Sale at Floating Leaves Tea

[Victoria]

Floating leaves Tea is having a 15% off sale through the month of August to celebrate their one year anniversary in the new location.

You may have heard me mention (oh once or twice or a hundred times) my love for high mountain oolongs and IMHO this is one of the best vendors out there. Shiuwen's 2009 LiShan and DaYuLing are just excellent.

I see she has now added samplers to her line up including; High Mountain Sampler, Taiwanese Oolong Sampler, Green Tea Sampler, Tea Spectrum Sampler and everything is 15% off.

This is a very good opportunity to try some of these teas that are simply the "best of the best". Although you may think a few prices seem high, once you get these teas home you will understand you get what you pay for.
And now at a discount.

[Herb_Master]

Thanks for the info, but I have suspended buying until after I have paid for my holiday to france. I trust you have already restocked with some of your favourites.

[Maitre_Tea]

Oh man, I only have enough money left out of my tea budget to either buy from Den's or Floating Leaves...and they're both having sales! Which to choose
Does anyone know which Baozhong from Floating Leaves are roasted? That might help tilt the scales in their direction.

[Victoria]

Thanks for the info, but I have suspended buying until after I have paid for my holiday to france. I trust you have already restocked with some of your favourites.

That would be a resounding yes!!

Oh man, I only have enough money left out of my tea budget to either buy from Den's or Floating Leaves...and they're both having sales! Which to choose
Does anyone know which Baozhong from Floating Leaves are roasted? That might help tilt the scales in their direction.

I would not call any of her Baozhongs roasted. I think the very nature of Baozhong is to not be very roasted. But you might like this:

http://www.floatingleaves.com/index.php ... 713bc42da0

[Salsero]

I ordered the Spring 2009 High Mountain Sampler and the Winter 2008 Dong Ding as soon as I got her flier today. I have only had Floating Leaves tea a couple times, but those orders included some of the best Taiwan tea I have had.

Victoria, I almost posted the question before ordering, but I may as well ask it now, even though it's a bit late: how do you feel about last season's tea? In this case, for instance, the very high mountain stuff from last winter. Does it lose something in that short a time? I especially wonder because Shiuwen doesn't seem to use vacuum packaging or nitro flushing.

I uncovered my Spring 2008 TeaMasters Subtropical Forest Bao Zhong recently and was very surprised at how good it still is. I think it may have lost some of it's more volatile aromas, but it's still head and shoulders above most Bao Zhong that's still fresh. Of course, Bao Zhong isn't a gao shan, but it is a tea that I would have expected to fade quickly.

[Maitre_Tea]

Looks interesting, I might give it a try.
It seems ironic that as a Taiwanese I prefer roasted Oolong
When I asked my grandmother to bring me some roasted Oolong from Taiwan but when she came she only brought some slightly roasted Dong Ding. She told me that the vendor didn't carry many heavily roasted Taiwanese Oolong, since most of the teas that are consumed are usually greener Oolong.

[wyardley]

Oh man, I only have enough money left out of my tea budget to either buy from Den's or Floating Leaves...and they're both having sales! Which to choose
Does anyone know which Baozhong from Floating Leaves are roasted? That might help tilt the scales in their direction.

I would not call any of her Baozhongs roasted. I think the very nature of Baozhong is to not be very roasted. But you might like this:

She has two roasted baozhongs - one is called 'Taiwan Wuyi' and the other 'Taiwan Shuixian'. But they're more of a medium roast.

[entropyembrace]

something I didn't see an answer to on her site...for those of you that have ordered from FLT how many grams is 1 'unit' of tea there?

[tenuki]

@entropy - one unit of tea at FLT is an ounce.

The Muzha TGY is a more heavily roasted tea, and pretty decent, I have a bag for those days I want some roast, and I usually don't like TGY either. Her house oolong is a great value for the price, she roasts it herself and it is a pretty heavy roast too. Heavier than the Taiwan Wu Yi (although this year is more roasted like the 2007 batch was which I like) and the Shui Xian, both of which are more light medium roasts.

