Are all Teas created Equal?

[esabet]

Thought I know the answer is NO , I am a bit curious to get other people's opinion on "why"? WHY all teas are not created equal?

Now I should make one more clarification, I am not saying Oolong vs. White, or White vs. Green, and etc.. My question is narrowed to comparing same type of tea.

So, for example, the question is, besides taste, and assuming the teas being compared are the same quality, what makes one oolong tea better than the other?

[hop_goblin]

The only advise I can give you is, use the net. It is a tremendous source for tea information. There are so many reasons, both scientific and philosophically speaking that it would require more than just a drive by answer.

[Beidao]

Well let's begin with oolong. It could be made from bad leaves (broken to pieces etc.) Someting can have been wrong already in the farming process, to little water for the bushes, to little nourishments, not a good bush varietal for the tea that is made of it. Or something wrong in the several stages that makes it an oolong. Not a skilled tea maker. Something wrong with the oxidation. Something wrong with the drying. Something wrong with the roasting. It could have been an excellent tea but not stored well enough and been going stale before you get it. It could have been stored too cold, too hot, with too much air, too much humidity. For example, good Tie Guan Yin could be floral, aromatic and milky while bad Tie Guan Yin is just sour. Most of the time a tea is bad I think because some unserious producers and sellers buy stuff that has been unprofessionally done and they sell it saying it's the best tea ever. Often you get what you pay for but sometimes you pay much much more than it's worth. You get the leftover tea that the serious people did not want to deal with.

[nimpercent]

The only advise I can give you is, use the net. It is a tremendous source for tea information. There are so many reasons, both scientific and philosophically speaking that it would require more than just a drive by answer.

So true. I am still pretty new regarding teas, but the internet is a vast, albeit confusing, source of tea information. I have been pretty focused on oolongs for awhile now, and I must say that grades of oolong are much different. "Better" perhaps is not the best word to use, due to the fact that cheaper and even lower graded teas can be personally preferable in some cases. Happy tea-ing!