New to Black Teas

[iheartea]

I've been drinking sencha and matcha for years, and still continue to enjoy it daily. I'm feeling adventurous and want to look into black teas for a little change. Where can I purchase good, organic black teas?

[MEversbergII]

Seven Cups has a few good ones; I like their premium Quimen.

TeaTrekker has some that I've heard people favor; they even have Japanese black tea, if you want to continue the Japanese trend.

M.

[bonescwa]

Yunnan sourcing has the best selection of yunnanese blacks

[Alucard]

Most organic teas I've seen are from India or Nepal. I haven't see many from China or Taiwan.

[Greenteaguru]

Fujian black teas are also excellent, something like Tan Yang Gong Fu, can't go wrong.

[lilly007chang]

FuJian Lapsang Sauchong is organic black tea which I like most,the tea trees are 50-100 years and live in high mountion(altitude 1800-2000m).It is my daily tea in winter and ever helped to cure my bad stomach!

[Thallassa]

First off - I always have to question "organic". (I mean, all tea is organic, as it is made up of biogenic carbon-based molecules! ) But my experience is that organic is usually not better than non-organic, and sometimes it is worse. I feel like that for China at least the plantations that bother to get organic certification are trying to appeal to Westerners, and often they don't care about the quality of tea as much. In fact, the tea may be very much lower quality because they know most people for whom "organic" is a standard don't know that much about tea

http://silkroadteas.com/ was where I started my loose-leaf tea journey many years ago (well... many for me!). I wouldn't necessarily recommend them now (they recently raised prices so are not as competitive, and after comparing to other vendors I'm not as confident of their quality, although it still tastes good!) The reason I link them is because they have several certified organic black teas, including some Yunnan golds which I would really recommend.

http://what-cha.com is another good one. Their teas aren't always called "organic" in the title but many of them are. I haven't ordered from them myself but I have heard nothing but good things. Also, apparently it is quite addictive to add their samples to their cart as I have seen many posts with dozens of samples all in one order. They specialize in offering teas from many different regions so it is a good way to get a feel for what different places have to offer.

Yunnan Sourcing has already been mentioned in this thread, and I would strongly recommend them. Yunnan Blacks are the best of black tea in my opinion. Their Fuijan blacks are pretty good too! Yunnan Sourcing has very few, if any, certified organic teas, but they have tested many (a hundred or more) of their teas for pesticide levels and report the results on the website. Also, they offer many teas from old arbor or wild arbor trees that grow wild and have not ever been touched by pesticides or really cared for at all (although you might find more of these very special leaves in the "puerh" section than the "black" section, there are some in both). It might not be certified, but I think trees growing wild in the forest is as organic as you can get!

[iheartea]

Thank you all! Sorry for the late reply but I had a very busy few weeks. I really appreciate your responses. Thank you, thank you!

[shane]

I would like to piggyback on what thallassa has stated about organic tea. Not always the best. And, from what i understand, there are many tea plantations that offer tea that is chemical free or "organic". These farmers just don't bother with certification for several reasons such as the high cost of being certified.
Have fun on your black tea adventure. There is a whole world of delicious black teas and I look forward to hearing which ones you enjoy the most.

[ClarG]

Try different types, or even blends of black tea.

I happen to like Darjeeling, Assam, Nilgiri, Yunnan, Keemun, Ceylon, Nepalese, and sometimes Lapsang Souchong.

I agree what was posted about "organic" teas.