and the sales there also treated me like I knew nothing about teas, and kept trying to see me expensive tea pots...

I try to use my pot at least 3-4 times a week, and often I keep the pu-er leaves in the pot for a few hours before cleaning the pot.

Unfortunately (in terms of being a tea lover) I'm from Hong Kong, but my mom's from ChowChou (I'm not familiar with the English pronunciation sorry) where it's a very common practice to drink pu-er.

Katie tamkatieatrogers.com

With your reference of Capital Tea I went for a little tea hunt today. However, the actual store is closed down, so I think it's only doing online ordering. So I bought some Pu-er from two different stores and so far I'm quite disappointed with the more expensive one (3 times more expensive); will try the other one later.

What are letters of introduction? Are these written by old customers, and then you just present them to the tea ppl??

How many pots do you have? I'm on my first one and I have already forgotten how it looked when I bought it..... lol.... so I can't really tell if it has changed at all. I have taken some pictures with my digital camera though, so maybe I can compare the colours from different times.

Katie tamkatieatrogers.com

snipped-for-privacy@rogers.com/10/05 23:09tamkatie_at_rogers.com

By "letter of introduction" I only meant that I would get contacts from Chinese friends here to their various tea masters in China so I can go there and refer to our mutual friends. A letter of introduction is a letter you can carry along that introduces you to somebody by somebody else who is not present at the moment. (Does that make sense?)

I have upwards of around 20, or just under.

That make sense. It's actually very smart to have something like this, esp when dealing with Chinese.... is this the common practice in the tea world?

w-o-w I'll be saving $ in the coming years for tea pots and tea leaves...

Katie

tamkatie2-ednc6s2LUNka snipped-for-privacy@rogers.com/11/05 16:24tamkatie_at_rogers.com

Katie,

No need for more than one if it's glazed. Many fine tea masters use but one pot for all, and their standing in the tea world suffers not a drop. Letters of introduction are not, to my knowledge connected to the tea world in any way. It's just my idea, and, as you say, probably especially helpful in China.

Michael

No, I'm from the USA. I've decided to stay away from TianRen totally...see my other recent post regarding them...also, you may have to dig to DEC/JAN, but I wrote a review of the TianRen in Chinatown in Toronto.

I've heard it's good to leave the leaves in, and I've also heard it's bad. It's good if you want the flavor to remain, but make sure you use a different pot just for pu'er. The bad side is that it can cause mold to grow inside the pot if the tea is there too long.

Do you know the Putonghua (Mandarian) for it? It looks like Chaozhou, where I'm going next weekend!! hehe. They are very famous for their cha jiu (tea stuff).

Pong Fong story here:

ole k

I read your post back in Jan... TianRen is indeed not a very nice place to go to. I think these chain stores are really bad, because they're from a big company, and they don't care about qualities. Whoever who doesn't know much about tea will always go to these names. I think, it's those small tea shops tucked away off the main street where one would find better teas, because they'll need to sell some good quality tea to stay in business.

I'm still looking for some other tea shops in Toronto. One that stands out is House of Tea. The owner is a tea taster from Sri Lanka and she is one of the friendliest person I have ever meet. She has tea from all over the world. Not knowing that much (yet) about tea, this is the only tea place I keep going back. If anyone of you happen to be in Toronto and would like to give this store a try, please do, I highly recommend it. Here is their site...

also, you may have

Yes, I do reserve my round pot for pu-er, that's why I don't how I'm going to try oo-long without a pot... but I guess being a beginner I should get into all these pot stuff now. I usually clean out the leaves before I go to sleep (except when I'm being lasy) so that will be usually.... 6 hrs with leaves in the pot. But I guess the molding wouldn't happen as often in Canada as in China where it's so much wetter...

Yes, there you go. Chaozhou. I'm so envy of everyone being in China and tasting all the teas!! Are you planning of getting any cha jiu then? =)

Are there any online photo albums from members who've travelled to these tea countries? I would be thrilled to see them.

Katie