Taiwanese Sun-Moon Lake Black

by **Victoria** » May 18th, '09, 21:59

by Victoria » May 18th, '09, 21:59

TokyoB wrote:On another topic, how are the teas from Imperial Tea? I've looked at their site a few times but haven't ordered from them as of yet.

Oh, I forgot to answer - yes, I was pretty impressed buy their teas.
All have been very good. But unsure if I will reorder.

Camellia Sinensis impressed me more, thank you, that was your
mention.

And then I have a whole bunch of oolong on the way, yay!

by **TokyoB** » May 18th, '09, 22:19

by TokyoB » May 18th, '09, 22:19

Victoria wrote:Camellia Sinensis impressed me more, thank you, that was your
mention.

I was impressed by them too - good quality and good prices. Wish I lived near one of these better teashops.

I will probably place a CS order soon although, as usual, I have too much tea! I just placed an order for a couple of organic Chinese greens from Jing Tea (the one in the UK, not Jing Teashop, which is also great.) http://jingtea.com/

Keep us updated on your oolong findings!

by **Victoria** » May 18th, '09, 22:32

by Victoria » May 18th, '09, 22:32

Yes I saw Jing Tea's newsletter. Very tempting.
Love Jing Tea Shop too.

If you order from CS be sure to try some
Darjeeling Gopaldhara Wt-1 1st flush

by **entropyembrace** » May 19th, '09, 00:23

by entropyembrace » May 19th, '09, 00:23

I'm glad to hear you're impressed with CS, being in Canada shipping times should be nice and short.

I'll have to check them out ^^

by **woozl** » May 21st, '09, 17:18

by woozl » May 21st, '09, 17:18

I will be near these guys this weekend.
Thougt I'd stop in.
They have this tea, scroll to bottom.
Thought I would try that one and some chinese green.
http://www.teatrekker.com/2009_harv_pqm.htm#FUJIAN
anyone try their teas?

by **JPX** » Jun 9th, '09, 07:51

by JPX » Jun 9th, '09, 07:51

entropyembrace wrote:I'm glad to hear you're impressed with CS, being in Canada shipping times should be nice and short.

I'll have to check them out ^^

i live like 15 miles away from the shop in montreal.
I get all my teas from there. Havent had a bad tea yet. Some more boring than others, but thats normal. They know their stuff too. they travel in asia and source their tea there. You can actually get ''tea classes'' for kinda cheap (tea tasting + history + etc, last like 1hour for 35$ CAD)

i like CS

by **Ritva** » Aug 28th, '09, 09:37

Re: Taiwanese Sun-Moon Lake Black

by Ritva » Aug 28th, '09, 09:37

Anyone tried Sun-Moon Lake Black from zen8tea?
http://cgi.ebay.com/Taiwan-Sun-Moon-Lake-Assam-Organic-Black-Tea-150g_W0QQitemZ380129599341QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item58817d5f6d&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262
It's not very expensive, 15 USD / 150 g.

by **shah82** » Aug 28th, '09, 16:21

Re: Taiwanese Sun-Moon Lake Black

by shah82 » Aug 28th, '09, 16:21

Some sun-moon lake tea is of traditional varieties and not from the new n.18 tea bush. Tea Trekker's tea is a Hulien Fengmi type tea. I would probably ask to make sure this is ruby tea and not another hong-cha from green/oolong tea varieties.

by **TokyoB** » Aug 30th, '09, 20:35

Re: Taiwanese Sun-Moon Lake Black

by TokyoB » Aug 30th, '09, 20:35

The Sun-Moon Lake tea from Zen8tea is an Assam, so rather different from the Ruby tea or T.18. I liked the Assam tea I had when at Sun Moon Lake though. This is probably worth taking the chance.

by **Ritva** » Aug 31st, '09, 05:13

Re: Taiwanese Sun-Moon Lake Black

by Ritva » Aug 31st, '09, 05:13

TokyoB wrote:The Sun-Moon Lake tea from Zen8tea is an Assam, so rather different from the Ruby tea or T.18. I liked the Assam tea I had when at Sun Moon Lake though. This is probably worth taking the chance.

