Re: Where do you generally buy your tea?

I buy on-line from Cultured Cup, but primarily because they sell my favourite tea (Mariage Freres Bolero) which I cannot find anywhere in Canada, and with difficulty in the US. The service is, however, excellent, shipment is prompt and reasonably priced, and the product is in top condition upon receipt. What more can one ask for? Well, if you live in Dallas, TX you can go to the store but for me, mail order from them has been great.

rona

Ethnic stores, not necessarily near. I enjoy the discovery and usually am the minority of one. I'm in an authentic la-de-da tea house last weekend and for $8 only got one cup of chai with my scone which was nothing more than a biscuit with icing. Hey I ain't coming back and didn't buy any of their 100's of loose teas where nothing was under $5/oz.

Jim

On 27 Sep 2003, ws posted the following to rec.food.drink.tea:

For the last 8 years, I've bought from a small shop in Minneapolis with a big selection. A couple of years back, they started carrying Marriage Freres teas and my wife and I really enjoy them.

I'm expecting/hoping to be moving in the next couple of months so my habits will probably change. Fortunately, La Societe du The has an online presence now, so I'll be able to order online after the move.

Please, Lord. Let me get the job!

Derek

I do some tea shopping in Asian markets in my city (Winnipeg, Canada) but they're only good for mid-grade chinese greens and some of the dark pu-erh beencha and tuocha.

The rest of my shopping is all online. In particular:

specialteas.com for chinese greens and black teas funalliance.com for oolongs and tea equipment pdalien an ebay seller that I just found selling some Menghai beencha and other green pu-erh (really expensive shipping, though).

If I can just convince Kam Leung of FunAlliance to carry green pu-erh, I'll have all of my bases covered.

Cameron

Have you ever tried the coffee/tea shop in Osborne Village? They have a small selection of black teas of decent quality. I don't much care for the owner's (I think) attitude so I rarely buy from them. It's the place that sells Godiva chocolates.

rona

i buy my tea from:

Ah... The Canister. There are a few major problems with that store. Since they sell coffee and chocolate as well as tea, the air is saturated with aromas that will work themselves into the tea. Also the teas are stored in bulk inside of clear glass containers which subject the tea to light degradation as well as excessive air-exchange when customers are allowed to smell them. I had high hopes when I went to visit them, but I don't think it's a good tea store.

Thanks though,

Cameron

Online from Upton and sometimes Adagio.

I get In Pursuit of Tea from Real Foods in Manhattan.

McNulty's in Greenwich Village carries a variety of packaged teas (Taylor's & Harrowgate and Fornum & Mason) but they have loose Assam and Darjeeling that is really quite good as well.

I go to Ten Ren for oolongs (Manhattan chinatown or Flushing).

A co-worker whose wife is Chinese drops stuff on my desk from time to time which has arrives from relatives in China.

This ng has turned me into a shameless junkie.

Warren Liebold

For Oolong, green, pouchong, white and pu-erh, TenRen in Manhattan and San Francisco.

For black teas, which I buy for my wife and rarely for myself, specialteas.com Sometimes JavaGirl in Manhattan because I work right down th street.

-ben

I purchase mostly from online or mail-order stores, and to locate these, I rely strongly on opinions of customers who happen to be on this list or Teamail or are local enthusiasts.

For bricks-and-mortar retailers (and who knows? perhaps even for some online) it can be tricky. In my locale there are both a specialty coffee dealer and a specialty tea dealer, neither of which has anything I'd want to buy. It's quite possible to have a local retailer whose standards are not quite up to yours! Sometimes business people forge relationships with vendors for reasons other than quality of product: easy to deal with, good terms, consistency, etc.

For myself, I have been trying a number of online/mail-order dealers, mostly for greens: SpecialTeas, In Pursuit of Tea, Silk Road Tea (Calif.). I am still sort of a novice with online/mail-order. I also buy some oolongs from the Ten Ren store in Manhattan.

I'd say -- ideally -- try to find a dealer who really knows a lot about tea, is excited about tea, and communicates that excitement to you. Maybe you'll enter the shop to buy a particular tea, and they'll be excited about a different tea that just came in and they really want to give you a sample to try. Or their good taste in expensive tea will trickle down to their cheaper ones, so you get more bang for your buck than you might elsewhere.

