What's good at TenRen?

Wait... it's after April Fools Day isn't it? Seriously though, hit or miss with a large number of misses pretty much sums it up. It's not that there is anything inherently wrong, just that for the most part equal or better tea can be had for cheaper elsewhere and online. I have heard some good things about a few of their oolongs and especially the boxed tins they sell... but I'm not one for green or flowery oolongs so it limits my experience. They will occasionally have a really special tea or two though.

I got a pretty good Dragonwell from them, but not much else. Teaspring can easily match or beat them in a number of teas. My experience was met with disinterested, hurried, and slightly rude Taiwanese women who weren't the least bit interested in offering any information or assistance even though I was spending quite a bit of money with them. YMMV, and it seems it varies with each tea too. Houde is in a class above Ten Ren from my experiences.

- Dominic

HouDe is not in China; he's in Texas. Both HouDe and Teapsring, as well as Jing's Tea Shop are worth every penny. HouDe, especially, is extremely honest and reliable and stives for top quality. Actually, when I saw the header on your post, most initial response was "nothing". Shen

PS- You probably won't save any money; but, you'll no longer be wasting it at TenRen. The bit more you'll pay at HouDe or Teaspring or even, Imperial Tea Court is worth it when you consider the top notch teas you'll be drinking. BTW, shipping from TeaSpring is $3.95 and from HouDe $5.00. Jing's is especially fine tea, as well, and Sebastien and Jing offer samples that are worth a try. Shen

HouDe is not in China; he's in Texas. Both HouDe and Teapsring, as well as Jing's Tea Shop are worth every penny. HouDe, especially, is extremely honest and reliable and strives for top quality. Actually, when I saw the header on your post, most initial response was "nothing". Shen

The Ten Ren teas are all from Taiwan, and are different than mainland Chinese teas.

The pricing and quality at Ten Ren do not seem to be correlated well at all. I strongly recommend getting the second to lowest grade Oriental Beauty tea, and also their second lowest grade tikuanyin. Most of their more expensive teas are very overpriced. Oh yes, and the cheapest osmanthus is worth trying if you like flavoured teas; as you go to higher grades they seem to get more heavily scented and the tea flavours are lost under the osmanthus flavours.

--scott

I did not notice this in the store, but on the site they have 2 separate categories, china ti kuan yin and taiwan ti kuan yin. Didn't check all the other types..

That's interesting.. I'm not really into flavored teas, but I got their 2nd to last grade of ti kuan yin (which is 'grade 3' according to the website), and it's very noticeably inferior to 3rd from last tung ting 'dark oolong', which is 'grade 2' in the store. However, in the store it didn't say whether it's chinese or taiwan ti kuan yin, so this may be a different tea.. Which one did you try and where did you get it? thanks!

Those two dark oolongs I tried were quite good, though, and not expensive. I think it may be a matter of me liking dark oolongs over medium or green ones. I tried quite a few teas from IPOT and Imperial Tea Court, and even though some of them are better in terms of flavor and fragrance complexity, they also almost always have a tiny bit of brightness and astringency that subtract from the experience for me. I need to try to get dark oolongs from IPOT and teaspring and other places I mentioned. I wish they sorted oolongs in the category of dark, medium and green!

They are a Taiwanese company and have traditionally sold only teas from Taiwan. They may well be selling stuff from the mainland now as well because it's just so damn much cheaper.

I normally buy from the store in Rockville, MD, although I will occasionally buy from their store in NYC when I am there. I have bought from the big store in Taipei once, and they have a lot more higher end teas but the lower end stuff is the same. And to be honest, their higher end teas are more expensive but not much better.

A lot of people here have complained that of high pressure sales at Ten-Ren, but I have noticed that only once. And that was in NYC, where I kind of expect it everywhere anyway.

--scott