Good Oolongs...

[kyle]

In case anyone is looking for some reliable online places to buy oolong below are a few recomendations. All the tea I have tried from these vendors has been good and some has been excellent. Please feel free to add to these recomendations. I am always looking for new sources of tasty tea and I'm sure many others folks are too! If you are interested in Japanese green tea sources see my post under green tea. Enjoy!

1 - J Tea ..out of Oregon - great for Taiwan oolongs

2 - Shan Shui.. out of D.C. -lotsa Taiwan oolong here too

3- Jing Tea Shop.. out of China - nice variety of largely Chinese tea with some excellent and unique oolongs, but delivery times can be much slower than stated.

[Tead Off]

Maybe being in Asia helps, but Jing has been efficient in delivering teas to me.

I wholeheartedly recommend Teafromtaiwan.com located in Taiwan. They are right there with the tea scene unfolding around them and offer the latest crop of high mountain oolong. Very high quality, IMO.

[hooksie]

Teafromtaiwan

[hong.tea.dao]

If the freight was cheap, it's best to buy tea from farmers directly, it will save you more than 50% fees and another important thing, that's you can get the most fresh and best tea.

But it's just a dream, the best choice for us now is to order from civil retailers.

Will you want to buy tea from farmers directly if it's possible?

I'll tell you something about the real story of farmers later.

hong.tea.dao
Chinese tea farmer

[cheaton]

Call me crazy, but I prefer to buy from retailers in the US. I understand I may be spending a bit more but I like to think not all of my money is going directly to a foreign entity. Plus I feel like I'm taking some of the guesswork out of it. I've been ordering mainly from HouDe and The Tea Gallery. I think I may give Floating Leaves a try.

[Tead Off]

I'm not sure what you mean when you say ' I like to think not all of my money is going directly to a foreign entity.' Did you learn this from TV?

Plenty of reputable and knowledgeable online tea shops everywhere. Because I live in Asia, I buy all my tea directly from China and Taiwan. I also try to buy organic teas.

hong.tea.dao, I'd love to buy directly from tea farmers if they have what I want. But, how many tea farmers are also selling directly to retail customers?

[Salsero]

But, how many tea farmers are also selling directly to retail customers?

Teahome claims to be the farmer and the seller. That seems sort of odd since their teas come from various locations in Taiwan. It's been well over a year since I ordered anything from them, but I had good luck with their high end (= more expensive) teas and found their less expensive offerings to be acceptable. They also have nice sampler packages available.

[cheaton]

I'm not sure what you mean when you say ' I like to think not all of my money is going directly to a foreign entity.' Did you learn this from TV?

Plenty of reputable and knowledgeable online tea shops everywhere. Because I live in Asia, I buy all my tea directly from China and Taiwan. I also try to buy organic teas.

hong.tea.dao, I'd love to buy directly from tea farmers if they have what I want. But, how many tea farmers are also selling directly to retail customers?

Did I learn this from TV? LOL. Uhhh.. no. I would jsut rather give a bit of money to support local business instead of all to support an overseas business. I'm not stupid. I know the farmer and/or distributor in China or Taiwan gets paid. But I'm happy that a few dollars went to someone here stateside. It has nothing to do with reputation, or how I feel about other countries. China is a beautiful place which I hope to visit someday. Great people, great culture. But I have no problem paying a few extra dollars to support a business here at home. I feel retailers provide a valuable service. They evaluate product, they shorten shipping times after orders, and they give me a responsive person I can ask questions to pre-order. I'm not even saying I am wholly opposed to buying direct from China or Taiwan, I may occaisionally decide to do this, though I haven't yet. I was just stating that my preference is to buy local and support local business. If there was a Tea shop where I lived that sold tea worth drinking that would be whom I would give my business to.

[gingkoseto]

But, how many tea farmers are also selling directly to retail customers?

Teahome claims to be the farmer and the seller. That seems sort of odd since their teas come from various locations in Taiwan. It's been well over a year since I ordered anything from them, but I had good luck with their high end (= more expensive) teas and found their less expensive offerings to be acceptable. They also have nice sampler packages available.

