Strange Taste?

No dental/oral problems?

No, I brush and floss regularly.

My teeth need a good brushing right now, though.

I've thought about the ulcer thing too.

I wondered if it might be something "tippy" in them.

snipped-for-privacy@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com4/27/05

No, it's not the water; it's your conscious trying to tell you to give up those bloody tea companies specializing in marketry and fakery and buy loose tea from reputable dealers.

Michael

Well, to be honest, this tea is to hold me over until I can get to some better tea.

snipped-for-privacy@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com4/28/05

I hear ya'. I feel your pain. Seriously, if it's something that came up for recently and seems to have spread across the tea horizon, it's most likely a temporary taste glitch that will pass. If it's specific to those teas and companies you mention, who knows. I notice a metalic flavor coming out of some roasted Tie Guan Yins on occasion, and that's considered to be a good thing, provided it's not overwhelming.

Michael

Save your money. Shop the ethnic stores with chump change. With hundreds of commercial teas you'll find something you like. The best news from last year the Taiwan oolongs made it to the shelves. You can't go wrong with a 5lb/$5 bag of Chinese restaurant oolong. You can find plenty of pu in Chinatown for penny/gram. Try to find some of that black Caykur from Turkey in the 500g bags for $3. It's one of the best. The best Ceylon I've ever tasted is an OP from Royal World found in Arabic stores. If the Arabic Assam brands got any more malty they'd need ice cream.

Jim

teadr> > it's your conscious trying to tell you to give up

My first thought would be iron contamination in the water.

--scott

Sounds like a good idea. I'll definitely try that.

This leads me into another topic. What do you think about the tea from Vietnam? Do they use chemicals? I've heard some real horror stories about their products.

Also, a tea lady that I know from Sri Lanka says that she doesn't buy tea from China because of the pesticides.

Sounds like to me you are describing a flavor called "Se" in Chinese. There isn't a very good translation for the word, but it's metallic and bitter tasting. It usually occurs when either the tea has been overbrewed or the actual leaves are of such poor quality that they weren't meant for consumption anyway. Since those teas are bagged, I'm going to go with the 2nd and say it could be due to the poor quality leaves that are usually put into bags.

But, I agree with the others. Try to find loose leaf shops if you can...not because it can save you money because I think the converse, it can cost you much more than bagged, but because it simply tastes better.

Well, I haven't found any 5 lb bags of tea yet.

What I did find was mostly tinned tea from China: oolong, pu-ehr, jasmine, gunpowder green ($1.50 for a small package), litchi black tea. About $4.00 (a good price).

Most of the tea came in 100 or 150 gram tins. The largest tin I saw was about 500 grams, for about $7. All from China.

They had a fair number of tea bags as well.

Some of my other favorite products were also cheaper than the super market.

In Washington DC, try the Da Hua Market on 7th st. They charge seven bucks for the 5 lb. bag of Foojoy, though.

--scott

Five pounds of tea is a *commitment*. I doubt I'd do that without tasting some first.

/Lew

Mine too. Some readers may remember my posting an experience like that from Calcutta that was due to iron in the water.

/Lew