* How long have you been drinking tea?
Weaned on the stuff, though it was all black tea with milk & sugar at that age.
* What was your first Tea?
Billy Tea, aussies will know what I mean heheh. Black tea that is good when really made in a billy over a campfire and seasoned with a gum leaf. Maybe it's why I like smoky tea still?
* What is your favorite Tea currently?
Lapsang Souchong (Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong from WuYi Shan). I think I get a good grade (from GOAR) but what would a noob know? Anyway it is light years away from the stuff in T***ings teabags that I tried decades before and said eeew... very subtle smokiness. But I have 100+ types just now (many in 10g sample bags) and frankly I like it all. Perhaps I will become more discriminating in time
Faves include yellow buds, wild bohea, iron goddess, taiwan ginseng oolong, moonlight puerh sheng, puerh shu back to 90's, lots more.* What is your next purchase?
I bought 9 teas the other day but left 1 out because it was kinda expensive, around $A70 / 100g. But I will likely get it next, called Bai Ji Guan / White Coxcomb. Supposed to be a very light WuYi oolong. Any advice on that one, is it worth it? I mainly buy teas on ebay from goarteaau (GOAR), rebeca_au (Relax Tea House), and dth_au (Dragon Tea House). But the best deal for this seems to be ok-best-beauty.
* Where is your favorite spot to brew up?
At home and at work, though I also took tea and zisha on my trip overseas in May, brewing long jing bai cha by the Loboc River. I have the zisha and bamboo tray and all that at work, and lucky to have chinese colleagues who don't laugh at my pronunciation too much
*** blather time, my tea journey ***
In the 80's I lived in Sydney and used to get my caffeine from the venerable Mr. Hoy at his Redfern coffee & tea warehouse. He would regale us with stories of his travels in China in the 30's & 40's as a tea dealer, but alas I was too callow to take it all in then, even while sharing a pot of his best pekoe. But I remember his advice: stick with real tea, supermarket brands like T***ings are all floor sweepings.
Then on work trips to Hong Kong in the 90's I brought a few teas back, the very best was a Monkey Pick from Jusco of all places (Japanese store at Tai Koo). Best tea I had ever brewed at home, maybe even better than any I have now? Memory plays tricks
but it was good.In the 00's I had a week's work in Shanghai with a buddy Brian from HK, brought back a zisha set from the old city (after a lot of haggling with the store owner following us in to the street heheh - think I paid $A15 in the end - Brian would not let me pay more, it was a scene) and some nice long jing (west lake). My fave tea set but tasting cups with handles? Guess it was for tourists like me
I have 5 pots now but it is still the Big One.But it was a year or so ago that everything *finally* clicked, and I realised that I need to drink lots of good chinese tea every day, at least to counterbalance the single malts.
Just here to listen and learn, and ntmu too.