Since we are talking black tea and vendors, I will put my thoughts in.
The best Keemun I have ever had came from Teazonline.com, http://www.teazonline.com/servlet/the-1 ... ese/Detail
I don't know the site's rep here, but it was great. I also like how you can order oodles of .99 cent samples, it gives you a chance to experience a spectrum of their offerings. And I am only speaking for blacks.
I shop locally at Silver Tips in NY, which also sells online. They have a few organic teas in each type. The owner is the sister of Rajah Banerjee, the owner of the Makaibari estate, and she really knows her stuff, as do her workers.Janine wrote:. I am also enormously enjoying a couple of organics of each variety which I think have a better standout flavor than more expensively priced varieties of the same teas I've tried - less acidity, more body and fullness.... .
I was taking tea bags to work, but as my taste in tea improves, they've started tasting vile to me, usually too astringent or too flat, or tasting of cardboard, even the Twinings. Ask your tea shop for paper filter bags made of special no-taste paper (I forget the exact name, but they're tan) I put a single serving in and tie the top in a knot, or I put in 2 servings, and pull it out a little faster from the first cup.Opal wrote:
I'm a teacher, so finding time at work for loose tea is difficult.I'm also a fairly casual connoisseur with limited experience and frilly taste... I'm working at broadening my horizons, so I appreciate honest and forthright discussion on the pros and cons of various makers and methods.
I've also found some no-spill travel mugs with rubber-coated pugs, and I can make my tea at home and carry 2 mugs with me. One of them keeps it hot for about 6 hours. When my customers ask me what I'm drinking, I say "Kenilworth Estate Ceylon " or "Tiger Hill in the Nilgiri district," it's impressive. javascript:emoticon(':lol:')
Forgot to post my favorite blacks: Tiger Hill Nilgiri OP; Kenilworth Ceylon OP, and a blend called Coconut Vanilla from Silver Tips, partly Assam, but I don't know the exact blend. Or rather I asked them each time, but didn't note it down. It makes great iced tea, which I make by the gallon in the summer.The coconut is real shreds, not artificial flavoring. Sometimes I blend Makaibari First Flush with an Assam, about half and half.
Wich Assams have you been drinking? What elements in them have turned you off? The BOP and other cut ones can be rather harsh. I love high-quality Assam, but it is the kind of tea where I never buy cheap ones, even though few high-quality Assam are really expensive. A high-quality well-brewed Assam should not require milk, IMHO, but the cheaper grades are often made to be drinked with milk - very strong, that is.Janine wrote:I've also sampled a couple of assams which weren't "my cup of tea" either, but I've been told that it's a good idea to try assams with milk (if you're a milk drinker) and so I have to give that a shot too.
The noise comes from the other side of the mirror
This is interesting! It was a Twining's Prince of Wales teabag that turned me on to tea, decades ago now, and it was a Ceylon and a Darjeeling from Upton's that turned my family into tea enthusiasts. I'd love to see Chip's e-mail traffic with Upton's (great rant, that!) I've long considered them the gold standard for service, though I agree you don't want to stray out of the black tea offerings and even there need to be very selective given the length of time some things hang around in their inventory. My wife and daughters prefer their production-line Assams as breakfast teas, and now that I've gravitated almost entirely to greens/oolongs, and now that Darjeelings tend to be overpriced, I guess a hearty breakfast Assam would be my everyday favorite for a black tea--weekends only. I rarely order anything from Upton's any more aside from an odd kilo of the aforementioned breakfast brew, but it's still fun to page through their quarterly catalogs...
What an ill-chosen name, "Teaz." Sounds like a hip-hop group. However, the samples look great, and I've never seen that online. My own tea shop gave me a 1 oz ample today because I wasn't sure about a particular tea. I offered to pay, and was told that samples are a regular part of their way of doing business. Nice touch.spot52 wrote:Since we are talking black tea and vendors, I will put my thoughts in.
The best Keemun I have ever had came from Teazonline.com, http://www.teazonline.com/servlet/the-1 ... ese/Detail
I don't know the site's rep here, but it was great. I also like how you can order oodles of .99 cent samples, it gives you a chance to experience a spectrum of their offerings. And I am only speaking for blacks.
Anyone familiar with Teazonline's rep?
