Hi all,
I am about to finish my very first TGY oolong. It came from rishi and I absolutely in love with it, however I am trying to stick with organic and this one happens to be conventional.
Can anyone suggest a good alternative?
So far, I was looking at arborteas and teavivre. Both have an organic version of TGY.
Also, what other oolong do you think I should try? I am looking for ideas of some samples to get with my TGY order.
Thanks,
Nataly
Re: organic TGY?
http://www.jingteashop.com/cat-jing-tea ... ng-tea.cfm
Most are organic, maybe not certified but I trust them enough to believe it is organic.
Give some of their wuyi and dancong oolongs a try as well. They have good stuff there that looks a lot more promising then the other two sites under consideration.
Also like to say that often the cert org oolongs turn out so so (at least the ones I have tried. Most of the really good stuff is grown organic anyways and farmers don't care about cert because its a hassle/timely, expensive, tea is sold so fast anyways because the quality speaks for itself, and they don't want a bunch of newbies who know nothing about farming tea telling them what and how they should grow their tea
Most are organic, maybe not certified but I trust them enough to believe it is organic.
Give some of their wuyi and dancong oolongs a try as well. They have good stuff there that looks a lot more promising then the other two sites under consideration.
Also like to say that often the cert org oolongs turn out so so (at least the ones I have tried. Most of the really good stuff is grown organic anyways and farmers don't care about cert because its a hassle/timely, expensive, tea is sold so fast anyways because the quality speaks for itself, and they don't want a bunch of newbies who know nothing about farming tea telling them what and how they should grow their tea
Re: organic TGY?
Thank you! Do you have a recommendation on which one to start with? There are 6 kinds of TGY alone, 4 of them are organic. The descrptions and pictures are lost on me, I am not at that level of sophistication yet 
Pricewise, my rishi TGY was somewhere between Jing grade A and AA.
Here is the description of rishi's TGY if it helps at all:
"A specially baked tea made to order for Rishi Tea each spring and winter... Our special grade of this tea is hand-harvested from the soft stem Wu-Yi tea bush cultivar that is descended from the original tea bushes introduced to Taiwan from Fujian in the 19th Century. Made according to the traditional Tae Guan Yin oxidation and bamboo coal baking techniques developed in China’s Fujian province, our Iron Goddess of Mercy is a special treat for oolong tea lovers. Our Iron Goddess of Mercy has a light golden-amber infusion with a smooth body and sweet finish. Its aroma is profoundly reminiscent of baked grain and dried apricot."
To me it has wonderful roasted flavor, which is complex, smooth and swet, I can't distinguish the apricot though...
Thanks,
Nataly
Pricewise, my rishi TGY was somewhere between Jing grade A and AA.
Here is the description of rishi's TGY if it helps at all:
"A specially baked tea made to order for Rishi Tea each spring and winter... Our special grade of this tea is hand-harvested from the soft stem Wu-Yi tea bush cultivar that is descended from the original tea bushes introduced to Taiwan from Fujian in the 19th Century. Made according to the traditional Tae Guan Yin oxidation and bamboo coal baking techniques developed in China’s Fujian province, our Iron Goddess of Mercy is a special treat for oolong tea lovers. Our Iron Goddess of Mercy has a light golden-amber infusion with a smooth body and sweet finish. Its aroma is profoundly reminiscent of baked grain and dried apricot."
To me it has wonderful roasted flavor, which is complex, smooth and swet, I can't distinguish the apricot though...
Thanks,
Nataly
Feb 15th, '12, 12:44
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Re: organic TGY?
Just went onto the rishi site, that tgy is not organic. It's also a Taiwanese take on a tgy (not that it's a bad thing, but...)
25g or 50g* sample of green, med, and dark to see which you like
The AAA was very tasty, I haven't tried the A or AA though.
Here is the entry wuyi oolong. Might be worth getting 50g or so to see if you enjoy this style of tea.
http://www.jingteashop.com/pd-jing-tea- ... ng-dhp.cfm
Their dancongs are pretty good too, though not listed as organic. Maybe get a 25g small sample of one or two to try out.
As tempting as the everyday dancong may be, this years was not very impressive to me compared to a couple years back. In hindsight this year I would have rather had a 25g sample of something else. But last time (year or two ago) it was more decent and well worth it in my eyes.
Red tea taster in case interested, I enjoyed it http://www.jingteashop.com/pd-jing-tea- ... taster.cfm
*50g samples are almost 1/2 the price of 100g so it's your best value for your money if you just want to try and not commit to 100g. The 25g samples are significantly more then 1/4 the price of 100g.
Any way you go should be alright as long as you feel comfortable going that way. Their teas are pretty solid from what I have ordered so far.
You could get http://www.jingteashop.com/pd-jing-tea-shop-aljtgya.cfmnataly wrote:Also, what other oolong do you think I should try?
25g or 50g* sample of green, med, and dark to see which you like
The AAA was very tasty, I haven't tried the A or AA though.
Here is the entry wuyi oolong. Might be worth getting 50g or so to see if you enjoy this style of tea.
http://www.jingteashop.com/pd-jing-tea- ... ng-dhp.cfm
Their dancongs are pretty good too, though not listed as organic. Maybe get a 25g small sample of one or two to try out.
As tempting as the everyday dancong may be, this years was not very impressive to me compared to a couple years back. In hindsight this year I would have rather had a 25g sample of something else. But last time (year or two ago) it was more decent and well worth it in my eyes.
Red tea taster in case interested, I enjoyed it http://www.jingteashop.com/pd-jing-tea- ... taster.cfm
*50g samples are almost 1/2 the price of 100g so it's your best value for your money if you just want to try and not commit to 100g. The 25g samples are significantly more then 1/4 the price of 100g.
Any way you go should be alright as long as you feel comfortable going that way. Their teas are pretty solid from what I have ordered so far.
Re: organic TGY?
I recently made an order from them and I included some automn TGY, I will receive it in 2 weeks max. I had a very good experience with them, they sell very good tea for a decent price, I remember their An Ji Bai cha was great, and Tai Ping Hou Kui also.
Re: organic TGY?
I am not sure if this is the tea being talked about, but I wouldn't call Rishi's "Iron Goddess of Mercy" a TGY –though I know they do. It a darkly roasted soft-stem oolong from Nantou. None of JTS's are, as far as I can tell, dark roasts, so they probably won't be anything like Rishi's.