Oolong lover - introduction

[rhondabee]

Hello,

I have been reading this forum and it is very informative. I have been drinking loose leaf tea off and on since the mid 1990's. I was introduced to Taiwanese oolongs by a boyfriend who traveled there for work. He brought back some green teas, black teas and the oolongs, and it was green oolongs that I really liked. He showed me the gung fu style of serving tea. You know the relationship didn't last when he kept the best tea for himself and didn't share it with me! I think he bought me a large decorative cardboard canister of Ten Ren oolong. I don't know what type as there is no english on the container. I am assuming it was a Dong Ding, though. After I ran out of that, I tried to find more locally, but it was hard as I didn't know the type of oolong to request. I only knew it was green oolong from Taiwan, and the leaves were rolled. Through the years I think I ended up buying the Chinese green gunpowder tea, and one store gave me Fanciest Formosa Oolong, (Oriental Beauty) and another place only had the Iron Goddess of Mercy TGY (good). So this year after beginning to drink tea regularly again I decided to find some good sources to buy my Taiwanese oolong. So now I have a sampler of the high mountain oolongs from Floating Leaves plus Dong Ding and Jin Xuan, and some teas from TC Formosa Tea Company. Drinking this tea always puts me in a good mood and gives me balance and focus. I drink it every day at work now, and on the weekends when I get a chance. Looking forward to chatting about tea - although I confess I lurk a lot.

[Salsero]

Good story, thanks for sharing it. Lurking is just fine, but it's also nice to hear your thoughts! Welcome.

[Dreamer]

Well, so you got rid of the boyfriend but kept the (tea) habit...sounds like you made out ok!

Welcome to the 'chat!

Dreamer

[Trey Winston]

Welcome

[Mrs. Chip]

Well, so you got rid of the boyfriend but kept the (tea) habit...sounds like you made out ok! Dreamer

Glad you decided to join us in the forum conversations! Welcome.

[geeber1]

Welcome to TeaChat, rhondabee!

[olivierco]

Welcome!

[Victoria]

Nice to have you with us! Love oolongs, glad to have another with us. You will love your purchases I'm sure, especially Floating Leaves Tea, high mountain. It is a very long way from Ten Ren in a cardboard canister. Enjoy!

[Chip]

Hi Rhondabee, welcome to TeaChat! Thank you for sharing!

Don't be a stranger ... see you around the forum!

[AlexZorach]

I also love oolongs, both Taiwanese and Chinese.

I also have found it's hard to locate them in stores...but lately I've had good luck in Philly Chinatown. I've figured out the Chinese characters for "oolong" which is a start.

If you don't mind paying a bit more, I think mail-order is the way to go...there are lots of places that sell good oolong teas.

The cheapest top-notch oolongs I've gotten, however, have been containers in Chinatown that had no english on them. I got a ti kuan yin that I absolutely love, and a tung ting, both at less than half the price of comparable teas in catalogs/web mail order places.

[rhondabee]

Thanks to everyone for your welcomes. Yes, I don't mind obtaining my tea online. It is a lot of fun searching for tea. I do wish there was a nice tea house in St. Louis. There are a few English tea rooms, but no tea rooms that specialize in Chinese tea, as far as I know. I did recently find out a local group "Friends of Taiwan" is holding a tea tasting next month in honor of the Moon Festival. They will demonstrate "Formosa Longevity Tea Ceremony" and the tea tasting. I'm excited about it. Maybe someone there knows a good local source of Taiwanese tea.

[Victoria]

That sounds great! Be sure to give us a recap! I hope you will find some good tea there.