Where to start with better quality Chinese Green Teas?

[beforewisdom]

I've seen the difference quality makes with Japanese green teas.

I've only ever had Chinese green teas out of bulk glass jars in food co-ops. I've had plain green, dragonwell, gunpowder, pearl, and jasmine Chinese green teas that way.

I would like to try better quality.

What constitutes better quality with Chinese green tea?

What would be a good site to order from where I could buy only a few ounces at a time of the better stuff.

Which Chinese green tea would you recommend for someone looking to see what the better stuff is like?

Thanks.

[daidokorocha]

I've seen the difference quality makes with Japanese green teas.

I've only ever had Chinese green teas out of bulk glass jars in food co-ops. I've had plain green, dragonwell, gunpowder, pearl, and jasmine Chinese green teas that way.

I would like to try better quality.

What constitutes better quality with Chinese green tea?

What would be a good site to order from where I could buy only a few ounces at a time of the better stuff.

Which Chinese green tea would you recommend for someone looking to see what the better stuff is like?

Thanks.

There are a lot of places... and I am sure people will come and give you more information. Right now, I do not have much time and if no one comes back later I will give you a broader answer. However, I think a good site to check out is Dragon Tea House's ebay site under the handle ldllu. If you just search Dragon Tea House Ebay on google it should be the first link. This place has a lot of Chinese greens in different grades. They are cheap and you can buy in 50 grams quantities. The shipping is FREE and pretty quick for coming from China for free (usually within 2 weeks). Their typical grades aren't amazing by any means, but are good enough to feel out the tea typically, especially if you're coming from bulk glass jars in food co-ops. However, their higher grades aren't that much more expensive in most cases so you might just wish to get those instead. I do suggest shopping with other vendors to compare greens to see exactly what quality you would be satisfied with. Edit: By the way, it is Spring Harvest now, so the teas should actually be better than they have been. Good time to buy!


Also check out this thread

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=11931

Teaspring is rather popular. Prices vary.

I also suggest checking out Yunnan Sourcing for Yunnan greens. These aren't as famous or anything, but they could be interesting for you. I hear the quality is good and the prices definitely are cheap. I have some greens on the way from Yunnan Sourcing so I can update this. They have some non-Yunnan greens available as well. Also, do not be afraid to branch out into places like Vietnam. Check out the vendor Hatvala. The teas are very good and, again, cheap. There isn't much of a market for them so they can remain so, but that doesn't mean they aren't very good teas.

[jayinhk]

Let us know what you think of the Yunnan greens, daidokorocha! I've long been curious about them. I'm headed over to Yunnan soon, but I won't be buying any greens as I have enough green for the year (and then some)!

[Groucho]

I've been fairly happy with Teavivre.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[daidokorocha]

Let us know what you think of the Yunnan greens, daidokorocha! I've long been curious about them. I'm headed over to Yunnan soon, but I won't be buying any greens as I have enough green for the year (and then some)!

You know I sure will. I too really have too many greens. I think this applies to tea in general, but that didn't stop me from ordering 1,487 new grams from YS.and about 1,215 from other sources on the way. Luckily I drink a few liters everyday and it will soon be time to cold brew and I bought new equipment to bulk brew with, so I imagine I'll be going through some things even quicker than normal. I often find myself trying to squeeze every bit out of my leaves, just because I feel like I do not have enough tea to subsist on. I think this is a delusion, however. I have still not opened all the teas I have received from Vietnam and am storing them away. Sometimes curiosity gets the better of me and I rip open all the teas I get to try them, but I am trying my best not to do this anymore. Thus, it might take me awhile to get around to all of the Yunnan greens. Time will tell.

