Hello from Australia!

Please introduce yourself here to our membership


Mar 6th, '13, 22:34
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Joined: Feb 20th, '13, 22:31

Hello from Australia!

by Nick » Mar 6th, '13, 22:34

Hi Everyone,

I've been on these forums for about a couple of weeks now, and have found them absolutely fantastic. I received some especially good advice from TingJunkie, so thanks for that!

I've been drinking tea for quite a few years now. I started off with green tea, mostly Lung Ching, which remains a favourite. I've also been drinking different Oolongs over the last couple of years, and some Japanese Sencha. More recently I've started drinking Puers, which are very very nice. I mostly like chinese tea, which has seen me buy my first yixing teapot (I have 2 Yixings which I bought a year ago that appear to be fakes, i'll post pictures for verification).

I'm hoping to have some good chats about tea and teaware and further my knowledge on chinese tea and teaware!

Hope to see you all around. :D

Nick

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Mar 7th, '13, 02:32
Posts: 223
Joined: Aug 31st, '09, 20:16
Location: NSW, Australia
Contact: Hannah

Re: Hello from Australia!

by Hannah » Mar 7th, '13, 02:32

Heyyyyyy mate!
A fellow Aussie woo hoo!! Nice to meet you :)

If you find any decent tea shops in aus please share! I haven't found any yet :(

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Mar 7th, '13, 03:07
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Joined: Jan 10th, '10, 16:04
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Contact: debunix

Re: Hello from Australia!

by debunix » Mar 7th, '13, 03:07

Welcome Nick!

Exploring puerhs is a very delicious & dangerous thing to do. Budgets and storage capacity beware!
Nick wrote:I have 2 Yixings which I bought a year ago that appear to be fakes
They may not be high quality artisan pots made from local clay in Yixing, but they can still do nice things for tea. My most-used 'yixing' is probably this little guy, a $5.99 special from my chinatown tea shop:

Image

I think of it as 'made by someone who once saw a genuine yixing pot'. It's terrific with Dan Cong oolongs--haven't ever tested it head to head against my Chao Zhou, but it's definitely a different experience than the same tea in a porcelain gaiwan.

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Mar 9th, '13, 01:41
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Re: Hello from Australia!

by Chip » Mar 9th, '13, 01:41

Hi Nick and welcome to TC. I am looking forward to seeing you around.

Have fun with your TeaJourney here on TeaChat.

Mar 10th, '13, 18:49
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Joined: Feb 20th, '13, 22:31

Re: Hello from Australia!

by Nick » Mar 10th, '13, 18:49

Thanks everyone for the very warm welcome =)

Unfortunately Hannah, it seems good tea vendors are quite rare in Australia :( in Brisbane's Chinatown there is a guy who sells teapots and apparently sources them from Yixing.. he also sells tea, but he seems to sell the cheaper stuff. Do you know of any? :D

Thanks Debunix, I've had them stashed away because I was a little disappointed with them. I might give them a go! I think I'll also post pictures up of them. One is a very beautiful pot still... but after some reading i'm scared of lead and other bad things in teapots..

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Mar 10th, '13, 22:18
Posts: 8
Joined: Nov 6th, '12, 01:38
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Hello from Australia!

by dilettantea » Mar 10th, '13, 22:18

Hi Nick, nice to find a fellow tea enthusiast from Brisbane! I recently searched high and low through the Valley looking for good tea and teaware and never found anyone selling yixing pots. Did this person have a shop or just a stall at the street markets? Please share some details.

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Mar 11th, '13, 08:05
Posts: 223
Joined: Aug 31st, '09, 20:16
Location: NSW, Australia
Contact: Hannah

Re: Hello from Australia!

by Hannah » Mar 11th, '13, 08:05

.... BRB visiting Chinatown in Brisbane :grin:

Mar 11th, '13, 19:19
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Joined: Feb 20th, '13, 22:31

Re: Hello from Australia!

by Nick » Mar 11th, '13, 19:19

hi Dilettantea,

The place is kind of hidden, but it's in the main mall of Chinatown. I think it's called L. L Arts Tea Gallery or something like that.. I'll try confirm for you. It's on the second floor of a building, sort of up from the carpark in the mall, if you know where that is. I think it's just to the left of the 'Green Tea Restaurant' if memory serves. You go up a small flight of stairs and it's there, they also sell lots of art pieces.