And when you find this prize person, please tell all of us who and where!

Joe.

I wouldn't buy loose tea from them. While I have nothing against coffee, the shop is permeated by the aroma of coffee being ground. Couple that with the way they store tea in glass jars with loose-fitting lids and there's little assurance that what you buy will taste right.

/Lew

What you say absolutely makes complete sense, but the Golden Darjeeling and Golden Assam are just surprisingly good for the modest price. I haven't purchased from them very regularly, but when i did I was pleasantly surprised.

Brick & Mortar Answer:

Where I live, brick and mortar shops (generally places that sell tea as a secondary product to coffee) generally sell sub-par tea at inflated prices. There is an international grocer nearby that sells products from around the world that has quite a selection of tea. When I first found this place I was excited about the wide assortment. However, most of what I've tried has been not to my liking except for a very affordable Assam (at $0.01US per gram) which I drink occasionally and mid-range (in taste) Dragonwell. I also picked up some nice Japanese greens at a Japanese grocer in Cary, NC last year but it is a bit of drive (>1000 miles). If I ever get anywhere close to Edgewater, NJ, I'd probably go broke. Luckily, a friend of mine, goes to Japan occasionally and always brings back an interesting selection.

Online Answer:

Dens Tea for various Japanese Greens Special Teas for various Oolongs, Chinese Greens & Loose-Leaf Pu-erh

I've also ordered from Capital Tea (in Toronto), Adagio, & TenRen.

PS If anyone knows of an online source for Kanematsu (sp?) Tea Company's offerings, please share.

I forgot to add that there's another bricks & mortar shop in Greenwich Village that stores tea better: Porto Rico Cofee & Tea on Bleecker just east of Sixth.

/Lew

On 01 Oct 2003 10:27:11 -0400, Lewis Perin tripped the light fantastic, then quipped:

I've ordered Ceylon Kenilworth, Golden Yunnan, and Keemun 1st Grade (?) from Porto Rico's web site

Tee

Porto Rico (in the Village) was one place I bought my tea before I heard the siren call of the online tea places.

I was shopping for greens, and thought their Organic Hairpoint Green was the best of their offerings. The last time I bought it, though, the batch seemed tainted by an "off," smokey flavor that wasn't there before.

I have not tried their blacks, and my memory of their oolongs has faded.

Their prices are indeed quite reasonable.

The teas I bought at McNulty's always seemed subpar, but notice of late they have a "premium" area with a few teas like whites, Darjeelings, etc. These are still, however, stored in the familiar glass canisters. Haven't tried 'em.

Joe

I generally buy my tea directly from the origin of the country throught my friends. I am from Bangladesh, and India, Srilanka,Nepal,China all countries are not so far where i stay. I always manage Srilankan, indian, nepalese tea fresh. But yes for chinese tea i depend on on-line vendors such as uptontea(recently not so happy with their service anymore), Imperialtea,gray&seddon. But trying to get some direct connection from China. This way I also save a lot of money. The reason i am saying because Bangladesh is also a tea growing country and i have visited many tea estate in Bangladesh,India and Srilanka. I have found one thing Unfortunatly the real tea grower companies never get the good price except some brokers. So I always prefer to buy directly from the country. I am not sure but my understanding is on-line vendors minimum make 150% profit on this business. One of my friend also own tea garden and he always supply fresh indian and bangladeshi tea to me. He always express his anger to me, how this on-line tea vendors are making so much where as a grower they get little profit. All you need to check couple of on-line tea vendor and take some time to order. About shop well, same as Lew, I don't prefer to buy from them.

Ripon.

Perhaps I expressed myself clumsily, but I'm perfectly happy to buy from shops that store their stock well; I only complained about one shop that doesn't.

/Lew

We come from the city of Taiwan where is a beautful city and grow tea everywhere.It also provites more than a half amount of taiwan teas .We hope to provide the cheapest and hightest quality tea for everone who likes it as us.

In taiwan we also sale in