good wuyi vendors online?

[nonc_ron]

or do you mean Jing Tea Shop http://www.jingteashop.com/

Thanks

[brad4419]

Another reason I love Jingteashop is there customer service is Great. Sebastien and Jing are so nice and knowledgable about everything tea.

Here are the wuyi roast levels for Jingteashop

Heavily roasted - traditional wuyi shui xian, grade 3 shui xian in everyday day tea section,
- Medium roasted - all the other wuyi teas except the two above.

[Maitre_Tea]

Another reason I love Jingteashop is there customer service is Great. Sebastien is such a nice guy and so knowledgable about everything tea.

Here are the wuyi roast levels for Jingteashop

Heavily roasted - traditional wuyi shui xian, grade 3 shui xian in everyday day tea section,
- Medium roasted - all the other wuyi teas except the two above.

Keep in mind that roasting levels can vary, not only within vendors but also what you perceive to be heavily roasted or medium roasted. I'm kinda surprised that most of their offerings are said to be medium-roasted. From the product description and all I could've sworn the Tie Luo Han was high fired.

[ABx]

Something to keep in mind is how you're brewing. Wuyi yancha really needs to be brewed with the gaiwan filled to the lid with dry leaf, including about 30% crushed bits. Some of the better ones will seem lackluster if brewed with less leaf.

You can sometimes only pour water in enough to cover the leaf, but that doesn't always yield the same results as getting a good water seal on the gaiwan lid.

Some may come out a bit bitter for a beginner palate, but sometimes that's the way it's supposed to be. While it's bitter, it should be a more pleasant bitterness.

I bring this up because there are some of TeaCuppa's that don't seem very good until you get them brewed right; once they're brewed right they can be amazing. The Shui Xian is an example; once brewed right it has more depth, complexity, and aroma than any other I've tried (at least in the price range; obviously the expensive ones will be in a different league).

[wyardley]

Something to keep in mind is how you're brewing. Wuyi yancha really needs to be brewed with the gaiwan filled to the lid with dry leaf, including about 30% crushed bits. Some of the better ones will seem lackluster if brewed with less leaf.

I think this is a matter of personal preference - I think it's overstating it to say that you need to brew it with some amount of crushed leaves. I don't know of many people who brew Wuyi yancha with (intentionally) crushed leaf, and while I've heard of people doing it in the Wuyishan area, I never personally witnessed anyone doing that when I was trying tea at factories there (can't speak to how the locals brew tea for themselves, though). I think crushing the leaves is more common with Tieguanyin (that's the only tea I do it with), though I have talked to at least one person who does it with Fenghuang Shui Xian (but not Wuyi Shui Xian).

I do usually fill the brewing vessel to the lid, at least with longer-leaf Wuyi teas. But you need to keep the size and intact-ness of the leaf in mind; try this with a smaller leaf or choppy tea, and you may not get good results. With really long, intact leaves, you need to really pack it in.

[ABx]

That's true enough. I didn't actually mean to say that all of it does, but some really do in order to get the full body and aroma.

try this with a smaller leaf or choppy tea, and you may not get good results. With really long, intact leaves, you need to really pack it in.

Sometimes it's hard to judge, too, because the leaf can get pretty broken up in shipping. I've had some that seemed particularly broken up, but when I got toward the bottom and all that was left was bits, it actually came out better than when I tried to keep a good amount of whole leaf in there.

[gingkoseto]

I don't know of many people who brew Wuyi yancha with (intentionally) crushed leaf, and while I've heard of people doing it in the Wuyishan area, I never personally witnessed anyone doing that when I was trying tea at factories there (can't speak to how the locals brew tea for themselves, though).

Sometimes it's hard to judge, too, because the leaf can get pretty broken up in shipping.

I am going a bit off topic here, but this just reminds me of a tragic event of today. I hate to have broken tea leaves and yan cha can be so easily broken A favorite old bush wuyi shui xian of mine arrived from China today. The seller packed it differently this time and put the tea in 7g individual packs, which usually just break more leaves than larger packs. But what made it really bad is, my mailing agent in China scattered all the little bags all over the parcel so they literally served as cushions of the parcel. I was very much close to calling up my mailing agent and yelling at him at his mid night time.