This reminds me, to the OP, I don't know your brewing history, but if you speak to someone like Debunix and find out her case, it becomes apparent that you should not give up on a Chinese green too early. Try to find your sweet spot by brewing it in 1,000s of ways. Actually, since we are dealing with China, I will say in 10,000 ways. (Banzai tea!) Definitely with Chinese greens, if you have not already, please try "grandpa" or glass brewing. Try all ways to find out what you prefer the best. There are some Chinese teas that have recently become completely anew to me after drinking and experimenting with some of them for months and thinking I had known them all because I decided to try even more experiments with them. Comfort zones are great and developing a consistent brewing technique that works for you is essential to enjoying your tea, but do not forget to also try new things out from time to time. For instance, I am sure you saw JRS22 post about "fire-and-ice" brewing recently. This is a good reason why you should find a decent, but not too expensive Chinese green you enjoy, and another reason I offered DTH.

[jayinhk]

Let us know what you think of the Yunnan greens, daidokorocha! I've long been curious about them. I'm headed over to Yunnan soon, but I won't be buying any greens as I have enough green for the year (and then some)!

You know I sure will. I too really have too many greens. I think this applies to tea in general, but that didn't stop me from ordering 1,487 new grams from YS.and about 1,215 from other sources on the way. Luckily I drink a few liters everyday and it will soon be time to cold brew and I bought new equipment to bulk brew with, so I imagine I'll be going through some things even quicker than normal. I often find myself trying to squeeze every bit out of my leaves, just because I feel like I do not have enough tea to subsist on. I think this is a delusion, however. I have still not opened all the teas I have received from Vietnam and am storing them away. Sometimes curiosity gets the better of me and I rip open all the teas I get to try them, but I am trying my best not to do this anymore. Thus, it might take me awhile to get around to all of the Yunnan greens. Time will tell.

This reminds me, to the OP, I don't know your brewing history, but if you speak to someone like Debunix and find out her case, it becomes apparent that you should not give up on a Chinese green too early. Try to find your sweet spot by brewing it in 1,000s of ways. Actually, since we are dealing with China, I will say in 10,000 ways. (Banzai tea!) Definitely with Chinese greens, if you have not already, please try "grandpa" or glass brewing. Try all ways to find out what you prefer the best. There are some Chinese teas that have recently become completely anew to me after drinking and experimenting with some of them for months and thinking I had known them all because I decided to try even more experiments with them. Comfort zones are great and developing a consistent brewing technique that works for you is essential to enjoying your tea, but do not forget to also try new things out from time to time. For instance, I am sure you saw JRS22 post about "fire-and-ice" brewing recently. This is a good reason why you should find a decent, but not too expensive Chinese green you enjoy, and another reason I offered DTH.

You had a lot of tea before that post, didn't you? I could tell you were a fellow obsessive type pretty quickly. How are you going to store all that green?

[daidokorocha]

You had a lot of tea before that post, didn't you? I could tell you were a fellow obsessive type pretty quickly. How are you going to store all that green?

Only 4 liters today!

Luckily, most of those orders weren't green. The YS is definitely exaggerated because there is a 357 gram pu-erh cake in there, along with a bunch of other pu-erh related goodies. Those will store themselves. The rest is a lot of white, including white cakes. Those can be stored as well. There are only about 5 greens, I believe. The "other sources" are mainly Japanese teas, but those will go extremely fast because I drink them every day, with perhaps 20-30 grams going a day. Some that I ordered are oolong and black though. Having green in general be my favorite tea means that they don't usually last too long. I have a nice cool, dark, dry place to store them in the meantime. They usually keep just fine. Of course, some of them may lose aroma slightly over their lifetime and may require a little bit more leaf, but it usually doesn't get to that point. The only times I have encountered stale tea was A) When I bought it stale from really bad sources B) When I move around to a different country temporarily and leave tea behind and come back to it a year later. In either case, it is almost always greens and greener oolong. Then it typically becomes undrinkable.

Thus, while perhaps the obsessive type in one way, it doesn't seep through to the storage. I think perhaps in the future it could (will), but my living arrangements are always changing for the past few years and thus I do not really invest in anything because it would be trashed rather quickly.

[jayinhk]

You had a lot of tea before that post, didn't you? I could tell you were a fellow obsessive type pretty quickly. How are you going to store all that green?

