Kyarazen on Tea/Incense.

[kyarazen]

Merry Christmas everyone!

just a little pre-christmas article : a recent tea survey/experiment and the results

http://www.kyarazen.com/traditional-don ... xperiment/

together with an opportunity for you to procure teas or reasonably sized samplers directly from the farmer/tea maker without a middleman

[hopeofdawn]

Intriguing article--and definitely a tea purveyor I'd love to check out. Quick question--does Chen speak Cantonese? And if I sent him an e-mail, would using Google translate make things easier or even harder to figure out?

[puyuan]

If those oolongs you sent me are from this maker (the sealed one for sure is, isn't it?), I can attest their quality

[pedant]

fantastic article and cool experiment. thanks for investing the time and money. very disappointing that only half of the people completed the survey though.

quick question: from where is the 37.5g "ounce" derived? 1 jin of 600g / 16?

[bliss]

This looks and sounds great. Thanks for sharing Kyara! I'll try to send off an order within the next few days.

Cheers,
Daniel

[kyarazen]

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year in 2016 folks~

Intriguing article--and definitely a tea purveyor I'd love to check out. Quick question--does Chen speak Cantonese? And if I sent him an e-mail, would using Google translate make things easier or even harder to figure out?

Hmm.. i dont think he speaks cantonese but he speaks chinese and taiwanese dialect. google translate is strange, but it should be ok to email him in english, it will be slow for him to read and understand, but I think it is ok for him to put some effort into communicating

This looks and sounds great. Thanks for sharing Kyara! I'll try to send off an order within the next few days.

Cheers,
Daniel

you are welcome! i was initially quite hesitant about sharing direct contacts, its not easy to discover a traditional tea maker that doesnt cut corners, and yet willing to work on selling direct to consumers even in small quantities, and even accept paypal for my convenience. but since I was not really considering to be a tea merchant myself, and perhaps not in the near future, together with some of the articles that I had read, on the conditions of tea plantations (& how little they earn) in darjeeling and many other parts of the world.. it made me wish that there was an easier way for people to access teas straight from the plantations themselves.

fantastic article and cool experiment. thanks for investing the time and money. very disappointing that only half of the people completed the survey though.

quick question: from where is the 37.5g "ounce" derived? 1 jin of 600g / 16?

thanks for appreciating the article i think social experiments are cool perhaps i should conduct more on incenses and tea :X bah! if only i did know who the non-respondents are i should put them into the "black list" :X

the 37.5g ounce is derived from the taiwanese definition of 1 Jin which is 600g, and 1 jin = 16 liang or 16 taiwanese ounces, so it would be 37.5g. i think it is a nice size for several sessions

If those oolongs you sent me are from this maker (the sealed one for sure is, isn't it?), I can attest their quality

yup they are and I have to say that his bug bitten tea this year is quite on the top of things, at least a few of times better than the spring/regular if assessed on complexity, aromatics, body and roast. i know its hard to imagine, will send you a sample if i happen to pop a new pack! just finished a 150g pack, and still contemplating if i should pop one of the remaining 3. worried that my taste was biased, I brought it to one of the most critical local tea masters for his assessment and it was a sigh of relief when he said that the tea fulfilled the classical and historical "deer valley" fragrance that he had been fond of in the early 90s, and was a taste that was long-lost in this region for more than a decade when traditional techniques were abandoned.

btw, I cannot remember if it was you whom enquired or another person, but Chen also can supply Sanhetang's Pu-er Teas as well, he's well connected to Tony of SHT and carries some of their cakes or teas on order basis. Other exotic teas like Fushoushan teas can also be procured, but i still prefer buying the tea he makes from his own plantations. occasionally with my tea orders I do get him to help me buy something else from taiwan, i.e. teaware, teapots, snacks etc and ship it with the tea, so if there is something taiwanese that you want, it could be possible to pay him a deposit to help you buy it

[pedant]

also beautiful Gisui kyusu! i think i recognize it.

[kyarazen]

also beautiful Gisui kyusu! i think i recognize it.

yes! had quick fingers.. :X

the size is just right for my handling

[puyuan]

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year in 2016 folks~

If those oolongs you sent me are from this maker (the sealed one for sure is, isn't it?), I can attest their quality

yup they are and I have to say that his bug bitten tea this year is quite on the top of things, at least a few of times better than the spring/regular if assessed on complexity, aromatics, body and roast. i know its hard to imagine, will send you a sample if i happen to pop a new pack! just finished a 150g pack, and still contemplating if i should pop one of the remaining 3. worried that my taste was biased, I brought it to one of the most critical local tea masters for his assessment and it was a sigh of relief when he said that the tea fulfilled the classical and historical "deer valley" fragrance that he had been fond of in the early 90s, and was a taste that was long-lost in this region for more than a decade when traditional techniques were abandoned.

btw, I cannot remember if it was you whom enquired or another person, but Chen also can supply Sanhetang's Pu-er Teas as well, he's well connected to Tony of SHT and carries some of their cakes or teas on order basis. Other exotic teas like Fushoushan teas can also be procured, but i still prefer buying the tea he makes from his own plantations. occasionally with my tea orders I do get him to help me buy something else from taiwan, i.e. teaware, teapots, snacks etc and ship it with the tea, so if there is something taiwanese that you want, it could be possible to pay him a deposit to help you buy it

The citric notes you can extract from that tea are worth the price alone... And I'll definitely ask for a little of the bug-bitten tea when I contact him.
Good news, there are actually a few taiwanese cakes I want to get. Thanks, kz!

[kyarazen]

:O its another year!

new ramblings on Wuyi cliff tea's up on the site at kyarazen.com

[Bok]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to increase our knowledge!
On another note, it seems to me I better stick to my Taiwanese teas, better value for money and less chance of getting ripped off

[ethan]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to increase our knowledge!
On another note, it seems to me I better stick to my Taiwanese teas, better value for money and less chance of getting ripped off

+1

[kyarazen]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to increase our knowledge!
On another note, it seems to me I better stick to my Taiwanese teas, better value for money and less chance of getting ripped off

i think value for money is subjective though. we went to wuyi mountains and returned with a five figure sum worth of tea. on the other hand.. when every trip to taiwan.. we came back not so much with tea but more wares

[ethan]

i think value for money is subjective though. we went to wuyi mountains and returned with a five figure sum worth of tea. on the other hand.. when every trip to taiwan.. we came back not so much with tea but more wares

How much tea did buy at wuyi mountains for that five-figure sum?

Perhaps you bought as much tea in Taiwan as you did in China though you spent much more $ for the tea in China.

Sometimes I am surprised when I look at records. Memory is quite subjective. Sometimes we may overvalue quality; sometimes we get overly excited about saving a little $.

Perhaps it is better not to look at one's records because it can lead to disappointment in oneself. E.g last January I bought an oriental beauty that cost 4 x as much as another oriental beauty that was only slightly inferior to the much more expensive one. In October I bought a lot of an oriental beauty that was only slightly cheaper than a better one that I bought in a much smaller quantity.

I write notes about how I feel about teas as well as financial details because I want to be able to avoid big mistakes. Big mistakes for me are when I balk at paying a little more for something that is much better quality; or, when I pay a lot more for something that is only a tiny bit better quality. I try to understand what I VALUE over time, as value is subjective, changing ...... I'm rambling. Cheers

[jayinhk]

There's also nothing quite like good Wuyicha...if you want to drink the good stuff, it gets expensive. Thanks for the post kyarazen...very interesting look @ Wuyishan. I was supposed to fly to Fuzhou earlier this year, but got sick and couldn't go.