Hi Beidao, thanks for the question. I went to ChaMaGuDao teahouse in Montclair NJ - but at this point I cannot recall the names of the Assam teas I tried from reading the tea list on their website. I may go there again this weekend and I'll check the menu again and try to recall (most of the time I ask the staff to recommend something that I'm unfamiliar with).Beidao wrote:Wich Assams have you been drinking? What elements in them have turned you off? The BOP and other cut ones can be rather harsh. I love high-quality Assam, but it is the kind of tea where I never buy cheap ones, even though few high-quality Assam are really expensive. A high-quality well-brewed Assam should not require milk, IMHO, but the cheaper grades are often made to be drinked with milk - very strong, that is.Janine wrote:I've also sampled a couple of assams which weren't "my cup of tea" either, but I've been told that it's a good idea to try assams with milk (if you're a milk drinker) and so I have to give that a shot too.
Although these were single estate (and I imagine well-known and considered good teas) what I didn't like was a sort of after-bite that reminds me of what I wouldn't like about maltiness in beer. I associate "maltiness" with a real full-mouth feel, but a kind of bitter afterbite (like cigarette smoke could have maybe?) isn't for me. I mentioned milk because I've heard that milk sugars break down the bitterness and so these teas - even at their best - are often used accompanied with milk.
It would really help if I were more formally acquainted with different words for different "tastes" we look for. I found one darjeeling blend at ChaMaGuDao which I rather enjoyed, titled "Himalayan blend" but I have to say I was entranced by an oolong they just called Haung Zhi - that has some golden long leaves in it. And I'm still crazy about two of their golden Yunnans - one of them is an extra tippy and on the lighter side of the two, the other a deep rich organic Yunnan that has what I consider a perfect element of smokiness to it, like a really smooth and mild Lapsang. That tea (the latter) I also consider slightly "malty" - a rich taste, full mouth feel, complexity and even the foaminess
(But that comes from richness in aroma carrying oils IMO)sneakers wrote:I shop locally at Silver Tips in NY, which also sells online. They have a few organic teas in each type. The owner is the sister of Rajah Banerjee, the owner of the Makaibari estate, and she really knows her stuff, as do her workers.Janine wrote:. I am also enormously enjoying a couple of organics of each variety which I think have a better standout flavor than more expensively priced varieties of the same teas I've tried - less acidity, more body and fullness.... .
Thank you sneakers. I'm in NYC, but I'd love to take a drive to Tarrytown some weekend and check this out. Thank you for the recommendation and information. I will take a look at their website.
But you have so many tea shops in Manhattan! At least 17 as of last week. .
Actually Silver Tips is mostly organic, just checked .The owner is also an importer, so her tea is always fresh and stored properly. The staff waits until a canister is all gone before they refill from a fresh sealed package. They're also encyclopedic. The food is also excellent but you have to understand that their 150 varieties also includes herbals and flavored blacks.
I had my birthday(63) lunch there yesterday, had 2 pots of different tea, and then was let loose at the tea counter. My friend is happy with Lipton bags and cheap herbals, so I kibbutzed with the staff for half an hour and spent. I bought one old favorite, Kenilwiorth Ceylon, and 4 new ones. Geetting ready for my summer iced tea.
I'll write you privately about getting together. None of my friends enjoy good tea, and I'm a voice in the wilderness here. I live in Yonkers, drive up to Tarrytown in about 25 minutes if no traffic.
Getting back to Assams--they're my staple, along with Ceylons. I find Darjeeling too astringent, the"after bite" that someone else here described for Assams. Hmm... No two people drink the same tea or read the same book. I find Assams and Ceylons smooth and pleasant, not bitter, sort of the essence of black tea, sometimes fruity, but don't have much vocabulary yet. I'm drinking Ruhunu Ceylon Super Pekoe now, and I find it smooth. I like my tea black, so if a tea requires milk, I skip it.
Where is there a good glossary of the vocabulary of tea taste ?
Actually Silver Tips is mostly organic, just checked .The owner is also an importer, so her tea is always fresh and stored properly. The staff waits until a canister is all gone before they refill from a fresh sealed package. They're also encyclopedic. The food is also excellent but you have to understand that their 150 varieties also includes herbals and flavored blacks.
I had my birthday(63) lunch there yesterday, had 2 pots of different tea, and then was let loose at the tea counter. My friend is happy with Lipton bags and cheap herbals, so I kibbutzed with the staff for half an hour and spent. I bought one old favorite, Kenilwiorth Ceylon, and 4 new ones. Geetting ready for my summer iced tea.