@Salsero - As you point out good Baozhong ages very well, and even perks up nicely with refresh roasting too. The two best aged oolongs I've ever had were baozhongs, and I've probably tasted around 30 or so aged oolongs the last few years. The others weren't even close, godly brews.

Shiuwen's baozhongs are all pinlin competion style, ie pretty green, although hers tend to the more oxidized side of that style (better mouth feel and aftertaste IMHO). @wyardley - The WuYi and Shui Xians are both not really baozhongs, they are the Wu Yi and Shui Xian varietals processed the baozhong style and light/medium roasted I think. Baozhong is usually ChinHsin varietal, the taste is quite different.

Also, she doesn't use vacuum packing for shipping, but the teas come from taiwan vacuum packed in bags of around 8-12 oz and she only opens one at a time as needed. I wouldn't be too worried about freshness. If you look closely at the picture on the front page of her website you can see the green vacuum packed bags on her shelf behind the electric kettle.

I still think the delightfully subtle 2008 winter li shan 'A' is very good tea (I like it better than the 2009 spring crop of gao shans, but I usually like winter harvest better), certainly a great value at 30% off. The He Huan Shan is my favorite from the 2009 spring gaoshans and pretty robust in comparision, but the da yu ling and li shan are both very good too. The best deal is to ask her how many oz of a particular tea a bag is, she usually gives additional discounts if you just buy an original packaged vacuumed packed bag.

I'm still really enjoying my 2008 winter li shan 'a' - I got a whole bag in January and it's almost gone now.

Ok, sorry for long post.

[Salsero]

Also, she doesn't use vacuum packing for shipping, but the teas come from taiwan vacuum packed in bags of around 8-12 oz and she only opens one at a time as needed.

Thanks, Tenuki, so much for this note especially, but also for the wealth of other info. Also, good to see you around (and thanks for the GO posts!)

The question of the quantity in "one" order is still unanswered, however, and is something that really needs to be specified on the website.

[Victoria]

I ordered the Spring 2009 High Mountain Sampler and the Winter 2008 Dong Ding as soon as I got her flier today. I have only had Floating Leaves tea a couple times, but those orders included some of the best Taiwan tea I have had.

Victoria, I almost posted the question before ordering, but I may as well ask it now, even though it's a bit late: how do you feel about last season's tea? In this case, for instance, the very high mountain stuff from last winter. Does it lose something in that short a time? I especially wonder because Shiuwen doesn't seem to use vacuum packaging or nitro flushing.

I uncovered my Spring 2008 TeaMasters Subtropical Forest Bao Zhong recently and was very surprised at how good it still is. I think it may have lost some of it's more volatile aromas, but it's still head and shoulders above most Bao Zhong that's still fresh. Of course, Bao Zhong isn't a gao shan, but it is a tea that I would have expected to fade quickly.

I guess Tenuki answered even better than I could.

As for the TeaMasters, I agree, I just had some recently and it is holding up well. Just a little faded. That was a most excellent Boazhong! This year's is very close, also excellent.

[tingjunkie]

Thanks for the heads up Victoria. The Taiwanese Oolong Sampler is on its way. I've been anxious to try some Oriental Beauty. Hope it's a good one.

Including the order I just made at Jing, that's 9 new oolongs for me to try soon. All together it's about 300g for less than $60 shipped. I'm psyched just thinking about it!

[Victoria]

You are welcome! I just received back ups of my LiShan and DaYuLing.

[Bubba_tea]

The question of the quantity in "one" order is still unanswered, however, and is something that really needs to be specified on the website.

Hey Sal - below the add to cart, to the left, it states:

Model: ounces

(ok - not wonderful grammar... but it works)

Also, on the home page:

Note: all quantities of tea are in oz. Price listed is for 1 oz.

[Salsero]

Hey Sal - below the add to cart, to the left, it states:

Thanks!