I asked Melody at zen8tea and actually it is T-18 Ruby tea - even though the description said Assam. She had only had a few tins and I bought the last one. She said she wanted to test if it sold well and people liked it. According to her many people don't know that Taiwan produces also very good black tea.

by **JPX** » Aug 31st, '09, 16:35

Re:

by JPX » Aug 31st, '09, 16:35

Victoria wrote:Yes I saw Jing Tea's newsletter. Very tempting.
Love Jing Tea Shop too.

If you order from CS be sure to try some
Darjeeling Gopaldhara Wt-1 1st flush

i bought it. its good but its not the bomb for me as im looking for something a bit stronger and probably a bit more rosted or may be not lol. i could swap 25g no problem if you are interested.

by **Ritva** » Sep 11th, '09, 08:33

Re: Taiwanese Sun-Moon Lake Black

by Ritva » Sep 11th, '09, 08:33

I received the Sun Moon Lake Black Tea from zen8tea this week. It was described as Assam, but Melody at zen8tea told me it was indeed Ruby or Red Jade tea. I got a nice tin box with label "Sun Moon Lake Black Tea" in it. You can understand my surprise when the tea turned out to be not black at all! It's a rolled oolong. I brewed it and it tasted like a semi-oxidised oolong with medium roasting. The used leaves are brownish green.

I of course thought that they have mixed-up the teas and accidentally placed a bag of oolong (the tea was in a vacuum bag inside the tin) to the wrong tin. I wrote to Melody and this is what she answered:

"Red Jade style black tea should look like this which caused by different
procedures (fermentation level and blanching).
Traditional Black tea: 100% fermented without blanching
Red jade black tea: ferment 60%, then blanching, so leaves can keep its
color (brown mix with green).
This special procedure take double times than traditional black tea. Tea
color look clear (a little bit rose red).
I'm sorry, my English may be not good enough to make clear explanation. Hope you can understand why this tea looks quite different from traditional black tea."

I think blanching means the same as stopping oxidation by steaming or some other method - which is, of course, used when making OOLONG. So she is telling me the tea I bought is a black tea and then describes the fancy time consuming method for making this extra special "black" tea - and describes the method of making oolong!!!!!

There is nothing wrong with the tea. It was not very expensive and it was reasonably good semi-oxidised oolong, but I found it very annoying that zen8tea sells oolong as black and then continues to cheat customers by giving false explanations! They didn't even have a photo of the "Sun Moon Lake Black" tea leaves in their eBay shop, only a photo of the tin. I had ordered from them before so I believed they were trustworthy, but now I know better.

by **Salsero** » Sep 11th, '09, 09:29

Re: Taiwanese Sun-Moon Lake Black

by Salsero » Sep 11th, '09, 09:29

That certainly is disappointing, Ritva, but thanks for sharing. I think in the English language internet, people have been using the term "kill green" for the process Melody is referring to as "blanching."

by **aaronlawson** » Nov 1st, '09, 20:06

Re: Taiwanese Sun-Moon Lake Black

by aaronlawson » Nov 1st, '09, 20:06

Ritva,
I am drinking some number 18 right now and I can attest that it is not oolong, I don't know what you bought! I love this tea -I think it is my favorite tea from Taiwan.

-Aaron

by **TokyoB** » Nov 1st, '09, 21:27

Re: Taiwanese Sun-Moon Lake Black

by TokyoB » Nov 1st, '09, 21:27

aaronlawson wrote:Ritva,
I am drinking some number 18 right now and I can attest that it is not oolong, I don't know what you bought! I love this tea -I think it is my favorite tea from Taiwan.

-Aaron

Aaron - where did you acquire it from? Upton, Camellia Sinensis, or somewhere in Taiwan?