Chinatown and Pu Erh?

[Salsero]

...One good thing about puerh is that ... it is far more structured than other types of tea.

Fine point. I had never thought about how much less opaque the puerh market is than other tea markets. Of course, what is actually in the cakes and how they were processed continues to be subject to exaggeration and disinformation, and there is a real issue of counterfeiting, but in the last analysis the factory system and the large runs make puerh far more identifiable than other Chinese tea. If you tasted Haiwan 9908 from one vendor, chances are good that another vendor's will be the same or nearly the same thing.

When you buy anything besides puerh, the trail ends at the vendor's door. My impression is that many of the best greens and oolongs are produced in small enough quantities that a single vendor may be the exclusive distributor for that farmer or village or processor.

[heavydoom]

I recently paid 34CAD for a lb of really good TGY heavy roast, sweet, caramel like, and chocolatty.

Mmmm, sounds tasty. Where is it from?

i can vouch for this tea. it's yummy!! good thing that not too many folks know about this.

[Salsero]

Hey, TeaChat is being hijacked by the Canucks! They just snuck up on us with their fancy Japanese teaware and roasty TGY.

[heavydoom]

Hey, TeaChat is being hijacked by the Canucks! They just snuck up on us with their fancy Japanese teaware and roasty TGY.

it's a very small world we live in, isn't it?

[Salsero]

it's a very small world we live in, isn't it?

Indeed, yes. I love the international participation on this forum. For many of us, I think the international character of tea culture is one of the big attractions of our favorite beverage.

[Chip]

McNulty's on Bleecker St is a treasure for loose tea. They have one loose Pu Erh and I think they also sell the brick form but not sure.

mcnultys dot com

[tingjunkie]

McNulty's on Bleecker St is a treasure for loose tea.

*EDIT* Just realized the above was your first post- Welcome to the forum. I didn't mean to be so negative in my assessment of the store you like. I'm usually not this much of a grinch, and you shouldn't think I'm representative of the generally welcoming folks on this forum. I'd be happy to recommend some other reliable tea vendors in the city if you want to PM me. Anyway, on with my original rebuttal...

I have to respectfully disagree. Sunlight is not good for keeping tea fresh and flavorful, and these guys store their teas in gigantic glass storage jars not 5 feet from their gigantic glass picture windows (in quantities too big to ever have enough quick turnover of fresh leaf). Also, it's very hard to keep your tea prices reasonable when your overhead includes rent in a posh Manhattan neighborhood.

On the up side, their shop does have a cool, old-fashiony general store vibe to it. Worth popping in just to look if you happen to walk past on the street.

[GongFu]

Hey, same question for Boston?

[TubbyCow]

Hey, TeaChat is being hijacked by the Canucks! They just snuck up on us with their fancy Japanese teaware and roasty TGY.

I haven't spotted any of my fellow countrymen yet (though I haven't really been looking), but it makes me happy to hear there are Canucks aplenty on the forum.

Sunlight is not good for keeping tea fresh and flavorful, and these guys store their teas in gigantic glass storage jars not 5 feet from their gigantic glass picture windows (in quantities too big to ever have enough quick turnover of fresh leaf).

It drives me up the wall when I see tea shops doing this. I get that they probably want to show off the leaf, but one of the first things you learn about tea when you start taking it seriously is that sunlight damages it. It's such a waste, especially when they have teas that look tasty, but I refuse to buy them.