Only 4 liters today!

Luckily, most of those orders weren't green. The YS is definitely exaggerated because there is a 357 gram pu-erh cake in there, along with a bunch of other pu-erh related goodies. Those will store themselves. The rest is a lot of white, including white cakes. Those can be stored as well. There are only about 5 greens, I believe. The "other sources" are mainly Japanese teas, but those will go extremely fast because I drink them every day, with perhaps 20-30 grams going a day. Some that I ordered are oolong and black though. Having green in general be my favorite tea means that they don't usually last too long. I have a nice cool, dark, dry place to store them in the meantime. They usually keep just fine. Of course, some of them may lose aroma slightly over their lifetime and may require a little bit more leaf, but it usually doesn't get to that point. The only times I have encountered stale tea was A) When I bought it stale from really bad sources B) When I move around to a different country temporarily and leave tea behind and come back to it a year later. In either case, it is almost always greens and greener oolong. Then it typically becomes undrinkable.

Thus, while perhaps the obsessive type in one way, it doesn't seep through to the storage. I think perhaps in the future it could (will), but my living arrangements are always changing for the past few years and thus I do not really invest in anything because it would be trashed rather quickly.

Have you considered picking up a vacuum sealer and storing greens/green oolongs in the fridge?

[daidokorocha]

You had a lot of tea before that post, didn't you? I could tell you were a fellow obsessive type pretty quickly. How are you going to store all that green?

Only 4 liters today!

Luckily, most of those orders weren't green. The YS is definitely exaggerated because there is a 357 gram pu-erh cake in there, along with a bunch of other pu-erh related goodies. Those will store themselves. The rest is a lot of white, including white cakes. Those can be stored as well. There are only about 5 greens, I believe. The "other sources" are mainly Japanese teas, but those will go extremely fast because I drink them every day, with perhaps 20-30 grams going a day. Some that I ordered are oolong and black though. Having green in general be my favorite tea means that they don't usually last too long. I have a nice cool, dark, dry place to store them in the meantime. They usually keep just fine. Of course, some of them may lose aroma slightly over their lifetime and may require a little bit more leaf, but it usually doesn't get to that point. The only times I have encountered stale tea was A) When I bought it stale from really bad sources B) When I move around to a different country temporarily and leave tea behind and come back to it a year later. In either case, it is almost always greens and greener oolong. Then it typically becomes undrinkable.

Thus, while perhaps the obsessive type in one way, it doesn't seep through to the storage. I think perhaps in the future it could (will), but my living arrangements are always changing for the past few years and thus I do not really invest in anything because it would be trashed rather quickly.

Have you considered picking up a vacuum sealer and storing greens/green oolongs in the fridge?

I have thought about that for the future. Typically I go through them before they ever have the opportunity to go bad, but sometimes I suddenly (very suddenly) have to move countries, and I make a pilgrimage to my father's home with all my tea if I happen to be in the States. I still have pu-erh there aging away! This is when I come back to the tea and it is bad. I never come back to the same place, so I actually have no permanent place of storage. I would vacuum seal it and shove it in his fridge, but I don't wish to monopolize anyone's fridge. Thus, I just bite the bullet on the whole deal. But yes, I do want to try A) vacuum sealing storage and B) Refreshing sometime in the future. I plan to make my permanent base in Japan, but a lot of Japanese fridges look like this

http://nicerentblog.house.jp/files/P2090023.jpg

and space can be at a real premium in them! Although, I am certainly planning an upgrade. Personally I would like to use the above fridge as a personal tea fridge and get a larger, separate one for food.

[jayinhk]

Yup, we all need individual tea and beer fridges. I do anyway!

[daidokorocha]

Yup, we all need individual tea and beer fridges. I do anyway!

For the latter, I use the convenience store and Aeon Liquor as my personal fridge

To be somewhat on topic here, I will say to the OP that they perhaps should try a Chinese yellow tea as well while they are at it...