Friday TeaDay 8/07/09 First tea purchases?

[olivierco]

Karigane gyokuro after dinner.

[gingkoseto]

My earlier tea purchases were all in stores with physical addresses and actually they were all great. Some bad purchases are in later years from the internet. Although I love internet shopping very much, there are some bad purchases.

I once got some baozhong which is tasteless by all means, not even bitter, just tasteless.

Another time I got a tall can of long jing which obviously have layers - I found the top layer (for my initial drinks) with better leaves and when I dug deeper into the can there were a lot more broken and older leaves!

[gingkoseto]

My ems tea packages from China arrived today! Can't wait to try the white bud qi lan oolong, which I've never had before And there is a dong ding from a reputable tea farmer - I am almost sure it will be great

[depravitea]

I've been lucky, liking most of what I get, especially my latest O-Cha purchase!




However, when I first became really serious, I did (unfortunately) buy some heinous oolongs that tasted like a funeral.

[Chip]

I seem to always need to reinvent the wheel and learn from my own mistakes way too often. Back in 1999, there was no TeaChat, nor many of the resources that exist today.

So, like many mice, I followed the pied piper vendors' eloquent recommendations, taking them as gospel, after all, "they could not say it if it wasn't true, right?" Wronggggg.

Yeah, lots of mistakes, but also, the teas available in the USA are much better today as well. It is an incredible time to walk into the tea scene.

Began the TD with Yamata from Rishi, very nice fukamushi that came out as perfectly as it possibly could. SweeTea certainly agreed while Pyrit, Wulong and Fuji-San did their best to distract ...

Currently, Yutaka Midori from O-Cha ... especially nice today, perhaps in honor of Depravitea's initiation into the world of SENCHA.

[Salsero]

I guess this proves you can make anything in a gaiwan. Congratulations, Depravitea!

[Proinsias]

I don't recall buying that much awful tea. I tend to regret high street purchases when I am low on a certain tea: "oh look, maybe I won't have to order assam off the net after all" eventually I give them to my dad.

Thinking outside the box today. Some Vietnamese Marble Mountain black which was so so and some organic Bolivian Cochabamba black which is much nicer. Hopefully at some point in the future I can claim to have been drinking it before it was cool.

[Chip]

Thinking outside the box today. Some Vietnamese Marble Mountain black which was so so and some organic Bolivian Cochabamba black which is much nicer. Hopefully at some point in the future I can claim to have been drinking it before it was cool.

You are a wild and crazy guy!

Continuing on with Darjeeling FF with DW. Every time I have Darjeeling I realllly like it, but I never reallly crave it in advance.

Currently soggy leaf tea including Rishi Silver Needles from yesterday

[iannon]

oh the memories..of my unforgettable "Deer Jerky" flavored Long Jing. so yes! I have bought some not-so-good tea. mostly from local Asian markets/stores not so much from online.

Kumamoto Sencha Yabe Supreme from Yuuki tonight

[DoctorD]

A bad purchase, yes, but one I've never regretted...

Back in the day, early in our romance with loose tea, when we were only dimly aware of mail-order sites, we got most of our leaf from about the only local store that carried anything of the kind. The place was much more into coffee, but they had a few bulk canisters of generic this and that, so I would pick up some "Darjeeling," "Assam," "Oolong," or whatever the label claimed it to be, and we would brew it up and feel quite pleased with ourselves over our liberation from teabags. After awhile we could even tell the difference between general types. Anyway, one day I asked for some "oolong," from the usual canister, but when we got it in the pot it turned out to be some ghastly flavored whatever instead. I remember thinking that if the place couldn't even be bothered to get the right stuff in the right canister, they obviously couldn't be very serious about this tea business, so we quickly decided to leave them to their coffee roasting, threw the flavored whatever in the trash, and started investigating other sources (on-line was just barely becoming an option). Hard to regret that move.

[Cinnamon Kitty]

Thought this one over for a bit since I didn't get a chance to reply yesterday and though I made some good purchases, I made some really bad ones too. Certain flavored rooibos tisanes got thrown into the trash after one whiff of their overpowering scent. Other flavored teas kept me happy until I found actual tea and then most of those had to be disposed of or turned into iced tea. Also, things that taste good apart often do not taste nearly as impressive together. I have a sachet that I made of a lavender sencha blend that smelled great but tasted awful. It is now sitting in my dresser drawers making my clothes smell nice. Other teas were helpful lessons in things that I don't like or that quality does matter for certain teas. Cheap sencha is better off cold brewed.

[depravitea]

I guess this proves you can make anything in a gaiwan. Congratulations, Depravitea!

Gotta work with the tools you have.

[silvermage2000]

I would say possibly.