I just got back from a visit to a small sort of "out of the way" shop/restaurant in my hometown, and I wanted to attempt a review.
Please keep in mind that I am pretty new to tea (2 years) and still developing tea "taste buds" and they are far from developed!
With those caveats in place, I have to say that I just had a GREAT experience in this shop. I had a Spring Oolong tea (this years, I was specific about asking that), and it was absolutely amazing. My only real Oolong experience in the past has been fairly generic blended and probably machine harvested, and I could not believe the difference between those teas and this one.
The tea is High Mountain Tea From Taiwan. I did not catch the estate name, but from what I could gather, the owner of the shop was actually part of the family that ownes the estate, which I believe when she explained to me that she was going home to help with the harvest shortly.
She explained that the tea is hand picked and rolled. I don't know yet how to tell the difference, so I will describe what I saw. The tea that I had was 4 leafs and a bud. It was served "Gong Fu" style (is that the right way to say it?) and was rinsed, then brewed and served. The owner explained that she did not brew for a set time, but rather filled the pot, and when the water level went down, she knew it was ready.
She also showed me their award winning tea, and that was 2 leafs and a bud, which she explained was their highest quality tea. The awards that the tea had won were on the wall, tho I personally could not make much out of them, as I really did not know what I was looking at.
The owner was very happy to talk to me about the tea, in halting english, but fairly understandable, I would say that what I did not understand was more my lack of comprehention rather then her explaination.
Bottom line was as I left she offered for me to return at any time to do a tasting of all their varieties (4 or 5 I believe). Very friendly and helpfull, and I will definately go back to grow my own knowledge.
If there is any experts here in the Oakville/GTA region that is interested in checking this place out, I would love to hit it with someone who knows good quality tea from bad, I know what I like to taste, but admittedly I am no expert when it comes to discerning the higher quality tea from the generic tea that is out there (as demonstrated by my previous posts ;) )
Anyhow, as Dominic previously pointed out I have not contributed much to this board before, so hopefully this little discovery is a valuable one, to be assessed by the experts here! :)
Cheers
Mike