Oolong Help

de-generation tea is not a nice vendor, how you describe their oolong sounds like a crappy cheap one.

monkey picked oolong in my experience is something like flowery/ pungent/orchid + nutty/buttery + very low green astringency

an alternative that tastes similar(imho) is high mountain (gao shan) oolong

it all depends how you like the flavor balance - flowery/ nutty/ green

(i've had too much green oolongs, haven't tried any in a while).

Teavana has a "Monkey Picked Oolong"

also, do you have any suggestions of tea places to visit in Chicago, I currently live there. Whereabouts on Sheffield is the store you got your oolong. I sometimes buy things online but am pretty impulsive, so if i need some new tea I usually don't like to wait for an order to ship.

While in Chicago - Tea Gschwendner - Good German vendor (2 locations) Best shop IMHO - I Dream of Tea in Evanston Shen

Thank you very much. Will check them out. I have gone to Tea Gschwender before, i fact went there today to get a new tea pot as I dropped mine and it shattered, however i found out abruptly that they closed their store on Halstead, which was the one I always went to. Will check out I Dream of Tea for sure, thank you dearly.

Maxwell,

My Place For Tea is at 3120 N. Sheffield, parking may be difficult, depending on the time of day. It is just south of Belmont, on the west side of the street. The person there that I have talked to is named Enrico. There is also a good Thai restaurant around the corner from the store.

There is a place in Evanston (1011 Davis St.)called Dream About Tea. I normally stay in Evanston when I visit Chicago, so I am familiar with it. I suppose I am going to start visiting more stores, sampling the tea before I invest in buying.

Enjoy,

Alt> Teavana has a "Monkey Picked Oolong"

Shen,

Thanks for the tip about I Dream Of Tea. I always stay in Evanston when I visit Chicago, just had gotten in the habit of ordering from the internet, but I will visit there the next time I go.

Approximately how long can you keep an Oolong or a Jasmine before you start to notice a change in taste?

What do you think about the freshness of buying tea from an internet site like Upton or Adagio or Teaspring compared with buying at a store like "I Dream Of Tea" or "Tea Gschwender"?

Thanks,

Alt> >> Teavana has a "Monkey Picked Oolong"

There are very many good vendors online - domestically: Upton, SelectTeas,Chado in Los Angeles and I feel the best - Imperial Tea Court, also Red Blossom. Tea Spring and Jing's Tea Shop are excellent (China). I keep greener oolongs through to the next pick season (Spring to the following Spring), sheng pu-erhs in beengs 8 years and beyond, blacks, a little longer than Oolongs - but, this is all contingent upon how much you use and how you store. Many people keep their roasted Oolongs longer (you can do that in airtight, no light containers) and some re- roast. There are innumerable posts in the archives of this group re: storing teas. "I Dream Of Tea" is a smallish shop. The young couple who own the shop (particularly the wife) is extremely knowledgeable about tea and they offer reasonably priced classes. When I travel to Chicago, I always pop in. Too bad about Tea Gschwendner on Halsted; but, rents are really high there and they were pushing all those silly-sweet-artificially flavoured stuff. Welcome to the world of tea! It sounds as though you're already addicted! Shen

I'd say Monkey Picked Oolong does not mean anything in particular other than it is usually some sort of rolled oolong. The "Monkey Picked" stuff I have ranged from very flowery, light, perhaps even flavoured oolongs to very heavily roasted ones. The name doesn't mean a thing, as it is not the name of a varietal but rather just a trade name. Since there's no convention as to what should be a Monkey Picked oolong, people just name whatever they feel like with that name.

I think somewhere along the way this was used to denote a rare oolong tea, but these days, some truly horrendous teas are also called this. Monkey Picked from one store is guaranteed to be completely different from the next, unless they happen to get it from the same wholesaler, which in the case of US vendors, is possible.

MarshalN