My favorite teas are the smooth but strong flavored Chinese blacks: golden monkey, higher-grade Yunnan, Adagio's Fujian Baroque if my budget is too tight for the more expensive teas, Twinings Prince of Wales when it's even tighter (or the Wegman's labeled Yunnan-based English Breakfast which they no longer carry). I really like the Darjeeling oolongs I've had from both Adagio and Upton but that's a bit of a special case and for the sake of argument I want to look at more traditional oolongs. In greens I like the sweet, nutty and the toasty - kukicha, li zi xiang (Adagio discontinued Li Zi Nutcracker
), hojicha, and here I'll also re-list the Upton Tindharia estate Darjeeling oolong which had the sweet chestnut flavor like the Li Zi Nutcracker did. I'm not a fan of very "grassy" greens, and while they're good, I'm not too interested in greener oolongs. I remember when I was first trying Adagio samplers that the wuyi was quite strong and rather different, but I forget whether I really liked it - I may have to revisit that. I also don't like flower-scented teas much except they go well with certain foods (like Jasmine and Chinese roast duck).So given all that, what should I try? I don't live where there are many good tea shops, so I mostly order online. I won't dismiss very expensive suggestions offhand and will probably order samples but moderate priced varieties are more practical.