I think he is a farmer, sells his own tea and also sells tea from other regions. I ordered from their website from Taiwan and really love their some kind of "traditional roast" dong ding. But they use different names on ebay and I never figured out which ebay one that tea is. I don't understand why they don't put up an English website, since they already have a website in Taiwan. Their tea is a lot more expensive on ebay, but I guess it's due to all the expenses involved in ebay and paypal.

[Salsero]

really love their some kind of "traditional roast" dong ding. But they use different names on ebay and I never figured out which ebay one that tea is.

The "Legend of Tung Ting" has been quite popular with several TeaChatters. It is a so-called traditional roast from the Luu-Guu (Deer Valley), though it is described on the ebay site as a "light roast" as well as a "traditional roast." I think the most roasted one is their "Princess," which is described as a medium roast, but I found it sort of flat. I think those I liked the most were the very light, green high mountain oolongs, though variety is my favorite taste so I loved their samplers.

[Tead Off]

I'm not sure what you mean when you say ' I like to think not all of my money is going directly to a foreign entity.' Did you learn this from TV?

Plenty of reputable and knowledgeable online tea shops everywhere. Because I live in Asia, I buy all my tea directly from China and Taiwan. I also try to buy organic teas.

hong.tea.dao, I'd love to buy directly from tea farmers if they have what I want. But, how many tea farmers are also selling directly to retail customers?

Did I learn this from TV? LOL. Uhhh.. no. I would jsut rather give a bit of money to support local business instead of all to support an overseas business. I'm not stupid. I know the farmer and/or distributor in China or Taiwan gets paid. But I'm happy that a few dollars went to someone here stateside. It has nothing to do with reputation, or how I feel about other countries. China is a beautiful place which I hope to visit someday. Great people, great culture. But I have no problem paying a few extra dollars to support a business here at home. I feel retailers provide a valuable service. They evaluate product, they shorten shipping times after orders, and they give me a responsive person I can ask questions to pre-order. I'm not even saying I am wholly opposed to buying direct from China or Taiwan, I may occaisionally decide to do this, though I haven't yet. I was just stating that my preference is to buy local and support local business. If there was a Tea shop where I lived that sold tea worth drinking that would be whom I would give my business to.

Just checking on you. Peace

[Tead Off]

But, how many tea farmers are also selling directly to retail customers?

Teahome claims to be the farmer and the seller. That seems sort of odd since their teas come from various locations in Taiwan. It's been well over a year since I ordered anything from them, but I had good luck with their high end (= more expensive) teas and found their less expensive offerings to be acceptable. They also have nice sampler packages available.

checked out Teahome. They have about the same prices as teafromtaiwan. However, teafromtaiwan always supplies me with information about what is organic and any other questions I may have about the tea when I email them. Very responsive and efficient. Plus, they have some of the very best oolongs I have ever had.

[iheartea]

I've tried going to their site, but it seems to be down???

[tenuki]

It's important to find what a tea shop specializes in. It's very rare in my experience to find one place to get all your teas. The big split is chinese vs taiwanese.


Taiwanese oolong:
---------------------
Hou De
Floating Leaves Tea

Chinese oolong:
------------------
Jing
Teaspring


My experience with teafromtaiwan and shan shui teas has been subpar but I'm super picky and it sounds like I should maybe give them a second chance. i used to like teahome but last year they seemed to raise their prices and lower their quality so have stopped ordering. JTea does have good teas.

[gingkoseto]

really love their some kind of "traditional roast" dong ding. But they use different names on ebay and I never figured out which ebay one that tea is.

The "Legend of Tung Ting" has been quite popular with several TeaChatters. It is a so-called traditional roast from the Luu-Guu (Deer Valley), though it is described on the ebay site as a "light roast" as well as a "traditional roast."

I've just noticed all the tea packs have English labels. All these time I wondered what their ebay names are! The one I like is "fruity lu gu oolong nostalgie" There are 2 types of the "fruity nostalgie", light roast and heavier roast. I like the light roast better and it's actually still a bit heavier than most green oolong from Taiwan.

I have legend of tung ting too. I feel it's a bit strange. It seems somewhat too green in terms of fermentation and then is relatively highly roasted, but I normally like the level of fermentation to be proportional to level of roast. But I tried it only once and will try more later.