Sunday TeaRoom 9/14/08 Local Tea Vendors?

[orguz]

Local stores sell overpriced lower grade teas, visited them once which was enough , therefore buying online has been more favorable in my case.

Sal's mooncakes look appetising had the red bean, chinese dates, and winter melon versions too, with and without the salted duck egg yolks.

Drinking Teamasters qizhong baozhong oolong now, has a very sweet, full bodied, roasted, and malty taste to it.

[augie]

Sal's mooncakes look appetising had the red bean, chinese dates, and winter melon versions too, with and without the salted duck egg yolks.

Is that what is in the center of your avatar? Do they all have duck egg in the center? My husband got 2 duck eggs from a friend who has a "fun farm". He decided to cook them for breakfast one sunday. I had to quickly get dressed and leave the house! I almost got sick just smelling them cook, there is no way I'd eat them. Red Bean sounds good.

[leiche]

leiche, I love your avatar.

Thanks! Where I found it, only the internet knows. Love the book(s)/movie/even the British miniseries.

You guys are making me wish I had a mooncake. I've never tried it. Cake... it sounds promising.

This afternoon needs more tea.

[Salsero]

Do they all have duck egg in the center?

You can get them with zero, one, or two duck egg yolks. It's just the yolk. Mine have one yolk and I don't find it off-putting, but rather a salty, fatty change of pace from the 5-alarm sweetness of the lotus seed filling. At least for me, just a small slice goes a long way.

The Live Chat crew agreed that the Hong Kong ones are better than the Taiwanese ones. I think Tim was pretty positive about the ones you can order on line from Kee Wah Bakery in LA.

[orguz]

Sal's mooncakes look appetising had the red bean, chinese dates, and winter melon versions too, with and without the salted duck egg yolks.

Is that what is in the center of your avatar? Do they all have duck egg in the center? My husband got 2 duck eggs from a friend who has a "fun farm". He decided to cook them for breakfast one sunday. I had to quickly get dressed and leave the house! I almost got sick just smelling them cook, there is no way I'd eat them. Red Bean sounds good.

I chose the avatar for fun, yes the middle is a salted yolk, mooncakes come plain without the yolk too. Could you explain funfarm, the salted duck egg yolks that one buys at the local asian supermarkets are usually imported. They are prepared by wrapping salted ash around the egg and preserved. The yolks aren't salted from a freshly cracked egg. I've had local fresh duck eggs, their eggy smell are more intense then regular hen eggs though. No need to worry with salted ones they lack what put you off the first time I think.

[kongni]

My favorite local business to buy from is Arbor Teas in Ann Arbor. Because I live in Ann Arbor, when I make an order they deliver it by hand to my door!

There is also a somewhat dubious tea store that just opened in the area called Tea Haus. Their teas are VERY high quality and the prices are competitive. The only thing that I'm not so sure about is that they claim that 90% of their tea is organic but do not have any official certification because the tea is coming from a vendor in Germany. Hmmmm....

I'm about to pour a cup of organic malty assam. Cheers everyone!

[auggy]

I have no specialty tea stores nearby (though Teavana is like 45 minutes away, but there are only a few teas from them I would drink) but there is a specialty grocery store about 25 minutes away that sells tea. I was iffy on trying their teas, not knowing how fresh they were, but they had a sale on them the other day and I got some darjeeling first and second flush. I've enjoyed both quite a bit so I will probably buy from them again. Maybe even try something else.

A lemongrass blend this morning. Next, more oolong from the oolong box!

[orguz]

heh, only just realised there 2 oggies here.

[olivierco]

Darjeeling Risheehat SFTGFOP1 to end the day.

[Chip]

No tea in this town, well, some RoT which is where I got my start in tea 9 years ago. There is a strange place called the Tea House locally that is a juxtaposition of sorts. It is owned by a China native, very nice woman actually. But it is all English style teas and teaware. Some pretty decent I guess, but it is strange.

Adagio Golden Monkey started the day. Then a nice sencha from Lupicia ... from Victoria. And currently the new Ali Shan from Adagio.

[Chip]

Yes, I know I have a problem if I have so many teas, I forget what I have.

I found some dan cong under my bed last week. I think it was from March.

Now that is pretty funny. Although, I recently found some of the RoT from 9 years ago when I first started drinking tea.

[Beidao]

I don't know what's wrong with me to day. Have been making a lot of tea but everything tasted dull, no matter how good they use to be.

If local means the city I live in, then there's one good place and some ok. If local means my suburb, then no, nothing. But I rarely shop on the internet for tea and then only Swedish net stores. So far I'm fully content with that, which is rather luxury I suppose, concerning the report we got from Iceland.

[bronzebed]

i would say 80-90% of the teahouses nearby are udder garbage but the customers seem to love their teas. the funny thing i've noticed is the crappier the tea, the more customers there are. maybe this has to do more with a focus on the food though.

i have a few great places that i visit. my favorite place sells tea but does not brew tea for ya. some amazing teas. while some teas are overpriced, i like going and smelling the different teas and picking them out and looking at all the expensive tea wares. its worth it for the experience. love eying up their yixing collection.

[Victoria]

Yes, I know I have a problem if I have so many teas, I forget what I have.

I found some dan cong under my bed last week. I think it was from March.

Now that is pretty funny. Although, I recently found some of the RoT from 9 years ago when I first started drinking tea.

Ha! Maybe you should clean out your TeaFridge more often!
I'm scared to look under my bed!

This afternnoon I was craving my TeaMasters Baozhong,
Just perfection in a cup!

[andy825]

I'm pretty lucky, right here is Pasadena I have:
http://www.leaforever.com
http://www.birdpick.com/
http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profil ... house.html
https://www.chadotea.com/index.php

Plus all the offerings in LA if i am willing to venture into the traffic.