Lots of Tea Arrived

[beachape]

My girlfriend and I went a little crazy on taobao. This will be a tour of teas. We got some

WuLong：TieGuanYin (regular, charcoal baked, + different levels),
BenShan, MeiZhan, MaoXie, HuangJinGui,
YanCha: ShuiXian, RouGui, DaHongPao,
Taiwan WuLong: JingXuan, TanPeiDongDing, QingXiangDongDing



So far only tried the Mei Zhan






Also got Some Puer: A large shu bing, a small sheng and shu bing, and a bunch of little different flavored ones.

[Herb_Master]

Sounds like a lot of fun, I hope you will keep us posted with how they brew and taste.

How much they cost, and if they are better valueb than regular online stores.

[TokyoB]

beachape - tried 2 browsers but can't see the photos. Thanks!

[beachape]

Herb_Master: I'll keep you posted on how they go. As for price, they range from $5-15USD for 250g. Save a lot because they are direct from the production region. Shipping to America is expensive, but comparable to other China-to-America sellers.

TokyoB: Seemed to work on firefox and safari for me. Anyone else having problems with the images?

[silverneedles]

mmmm tea

[Salsero]

TokyoB: Seemed to work on firefox and safari for me. Anyone else having problems with the images?

They weren't working for me on Firefox for a while and I tried to fix them, but by the time I had fooled around with tinyurls for a while, they were are working great. The host site must have had problems for a while. I have seen that with Photobucket before.

[gingkoseto]

Herb_Master: I'll keep you posted on how they go. As for price, they range from $5-15USD for 250g. Save a lot because they are direct from the production region. Shipping to America is expensive, but comparable to other China-to-America sellers.

TokyoB: Seemed to work on firefox and safari for me. Anyone else having problems with the images?

I use firefox. The image didn't show up yesterday but are good today!

Did you have the tea shipped directly from the seller or through an EMS agent? I would love to try some tea from taobao, but many sellers are reluctant to ship overseas

[beachape]

Gingko:

We use www.panli.com

They are an agent which ships overseas. EMS and DHL arrive very quickly. Also buying from an agent is good because sellers may give you bad items if they know you are overseas (you can't really return it then).

[Victoria]

I couldn't see them yesterday either, but WOW!! Quite an impressive haul!!
The Mei Zhan looks delicious, how was it?

[gingkoseto]

Gingko:

We use www.panli.com

They are an agent which ships overseas. EMS and DHL arrive very quickly. Also buying from an agent is good because sellers may give you bad items if they know you are overseas (you can't really return it then).

Thanks beachape! I heard of panli but never used it before.
I used another agent to buy from a seller I've known for some time, and then got complaints from the seller saying that the agent tried to take advantage of him. Next time for the same kind of purchase I will try panli.

I wish more sellers can agree to ship overseas. If you pay with alipay (it's the "paypal" for taobao), only after you get the item and confirm, the seller can get the money. That's a good system to guarantee buyer's satisfaction.

[Herb_Master]

Now if only I could read Chinese

[MarshalN]

Hmmm, interesting haul you've got there, so those little pellets are flavoured stuff? Looks like candy

Meizhan is interesting, since you don't usually find them (they are often disguised as something better/more expensive). Do let us know how it turns out!

[beachape]

MarshalN: The little puer things have a variety of "mix ins" like green tea, black tea, rose, sticky rice, peach blossom, liquorice，chrysanthemum，ginseng　ｆｌｏｗｅｒ，　peppermint, etc. Ha they do look like candy. Convenient for a one pot brew.

The MeiZhan was very good. Balanced; not too flowery, not too creamy.

Today I tried BenShan, more floral than MeiZhan. Also tried charcoal baked DongDing, smooth roasted flavor, slightly floral.

Gingko: One good thing about using agents like panli, is that you can combine all of your items from different stores into one shipment overseas.

Benshan tea:




The Benshan was very floral. Not excessive, but lacking sweetness. I'll certainly have to give it a few more goes before I get it down. After I try a few more I'm going to try some side-by-sides so I can compare and better understand the differences.