O-Cha.com tea

Made from leaves that have not been oxidized.


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Feb 21st, '08, 16:30
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by olivierco » Feb 21st, '08, 16:30

Pentox wrote: Lupicia is good!
Give it a try!
Do they package their teas with nitrogen or vacuum?

Feb 21st, '08, 17:29
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by Pentox » Feb 21st, '08, 17:29

olivierco wrote:
Pentox wrote: Lupicia is good!
Give it a try!
Do they package their teas with nitrogen or vacuum?
They're mylar sealed nitro filled packages. I don't know of many companies that vacuum seal their tea, I would think that it would crush the leaves.

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Feb 21st, '08, 19:01
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by Chip » Feb 21st, '08, 19:01

Does Lupicia specialize in Japanese teas? My past experience dictates that I focus mainly with specialists for the bulk of my Japanese teas.

Pentox, you should give O-Cha a try, shipped directly from Japan to your door in usually 4-5 days. Nothing like getting a box from Japan with the freshest and most often the best Japanese teas found anywhere. I really think O-Cha is also a great value, very affordable for the quality.

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by Pentox » Feb 21st, '08, 19:29

Chip wrote:Does Lupicia specialize in Japanese teas? My past experience dictates that I focus mainly with specialists for the bulk of my Japanese teas.

Pentox, you should give O-Cha a try, shipped directly from Japan to your door in usually 4-5 days. Nothing like getting a box from Japan with the freshest and most often the best Japanese teas found anywhere. I really think O-Cha is also a great value, very affordable for the quality.
Lupicia specializes in Japanese teas, they're a bit unusual since they're primarily a Japanese tea company more akin to a Japanese Teavana than anything else I can imagine, although without everything I complain about Teavana. To put it into a bit more perspective, they have 80 stores in Japan, 4 in Taiwan, 2 in australia, and now about 6 in the US. They are only recently expanding internationally it seems. Their selection of Japanese green teas is by far the most expansive, yet regional that I have seen, yet not nearly as grade specific as hibiki-an for example. For example, they have 4 Guri/Tamaryokucha/etc (roasted) teas, but only one from each particular farm/location. Their selection consists probably 40% Japanese Greens, with 40%ish in black teas due to a seeming increase in popularity of Black teas in Japan. And the last 20% or so are assorted other teas, chinese greens, oolongs, herbals etc.

I really am planning on giving o-cha, den's and hibiki-an a try, I just have such a glut of tea on my hands at the moment that I don't think I should order more before the spring shincha flush. I probably won't be done with everything i've got on hand until then anyway. I probably will break down and get some though.

In the last 3 trips I made to Lupicia, I bought damn near everything... I picked up all of their different plantation specified green teas, a few seasonal offerings, a few plantation specified darjeelings, and a glut of teaware. Their teaware selections vary from store to store and are amazing. So on top of that and the promo 50 pack samplers from them I have quite a bit to drink at the moment.

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Feb 21st, '08, 19:34
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by Salsero » Feb 21st, '08, 19:34

Their website leaves a lot to be desired. In maybe 10 minutes there I was only able to find three Japanese green teas and those didn't seem to be labeled very well. I got frustrated and gave up.

I think the live experience may be a lot better than the web one.

Feb 21st, '08, 19:45
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by Pentox » Feb 21st, '08, 19:45

Salsero wrote:Their website leaves a lot to be desired. In maybe 10 minutes there I was only able to find three Japanese green teas and those didn't seem to be labeled very well. I got frustrated and gave up.

I think the live experience may be a lot better than the web one.
Yeah their website really really leaves a lot to be desired. Had I not gone to a store first I wouldn't have given them a second look. Their stores in the US appear to be in very high end malls and the like. They're very nice to be in, you can sample anything, and they have little smelling tins setup for everything they have at their store. Pretty much everything that I would expect from a nice tea store.

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by Proinsias » Feb 21st, '08, 19:51


Feb 21st, '08, 20:06

by Ed » Feb 21st, '08, 20:06

Mmm, o-cha sencha... doesn't get much better than that. :P

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Feb 21st, '08, 21:00
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by Chip » Feb 21st, '08, 21:00

Sounds like it would be worth visiting if in the area.

It is hard to beat O-Cha for online Japanese tea procurrment. The new Guri cha from O-Cha looks incredible...and the pics are real.
blah blah blah SENCHA blah blah blah!!!

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by Pentox » Feb 21st, '08, 21:10

Lol considering what i've seen of guri that's not much of an endorsement for anyone.

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Feb 21st, '08, 21:37
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by Chip » Feb 21st, '08, 21:37

lol...ok, whatever. I thought this topic was created to discuss O-Cha. Yet you have not yet tried their teas.

I was merely mentioning the last offering by O-Cha, which by the way is being offered by popular request. I would like to compare it to Lupicia's Guri.

I could talk about O-Cha's top 4 sencha: Miyabi, Yutaka Midori, Hatsumi and another newbie Fukamushi Supreme.

Or their top tier Gyokuro...or their top notch Matcha...

Perhaps you would like to start a Lupicia topic, just a suggestion.

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Feb 21st, '08, 21:50
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by RussianSoul » Feb 21st, '08, 21:50

Chip wrote:The new Guri cha from O-Cha looks incredible...and the pics are real.
I went to the site and tried to find it but couldn't. Would you mind posting a link?
Last edited by RussianSoul on Feb 21st, '08, 21:50, edited 1 time in total.

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Feb 21st, '08, 21:50
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by Sydney » Feb 21st, '08, 21:50

I'll toss in my own o-cha endorsement.

They sent me some fine tea at an agreeable price, and wasted no time getting it to me.

Mmm, mmm, miyabi.

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Feb 21st, '08, 21:55
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by Chip » Feb 21st, '08, 21:55

RussianSoul wrote:
Chip wrote:The new Guri cha from O-Cha looks incredible...and the pics are real.
I went to the site and tried to find it but couldn't. Would you mind posting a link?
With pleasure Russian Soul. Guricha is just another name for it.

Guricha

Feb 21st, '08, 22:00
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by Pentox » Feb 21st, '08, 22:00

Chip wrote:lol...ok, whatever. I thought this topic was created to discuss O-Cha. Yet you have not yet tried their teas.

I was merely mentioning the last offering by O-Cha, which by the way is being offered by popular request. I would like to compare it to Lupicia's Guri.

I could talk about O-Cha's top 4 sencha: Miyabi, Yutaka Midori, Hatsumi and another newbie Fukamushi Supreme.

Or their top tier Gyokuro...or their top notch Matcha...

Perhaps you would like to start a Lupicia topic, just a suggestion.
Lol, yeah I understand completely. I just mentioned lupicia since it fell under the list of other vendors to consider and thought it was worth mentioning. Other people had questions about it so I answered.

If you'd like to try some of Lupicia's Guri i'd be more than happy to send you some. Like i've said before, I'm really not a fan of Guri from what i've had of it.

I'd love to hear about your opinions on their senchas, as their pricing is a bit steep for simply sampling. While I don't doubt that the product is probably worth the price, it's not a company I can simply sample from. A lot of those at 100g packs and 20ish dollars a pop are of a leap of faith than a simple test.

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