TeaChat

Anyone splurged on this? It's only sold in 10g packages.

ZO99: Top Competition Tie-Guan-Yin
Description:
This handmade specialty Oolong is the finest Tie-Guan-Yin we have seen in recent years. The liquor is smooth and sweet, with a complex, orchid-like aroma. Available in very limited quantities.

https://secure.uptontea.com/shopcart/it ... iceRange=0

Yikes! Well I hope it is good for that price!
They are not even saying what harvest it is from.
Please report back and let us know what you think if you get it.

I think some of the best TGY comes from
Jing Tea Shop.
http://www.jingteashop.com/cat_anxi_oolong_tea.cfm

Oh wow, that is crazy! It must either be extraordinary, or just beyond my palate haha, I'd be afraid of not picking up the flavors or something!

Actually I'm not too tempted to try it. I did once purchase one ounce of a very high grade Anxi TGY from Ito-en. It was something like $60/oz and was amazingly good. In fact I haven't yet had as good a TGY but then again, haven't paid anything near that price again. I don't typically think of Upton as a high end tea source.

Ditto.

I would be interested to try it, or at least get a comparison.

Upton may not specialize in wulong, but I don't see any reason to doubt that this would live up to the standard of a competition winner. I guess it just depends on how much you like jade wulong and your willingness to buy teas in that price range. The bottom line is that tea vendors carry what they think they can sell; since Upton caters mostly to westerners they focus more on, and specialize in, black teas and such. Their wulong isn't the best, but I found them to be decent for venturing out from black and green; I found their wulong to be about on par with Adagio, SpecialTeas, and Tao of Tea, perhaps even a little better depending on what you get and when. I think that any vendor is going to have a few gems; what will differentiate the really good vendors is just how many gems they have

Agreed. It's just that buying tea online without having tried it is always a risk. My m.o. has been to find a vendor who's taste I trust like HouDe for Taiwan oolongs and now Wuyi yancha as well or White Crane for Japanese greens, Seven Cups for a number of Chinese teas, etc. As for Upton I've found many of their teas to be just okay. However I ordered mostly Japanese and Chinese greens from them. It looks like they have a broader and maybe better quality selection of black tea, including Darjeelings. Also, I have noticed that they do seem to be carrying a bit more in the way of more premium oolongs recently. I did recently get their TT54: Special Production Formosa Black Tea which is very good and premium priced at 40g for $28.80.
I do have a $50 gift certificate at Upton and trying to figure out how best to use it - might try some of the other premium oolongs or keemun's. I could use some more Japanese green tea (sencha or gyokuro) but haven't had the best luck at Upton in Japanse greens.

"s for Upton I've found many of their teas to be just okay. However I ordered mostly Japanese and Chinese greens from them. It looks like they have a broader and maybe better quality selection of black tea, including Darjeelings."

Ah, no. I purchased a variety of blacks (Ceylons, Assams, Java, Darjeeling, and Keemun) from them over several years time. I keep thinking, jeez I seem to get lacklaster teas here. Some of them were terrible (breakfast blend that had almost zero flavor or aroma, but a nasty afterflavor).

Recently, I had a Tao of Tea First Flush Darjeeling that was also long in the tooth. It should have been good, but try as I may, I couldn't get a good cup of the sample I was given.

If I had a 50 buck gift coupon from Uptons, I would ask for samples before spending the money.

Hehe it's also possible that you are losing your taste for black tea I really don't care for black/red tea, but Upton does have a good reputation. Tao of Tea also does - they're local to my city and black/red tea drinkers tend to think the world of them. Of course being local does probably mean that we get the freshest of their inventory, as long as you buy stuff "in season."

Intuit wrote:If I had a 50 buck gift coupon from Uptons, I would ask for samples before spending the money.

If I had a 50 buck gift coupon from Upton, I'd spend it on teaware.

Intuit wrote: If I had a 50 buck gift coupon from Uptons.

I would try to trade it in teaswap.

This is like GUCCI of tea

I won't buy it anyway, but for the sake of window shopping, I do wish they gave more detailed descriptions

i have a problem with this tea's description…. scent of orchids? Orchids are beautiful, and people expect them to smell wonderful and exotic! In fact, they have no aroma at all. None of them, not even the best known of them (though few know it's and orchid)O the vanilla plant. Even that has to be processed into vanilla (from the seed pod, not the flower).

So, are they saying this tea has NO AROMA??? Then i don't want it, as most of a teas flavor is it's aroma.

... well it is an old listing and long discontinued, so it is kind of moot now. Though orchid is used to describe many oolongs.

It is funny however, they do not attempt to "wow" with their photographic wizardry even for their most expensive teas. Their product photos are among the worst on the web.

(that would be an interesting topic, the best and worst product photos for 2011)

acalper wrote:i have a problem with this tea's description…. scent of orchids? Orchids are beautiful, and people expect them to smell wonderful and exotic! In fact, they have no aroma at all. None of them, not even the best known of them (though few know it's and orchid)O the vanilla plant. Even that has to be processed into vanilla (from the seed pod, not the flower).

So, are they saying this tea has NO AROMA??? Then i don't want it, as most of a teas flavor is it's aroma.

If you do a search for orchids on google, you will find many varieties with distinctive fragrances. Maybe the orchids that most people are familiar with have been hybridized in the extreme that their original smells have been minimized.