Thursday TeaDay 11/18/10 B & M store purchase?

[debunix]

About 2 weeks ago, went to Wing Hop Fung.

Tried a couple of different teas, and was rather disappointed in the one fancy green oolong I bought--I think that the sample I got before was fresher and the stuff I bought this time has been sitting in the big crock losing flavor for months since then. But I usually have quite good luck with the greens and white teas where the storage isn't quite so critical, and I think they have better turnover of that stock.

I also noticed this time that they are starting to put up some more detailed labeling in english on a few of their puerhs. They have probably 50 to 100 different beengs and bricks and another dozen loose puerhs, ranging in price from a few dollars a cake to a thousand, and most have so little information that if you can't recognize the label/source from just looking at it, you'd have no idea of the difference between them.

They also have some new offerings in the prepackaged teas section that include some senchas from Maeda-en that look direct-from japan, perhaps nitrogen flushed and not stale.

No tea yet today.

[brandon]

The Tea Gallery (The Mandarin was away on TeaBusiness) one week ago.

2003 100 Year Old Tree (Lao Cong Shui Xian) and 1990s Da Hong Pao. A friend dropped in later with 50 year old loose puerh from Wistaria.

Right now - 1997 8582 raw puerh.

[Chip]

Less than 5 years. Ito-en's so called flagship store in NYC with the Mrs. and nephew. Ritzzzzy store. Lots of coolness. And picked up some single estate Japanese teas that were pretty good but not "WOW!"

Unrelated to tea purchases, this was also my first first hand exposure to really high end kyusu-s, and I had noooo idea at the time. I picked up a tiny simple terra cotta similar to those found on Hojo's availability.

I was seeing how it felt in hand like I was pouring, etc. I was awestruck by how light it was, uber thin walled, and so incredibly fragile. Then I saw the 400 USD price tag ... and my hands, still holding the kyusu, began to literally shake. I thought I was going to break it for sure. At the time, I just had no idea about these types of tiny kyusu and the prices they commanded.

[brandon]

Less than 5 years. Ito-en's so called flagship store in NYC with the Mrs. and nephew. Ritzzzzy store. Lots of coolness. And picked up some single estate Japanese teas that were pretty good but not "WOW!"

Unrelated to tea purchases, this was also my first first hand exposure to really high end kyusu-s, and I had noooo idea at the time. I picked up a tiny simple terra cotta similar to those found on Hojo's availability.

I was seeing how it felt in hand like I was pouring, etc. I was awestruck by how light it was, uber thin walled, and so incredibly fragile. Then I saw the 400 USD price tag ... and my hands, still holding the kyusu, began to literally shake. I thought I was going to break it for sure. At the time, I just had no idea about these types of tiny kyusu and the prices they commanded.

Say, Chip, 5 years already? You are due for another trip to the city about now.

[tortoise]

The thought of opening that container and taking a whiff of that amazing dry leaf was the only thing that got me out of bed this morning.

I can definitely relate to that.

Come to think of it, I bought tea from several B&M's in Seattle since that Paris visit. I guess I just wanted to tell that story.

Can any of you Seattle-ites tell me the name of that tea shop down by Pike's Place that serves you free tea while they try to sell you what they have? You know, you sit at the bar and they gong-fu you to death. It's in a little mall-like shopping center on 1st ave, I think. They have a room where they display a bunch of pots too, across the hall. I didn't know enough about pots then (or now) to know if they were good ones, but they have a lot of them.

I'm drinking Silver Needle from Floating Leaves (another Seattle shop) at work this afternoon.

[mosshorn]

Sadly no good B&M stores around my area, but I've always wanted to go to Seattle so maybe I'll make the trip sometime

Tea today: 2000 Mini Puerh Tea Brick from Puerhshop. Wow, these things are tasty!

[laura99]

It was about a year ago at Teavanna. Not been back since . I am not aware of any other places to find tea here, except one tea bar that is associated with a spa. It does look interesting, but its pretty far and have not found time to stop there yet.

Not much tea today. Yunnan gold this morning. Sipping on some lemongrass/mint 'tea' right now. Trouble sleeping this week, so am stopping the caffeine a bit earlier than usual

[geeber1]

No tea stores near me and the couple that do sell loose-leaf are questionable.

[Peacock]

There's a asian grocery store in Dublin that I go to occasionally to buy my tea. The quality of their tea varies... most of it isn't good, but the higher priced tea is good and they come in shiny tins.

[nickE]

Less than 6 months. I picked up a few teas when I visited Wing Hop Fung in LA during the summer.

Hachiju-hachiya Sencha from Maiko today, as well as a session with the American Hao 0903.

[entropyembrace]

Less than 6 months...last time was September I went to DavidsTea in the local mall and bought some matcha...they have pretty high turnover so it's fairly fresh and inexpensive and has a nice rich flavour so it makes a good daily matcha to fill in the gaps between bowls of more expensive stuff...and to use in cooking where the bolder flavour is nessecary. I buy a few teas from them and another local teashop called Steeps. They generally have good teas and a decent turnover...though the selection is a bit limited and sometimes freshness is an issue....they serve to fill in the gaps while waiting for long overseas orders to arrive.

Teaday today was yunnan oriental beauty from yunnan sourcing...getting more infusions from it than I expected brewing gongfu style in my new teapot I think 8 so far and should be a few more yet...

[iannon]

More than five years ago. Don't have many real Tea shops in this area, and I don't get out much. I used to love shopping for Tea in person.

Yup..I live in the same area..theres a couple generic tea shops. nothing of note unfortunately..ive gotten tea from them long ago..no longer. ok wait theres one..the other closed up over a year ago

[Skippyandjif]

I actually just bought tea at a tea store this past weekend! It wasn't exclusively a tea store-- it was an Asian grocery near my school that has a specialized tea section, though. This place had an incredibly long aisle with incredibly high shelves full of tea, and my friends were laughing because I was running back and forth down the aisle in a fit of total overstimulation.

Rose congou this afternoon, currently drinking a chrysanthemum tisane.

[gargoylekitty]

Last week. I tend to buy Maeda-en's genmaicha from my grocery store. The week before that though I stopped in at my local tea place, though I only bought a cup and got a free sample of their dong ding. I'm thinking my next tea purchase will probably be from there too, though I just need to get my supply to a slightly less robust level.

[debunix]

I just finished a lovely genmaicha-like tea, but while I found my first genmaicha to be overly aggressive with the bitter-roasted darkness of the rice, this new Sunpu Boucha from Norbu (link to his site with my more complete review) was much gentler and lovelier to my tastebuds: actually fruity-sweet-roasty-toasty. Where the fruity came from--how a vegetal green tea and a toasty dark roasty stem mix to form it--is quite a puzzle to me.

Also today, some 2007 Rui Cao Xiang 'Wu Liang Wild Arbor' Sheng from Yunnan Sourcing, and more of the ever-lovely Anji white tea, which I learned today really *is* a green tea, as it seems like it should be by the appearance of the leaf and the taste of the liquor.