Thursday TeaDay 1/07/10 Top 5 Fave?

[silvermage2000]

I just had a cup of dens tea grape sencha.

[Geekgirl]

Seriously? Northern Cardinal? The all-red kind with the black eyeliner? We see scads of the red-crests when we are there, but I've never seen a Northern, cool.

Now that I look on birder sites, they say that there are 3 species (including the red-crests) that have been introduced to Hawaii. Isn't that always the story!

[Victoria]

Yes, well I would say a mid-west looking cardinal. Don't remember ever seeing one in SoCal even. It was a moderate red, with top knot and all. I wish I could have captured it. It took the bread, and flew far away. I'll look for him tomorrow am.

[Geekgirl]

Yes, well I would say a mid-west looking cardinal.

[Janine]

It's hard to say but here' s a brief list roughly looking at the teas in my cabinet (not in ranking order & more than five):

Tea Gallery
Imperial Tea Court
Red Circle Tea
Tillerman Tea
Chaikhana
OmShanTea

There's more but too many to list. Mostly I buy from places where I can see, smell, taste, etc. so that explains my lack of online vendors, which I'm certain are equally excellent based on many great recommendations. Someday I will get around to trying them, but I really have too much tea already. My list today is West Coast heavy, because I'm in San Fran at the moment.

Today my cold continues, so I am drinking herbal tea again: fresh ginger, dried orange peel and roses, echinacea, tulsi, "siberian" ginseng, hongzhao, various herbs to soothe the throat like slippery elm

[brad4419]

Sorry but Im putting my top 6 instead of 5 I just have to.

teaspring
jingteashop
floatingleavestea
dens
dragonteahouse
yunnansourcing

ding gu da fang today

[Chip]

Always changing since ... well ... always trying new vendors. But the top 2-3 have not changed much lately. My list is actually 10 or so long, but will share top 5 spots as of today.

In order.

O-Cha-has had the top spot for 4ish years running
Zencha-continually offering teas that shake my tea world
Den's- a top 5 for several years
Rishi-comeback vendor after being on my schitz list 3 years ago. Concerted effort in offering interesting and different sencha-s
Maiko-this spot could have gone to at least 4 other vendors who are very close on my list
6-10 in no particular order: Ippodo, Sugimoto, Ito en (the shop), Hibiki-an, Maeda en, and a bonus one ... Adagio.

Have you figured out what tomorrow's topic will be yet??? PM me if you think you know! Who will be first to figure out my dangerous mind? Family members not eligible.

[geeber1]

Adagio
TeaSource
Strand Tea
Angelina's Teas (eBay)
Den's

Glendale OP this morning and evening. I got distracted at work and made a horrid cup of Ceylon because I put too many leaves in. Put me off having any more tea until I got home tonight.

[brlarson]

My fave five are:
Jing Tea
Hou de
Zencha
O-Cha
Ippodo

Started the day with Jing's Shui Xian and finished with Yame matcha Kasumi.