I'll write you privately about getting together. None of my friends enjoy good tea, and I'm a voice in the wilderness here. I live in Yonkers, drive up to Tarrytown in about 25 minutes if no traffic.
Getting back to Assams--they're my staple, along with Ceylons. I find Darjeeling too astringent, the"after bite" that someone else here described for Assams. Hmm... No two people drink the same tea or read the same book. I find Assams and Ceylons smooth and pleasant, not bitter, sort of the essence of black tea, sometimes fruity, but don't have much vocabulary yet. I'm drinking Ruhunu Ceylon Super Pekoe now, and I find it smooth. I like my tea black, so if a tea requires milk, I skip it.
Where is there a good glossary of the vocabulary of tea taste ?
Well Assam can have quite of an after-bite, but IMO it should not be bitter, if it is I would say it's either not the best Assam or not brewed properly. Then I really do not like bitter teas so I rather underbrew than overbrew. Have you had the Assams at a teahouse or have you brewed them at home with different brewing times and leaf amounts? I have some good Assams at home that I almost cannot overbrew even if I try. I do stay far away from all Assams that are not full leaf size. Any broken (BOP) are NOT for me. And I also always look at the dry leaves, I want a great deal of them to be golden tips. Guess i'm a bit obsessed about AssamJanine wrote:Hi Beidao, thanks for the question. I went to ChaMaGuDao teahouse in Montclair NJ - but at this point I cannot recall the names of the Assam teas I tried from reading the tea list on their website. I may go there again this weekend and I'll check the menu again and try to recall (most of the time I ask the staff to recommend something that I'm unfamiliar with).
Although these were single estate (and I imagine well-known and considered good teas) what I didn't like was a sort of after-bite that reminds me of what I wouldn't like about maltiness in beer. I associate "maltiness" with a real full-mouth feel, but a kind of bitter afterbite (like cigarette smoke could have maybe?) isn't for me. I mentioned milk because I've heard that milk sugars break down the bitterness and so these teas - even at their best - are often used accompanied with milk.
It would really help if I were more formally acquainted with different words for different "tastes" we look for. I found one darjeeling blend at ChaMaGuDao which I rather enjoyed, titled "Himalayan blend" but I have to say I was entranced by an oolong they just called Haung Zhi - that has some golden long leaves in it. And I'm still crazy about two of their golden Yunnans - one of them is an extra tippy and on the lighter side of the two, the other a deep rich organic Yunnan that has what I consider a perfect element of smokiness to it, like a really smooth and mild Lapsang. That tea (the latter) I also consider slightly "malty" - a rich taste, full mouth feel, complexity and even the foaminess
Golden Yunnan is a lovely tea! And yes, it is often quite malty
The noise comes from the other side of the mirror
I'm a fan of Assam, and want to expand my repertoire. Please explain the value of golden tips. And I presume they're pale yellow or gray in the tin? Is "tippy" a taste or a reference to appearance?Beidao wrote:...Any broken (BOP) are NOT for me. And I also always look at the dry leaves, I want a great deal of them to be golden tips. Guess I'm a bit obsessed about Assam
Golden Yunnan is a lovely tea! And yes, it is often quite malty
The golden tips are seen as a value in some teas, for example Golden Yunnan, and I have found that Assam with more golden tips are the ones I like, they seem to bring a better sweetness and richness to the taste. They should be bright yellowbrown in the tin or the tea is to old. They should look a bit golden. Not gray! Tippy is a reference of apperance, from what I understand. An Assam can be called TGFOP, "Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe", and then it should be tippy. There are also "pure tips" Assam made out of only golden tips. Not sure if they're good though. Pure tips teas, for example, Golden Yunnan, are not always better.sneakers wrote:I'm a fan of Assam, and want to expand my repertoire. Please explain the value of golden tips. And I presume they're pale yellow or gray in the tin? Is "tippy" a taste or a reference to appearance?Beidao wrote:...Any broken (BOP) are NOT for me. And I also always look at the dry leaves, I want a great deal of them to be golden tips. Guess I'm a bit obsessed about Assam
Golden Yunnan is a lovely tea! And yes, it is often quite malty
The noise comes from the other side of the mirror