I've been there a few times, and talked with the owner quite a lot. Last time I was there he told me he was flying to Yixing that weekend. He told me that he collects teapots and even has some from famous artists. Once you get him talking about tea, he gets quite excited and shows a lot of his teapots. Unfortunately, he doesn't speak terribly great English. But what I gathered from him is that he doesn't order in extremely expensive teapots, because he said that most people don't understand the value and think that he's crazy for selling them at that price. Anyhow, you can go there and order tea and have a chat.. he has many, many books on tea, but they are mostly in chinese.. :lol:

I'd love to get someone else with a bit more 'tea knowledge' to check it out to see if it's decent or not. If you check it out, let me know what you think =)

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Mar 11th, '13, 21:43
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Joined: Nov 6th, '12, 01:38
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Hello from Australia!

by dilettantea » Mar 11th, '13, 21:43

Thanks for posting info on the L.L. Arts Tea Gallery Nick. I will have to visit this place soon. I am a complete novice when it comes to Yixing pots so I won't be able to give you an informed opinion of the quality of his pots unfortunately. I have thought about buying a small shui ping or shi piao pot to experiment with hong cha and shu pu-erh. I would probably get something cheap online (slipcast) as a "starter" pot, I'm not too concerned with issues of authenticity at this point.

Mar 12th, '13, 09:24
Posts: 17
Joined: Jan 7th, '13, 10:52

Re: Hello from Australia!

by Namnai » Mar 12th, '13, 09:24

Hello Nick, welcome to the forums!
Hello to the rest of you guys from down under too :D
I just had a quick question for you guys. I have a friend in Perth who has taken an interest in tea so I was wondering if you could suggest a good vendor over there.

Thanks,
A

Mar 15th, '13, 02:19
Posts: 8
Joined: Feb 20th, '13, 22:31

Re: Hello from Australia!

by Nick » Mar 15th, '13, 02:19

Hi Namnai,

Unfortunately I don't know of many vendors here in Brisbane let alone Perth (probably a good 4000km away :lol: )

My recommendation would be to go to one of the reputable online vendors.. Not sure about the rest of the Australians on here, but that's what I've been doing! :)

Hope that helps! and thanks for the welcome :D

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Mar 15th, '13, 14:20
Posts: 218
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Location: Michigan

Re: Hello from Australia!

by FlyedPiper » Mar 15th, '13, 14:20

Welcome to TC!

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Mar 18th, '13, 09:31
Posts: 223
Joined: Aug 31st, '09, 20:16
Location: NSW, Australia
Contact: Hannah

Re: Hello from Australia!

by Hannah » Mar 18th, '13, 09:31

FYI Nick (and other fellow Aussies), found an awesome couple of tea and teaware (including yixing!) sellers during my trip to Sydney on the weekend, one in China town and one in chatswood. PM me of you'd like details if you're headed that way! :)

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Mar 20th, '13, 03:38
Posts: 132
Joined: Feb 5th, '13, 07:52
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Hello from Australia!

by Maneki Neko » Mar 20th, '13, 03:38

G'day and welcome to the forum mate!

I also live Down Under, although I'm not officialy Aussie (yet) :wink:

We have a tea shop here in Melbourne that I think is quite OK. It's called Lupicia Teas and the proprietor is a Japanese man. They also have a website: https://www.lupicia.com.au/
I am still in the process of trying some of their teas, the Chinese tea sample pack. The pu-erh in it didn't disappoint (it was my first pu though, so I don't have comparison here). They have a lot of tea ware as well, including matcha whisks.

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Mar 20th, '13, 17:45
Posts: 223
Joined: Aug 31st, '09, 20:16
Location: NSW, Australia
Contact: Hannah

Re: Hello from Australia!

by Hannah » Mar 20th, '13, 17:45

Interesting!!! could you give a quick taste summary of the pu they sell? I've never seen an online aussie vendor sell pu before.. Wouldn't mind giving it a go!

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