Thurs 1/31/08 Are you drinking tea alone today?

[tenuki]

Ali Shan from Teahome. mmmmm.

[Chip]

This blend is really amazing. Just some leftovers that made a lot of sense to throw together.

Matcha and karigane (or kukicha) can be blended with any Japanese tea it seems.

Tenuki, tell me a little about your ali shan and your Teahome experience?

[skywarrior]

I received my Mexican Chocolate tea from Adagio and have been drinking that. (After the Golden Monkey). It's pretty good. I'm thinking of toning the cinnamon down a bit, but otherwise it's close to how I would blend it.

I also got Valentine's Tea and Chocolate tea today. Mmmmmm.

[tenuki]

Tenuki, tell me a little about your ali shan and your Teahome experience?

I don't claim any knowledge of tea really, just like green oolongs from taiwan in my own way. So don't take this as anything but that.

green, warm and soupy just like I like em with a good mouth feel and long slippery aftertaste. not as fragrant as most alishans, but again, that's how I like em. It stands up well to 6 or more brewings too. I keep trying other vendors, my typical monthly order is one or two from teahome, a couple others from another vendor. So far the only tea I've liked better are some I get locally from Floating Leaves tea in Ballard, and they are such geeks they fly over to Taiwan and hang out with the farmers during tea harvest to find the gems....

My first order with Teahome they sent me the wrong thing, and I was like, ok, I should have expected this from ebay. It was their 'Legend of Tung Ting' instead of what I ordered so I sent them a polite email telling them of the misship not really expecting anything. Since I was out of tea I opened it and started drinking and Man, the tea was just fantastic, so I sent them another email and said, hey, this is a great tea, thanks for making the mistake, don't sweat it I glad you did. But they sent me what I ordered anyway, apologized and told me that the mistake was on them.

The tea arrives usually in under 2 weeks here in Seattle, they ship it direct from taiwan.

Your mileage may vary, but I have nothing but good things to say about them and their tea.

[Victoria]

Wow dotK, that sounds so nice!
I wish my co-workers would go for that.
They do think I'm tea obsessed though.

[tenuki]

omg, is that a heart shaped teacup?!?! girly.

[Chip]

So, ...'Legend of Tung Ting' is aces!!! Thanx for all the info, Tenuki.

[Wesli]

Yeah, with iced senchas I think it's best to use later steeps.

I just finished up a 4th steep of kuki/fuka blend. Very tasty, the flavor of the kukicha comes out differently in later steeps.

[Chip]

I agree, heaven help me, I keep agreeing with Fuka.

I like early sencha steeps hot, later steeps seem more conducive to iced tea.

[cherryking]

Hello everyone,

Hope you have a wonderful TEADAY!

For me, I prefer Keemun black tea in that cold snowy winter. I was told that black tea can warm body in winter, although I did not feel that so strongly, but at least, I think I should try it, and think that would make me warm !

So, the best Hao Ya A is my first choice today, tomorrow, till winter gone, but I am sure I will swift to green tea without any hesitation when spring comes, that is really refeshing, I am green tea FANS. and I will change my cup to Jasmine tea when summer comes, and in fall, I will buy the 1st grade Tie Kuan Yin for my daily drinking, so my tea will be changed for four seasons, I really enjoy it so much, in further future, I will consider use different four tea pots for brew these four kinds of my fav teas.

ENJOY TEA !