Oolong grades?

[Nexius8510]

I've never had an oolong before but I'm a huge fan of green/white teas so I'm looking for some of the lighter oolongs. Now my question is, I saw a store on ebay selling two different grades of a TGY. They had a Grade B, and a Grade C. First, what is the difference between grades? And second, the grade C is pretty cheap, going for about $6.00 + shipping for 250g of it. It's from summer of 2008. I know it's a lot of tea but, as a newbie in the world of oolongs would it be worth it to get this to practice with and taste or is it basically useless and should I not even bother and just look for something higher grade? Thanks in advance

[ABx]

The grades are entirely relative to the people grading them, whether it's the farmer or the vendor. When farmers do a harvest they are going to have some leaves that are better than others and they'll sort them accordingly. The better ones will then be treated more carefully; they might even be hand picked and/or processed where the others are not. The differences will be noticeable for some more than others, and with some you might even find that you like a lower grade better.

The thing is that the grade is not an objective measure; the lowest grade from the best producer may be better than the best grade from an awful one. So I would just say to get the best that you can justify. If you can afford it then you might even get a bit of both to compare

Another thing to keep in mind is that even when a grading is objective, like in competitions, you might like a lower grade one just because it's your preference. With Taiwanese wulong, for example, the "best" are generally considered to be ones that are lighter, more subtle, and have a more complex aroma, where the "lesser" ones may have more taste. Some people like Baozhong with more taste and a more up-front aroma, for example, and these are not the ones that get first place in competitions (although they may get some sort of recognition).

The best thing would probably be to mention what vendor and what specific teas you are considering to see if anyone here has experience with them and can make a recommendation.

[teaguy]

I'll agree with Abx about the grading - lots of vendors set their own standards, and it's quite hard to compare without actually getting the tea first. I would like to mention to Abx, however, that (at least in Taiwan) different teas aren't compared to each other at competitions. There are separate contests for each type. Whether a 1st place baojong is better than a 1st place TKY is hard to say - it's like trying to decide if apples are better than oranges.

For the C grade you mention, it's good to note that summer is the worst season for oolongs (meaning cheapest quality of tea). Spring teas will be available in a couple of months, so you might consider waiting. Also, some vendors take oolong that they haven't been able to sell for the past year, roast it extra dark, and repackage it as TKY. If it's a Taiwan TKY you're referring to, that price would raise warning flags for discerning buyers here. For mainland TKY I can't really say without asking around first.

You don't really need to worry about too high a grade if starting out, because you don't know what you're comparing a good tea to until you've had a bad one (and vice versa). A couple (3??) teas in 150g range would be a good start. I'll also suggest getting a clay teapot as well. You don't need anything fancy or expensive, just well-made just a good basic pot to start out with. Here is a link to some information about teapots I put on my blog: http://www.taiwanteaguy.com/2008/08/03/teapot-basics/

Good luck, and welcome to tea!

[gingkoseto]

Nexius, are you talking about tea from rich barbarian? If so, you may ask them if grade B and C correlate with their summer supreme and supreme+ they sold a few months ago (I am curious about it too ). If grade B is same as supreme, then it may be good enough for beginners. Herb_Master had their summer supreme and seems to like it. I only ordered once from them, for autumn supreme+ and I have very good impression about them.

You may not need 250g of any tea at one time. And if it's a seller out of NA, cost of 250g plus shipping will be not much less than if you buy 50g better tea. So you may consider going directly to their medium range price tea. Or for example, if a grade B is $10 per 250g, you may ask the seller to sell you $6 for 100g or less, or a little bit of both for comparison.

[ABx]

I would like to mention to Abx, however, that (at least in Taiwan) different teas aren't compared to each other at competitions.

Duh

That is indeed what I meant when talking about competitions, however you're right in that it probably deserved more clarification. I was speaking of the way that teas like Baozhong (as an example) are judged against other Baozhong in competitions (if you have two Baozhong, one with better aroma and one focused on taste, then it's the one with better aroma that's likely to win), and not against other types of tea. I can see how I might have given someone that doesn't already know that the wrong impression, however.

I have to disagree with teaguy about a couple things, though:

When starting out I probably wouldn't actually buy more than about 50-100g of any particular tea unless you will be using a lot of leaf per session. Something like 10 sessions with a tea is probably about right; that will give you enough time to figure out how to brew it well and get to know that tea, but without committing you too heavily if it turns out that you don't like it that much. Getting ~50g packs to start makes good sample size IMO.

For a brewing vessel I would probably suggest a gaiwan, myself. A glazed yixing one would be best. Yixing can be a whole other subject in itself, and a gaiwan is something that you'll always be able to keep using. I don't generally recommend yixing until you have enough experience to know what you will keep drinking in the long run and have enough knowledge about tea itself to start focusing your attention to pots. There's a lot of information to absorb in the tea world, and so being able to focus on one thing at a time is best when possible. You'll just want a gaiwan that holds more heat than the thin porcelain ones for most wulong, but especially Taiwanese wulong. Of course if you are interested in the dynamics of that then getting a yixing gaiwan and a thin porcelain one would be a good step so that you can experiment and compare; you'll certainly use both as time goes on, and knowing what kinds of results each will produce will benefit you down the road, including when you start getting into yixing pots.

[Proinsias]

I would second the motion for a glazed gaiwan and a few small packs of tea. Light oolongs decline in quality rapidly once open and when getting to know a tea I like to have more than one example of it open at a time, TeaSpring might be worth a look at for small samples of light oolong, then hit the 'bay for 250gr bags once you have a better idea of what you like.

[ABx]

Assuming the person is thinking of Rich Barbarian, and they sell 10g and 80g packs of some of their teas as well (the 80g packs are 8 10g packs). Those would be ideal because you'd only be opening 1 or 2 sessions worth of leaf at a time (~5g in a 100ml gaiwan).

I've just never been impressed with most of TeaSpring's wulong, but then again I've never had Rich Barbarian's tea at all so I can't really say whether theirs is better than TeaSpring's or not. I think the last TGY I've bought online was from Golden Teahouse and I got the Premium Guan Yin Wang, which is pretty decent though I've come to prefer TGY that is at least lightly roasted.

[Nexius8510]

Thanks for the tips guys Greatly appreciated!

[Herb_Master]

Notes on comments made by Ginko and AbX -

If it is Rich Brabarian then Grade B and Grade C were on offer at the same time as Supreme and Supreme+ - both were considerably cheaper than the Supreme and Supreme+ and did not come as several mini vacuum sealed packets in a tin. They appear to come in a large single 250gm vacuum sealed packet.

[Oni]

The best price vs quality is funalliance TGY, and the best sofar for me was Dragon teahouses Nonprail grade, but that is too expencieve for starters.

[iannon]

The best price vs quality is funalliance TGY, and the best sofar for me was Dragon teahouses Nonprail grade, but that is too expencieve for starters.

+1 I second the props for the funalliance TGY..I actually have some on the way right now. I also tried some various "brands" and I really enjoyed the one from Kam's (Funalliance) and the price is really very nice too! Plus when I emailed him a slew of questions he always answered me