Longjing questions?

[StavA]

Been dipping my toes into the Chinese Greens...

What is the shelf life of Longjing? I see some online vendors selling some from 2014. Is this still good stuff or should that be avoided?

And who are your favorite vendors for Longjing?

thank you in advance for any help.

Stav

[John Li]

What is the shelf life of Longjing?

The shelf life of Longjing is around 1 year.

And who are your favorite vendors for Longjing?

Usually, I buy Longjing and other green teas here
http://tea-store.co.uk/product-category/tea/green-tea/

[Proinsias]

+1 I'd just add that good storage helps a lot. It can deteriorate quite quickly once opened.

Master Luo's Long Jing from Postcard teas makes a nice cuppa.

[John Li]

Master Luo's Long Jing from Postcard teas makes a nice cuppa.

too expensive

[Proinsias]

It is expensive side but Stav asked for favourite vendors of long jing and the past 3 years or so this has been my favourite, I only tend to buy 25g a year. The laoshan green is a little more budget friendly for regular drinking.

[John Li]

I understand you
I prefer to buy Longjing in Tea Store, they have a high-quality tea and moderate price. You should try it and then you can drink Longjing every day

[Proinsias]

Will give it shot, I kinda gave up on looking for everyday long jing a while back. I just bought a little of the above stuff & went with mao jian, bi lo chun or a few others for day to day drinking.

[StavA]

How is Yunnan Sourcing for greens? As I am in NY it seems strange for me to buy Chinese tea in from the UK...
?

[FiveStar]

YS has awesome greens! I love their various Mao Feng offerings, and really enjoyed the Zhen Mai, Long Mei, and Yunnan Silver Strands. I have their Bao Hong is on my next order list for sure. Looks similar to a Long Jing, and I love me some dragonwell.

[John Li]

As I am in NY it seems strange for me to buy Chinese tea in from the UK...
?

Why do you think so?
It doesn't matter where you will buy tea, more important the quality of tea.

[StavA]

As I am in NY it seems strange for me to buy Chinese tea in from the UK...
?

Why do you think so?
It doesn't matter where you will buy tea, more important the quality of tea.

Good question.

One reason is the absurd carbon foot print of the tea making a stopover in the UK.

Two is the extra margin that must be built into the cost to cover the shipping, handling and profit of the UK tea seller.

Three is the extra time elapsed from plucking to selling for the tea to not only make it to the UK but for it also to be documented and marketed on their website.

But really issue #2 is what really troubles me. I suspect the UK re-seller is probably building as much margin into the price as the original farmer.

[John Li]

Sometimes I saw that UK tea sellers sell tea the same price like Chinese tea seller, also sometimes I saw that the Chinese tea seller sells tea even expensive.

[StavA]

Sometimes I saw that UK tea sellers sell tea the same price like Chinese tea seller, also sometimes I saw that the Chinese tea seller sells tea even expensive.

Yes. I am a but mystified by how the prices are calculated. My hope is that there are meaningful differences behind the prices, but obviously it may be largely due to people being more ambitious in seeing what type of profits they can cull from the internet.

In general, I am assuming there is greater value dollar for dollar for buying direct from China simply because a UK seller has to add a significant mark up to pay for the far more expensive salary and business expenses of the UK.

But, yes, this is an assumption that I can not verify. I may simply be falling prey to very gutsy Chinese sellers who are way over pricing mediocre stuff.

[bilochun]

taiwanteacrafts has some good long jing

[William]

taiwanteacrafts has some good long jing

Despite I do not particularly like anymore their Oolong, I must say that their Long Jing (bought last year) was of surprisingly good quality, even with a low price (that is rare among Chinese greens).