I think crushing the leaves is more common with Tieguanyin (that's the only tea I do it with), .

By the way, why would you crush TGY leaves and are those the older style stripe leaves

[wyardley]

By the way, why would you crush TGY leaves and are those the older style stripe leaves

I am not sure of the exact reason behind it, but it's pretty common in Chaozhou gongfu as I have seen it done. I would assume it's because it makes the strength of the brews between the first / fourth infusions a little more consistent (i.e., the first brew will be stronger before the leaves open up, but then the crushed leaves will give out somewhat as the other leaves take over), but it adds something to the taste as well - hard to describe, but it doesn't really make it more bitter as maybe you'd think - it's more like it adds a little extra tang to the taste. I do it with high fire, and sometimes medium fire TGY, but not usually greener stuff. Unless I'm really in a hurry, I try to separate the big and small leaves, and crush I dunno - maybe 1/6 of the total leaf. Sometimes I just crush with my hands, and sometimes I use my thumb to crush it in a gaiwan.

It might also have been to cram more leaves in when the older style leaves were popular (they take up more volume). Someone else might have better explanations as to why they do it, though I imagine 4 different people might well give 4 different explanations.

Some of the roasted Tieguanyin I get is pretty loosely balled or stripe-shaped in the older style. But I still do it even with tighter-balled high-fire teas.

[gingkoseto]

I am not sure of the exact reason behind it, but it's pretty common in Chaozhou gongfu as I have seen it done. I would assume it's because it makes the strength of the brews between the first / fourth infusions a little more consistent (i.e., the first brew will be stronger before the leaves open up, but then the crushed leaves will give out somewhat as the other leaves take over), but it adds something to the taste as well - hard to describe, but it doesn't really make it more bitter as maybe you'd think - it's more like it adds a little extra tang to the taste. I do it with high fire, and sometimes medium fire TGY, but not usually greener stuff. Unless I'm really in a hurry, I try to separate the big and small leaves, and crush I dunno - maybe 1/6 of the total leaf. Sometimes I just crush with my hands, and sometimes I use my thumb to crush it in a gaiwan.

It might also have been to cram more leaves in when the older style leaves were popular (they take up more volume). Someone else might have better explanations as to why they do it, though I imagine 4 different people might well give 4 different explanations.

Some of the roasted Tieguanyin I get is pretty loosely balled or stripe-shaped in the older style. But I still do it even with tighter-balled high-fire teas.

That's interesting! Let me think which tea to crush and take a try

I did notice among my accidentally crushed yan cha, the good ones are still pretty good after being broken but the just so so ones may turn into a disaster. Disaster seems to happen more to dan cong when leaves are broken. But it's just my definition of "disaster". Actually once a few friends and I were talking about how to avoid bitterness in tea brewing, someone said his grandpa from Chaozhou use to say, "what's the point if a tea is neither bitter nor astringent"

[Tead Off]

Chao Zhou people typically crush leaves and brew stronger than any other people I've come across. There is a shop I go to here in Bangkok where the woman who runs it will always crush about 15-20% of wuyi leaves when brewing. I guess this helps bring out additional flavor and aroma but typically, their brews are very strong.

Personally, I find brewing in yixing to bring out more flavor from wuyi leaf than gaiwan and never need to fill a pot more than half with leaf. But, I can understand how some prefer a different taste and what they are used to. Shui Xian is some of the best wuyi I've had. My vendor here roasts his own. 90 years old and his shop is 90 years, too! Built when he was born by his father and now run by his son who is about 50.

I can't recall them crushing TGY, which they also roast themselves.

[Chip]

Chah at [chah dot co dot uk] do a really good selection of oolong teas and their Wuyi Yan Cha is great too. Its a dark champagne oolong, I love it.

Edited.
Chip
Immoderate TeaDrinker who happens to Moderate