Seattle Tea Adventure - International District

[tenuki]

Been down there two weekends in a row now, today I branched out a bit and found 3 really decent tea shops besides Uwajimaya (the place that has a lot of Den's catalog on the shelf...) all in a 3 block radius and some pretty cool shops like MoMo (video).




New Century Tea Gallery


Panama Hotel Tea and Coffee


Seattle Best Tea (no link, I'll take pictures next time) - they were closed by the time I got there.

First 3 PMs with addresses get a small sample package from my adventure..

[brandon]

Wow awesome stuff. I wish we had some nice Asian shops in Philadelphia or Wilmington. You SF and Seattle people incite major jealousy.

This post had 14 page views before I got around to enrolling for samples.
Congrats to the winners.

[Chip]

I cannot imagine if my town had anything worth visiting teawise...It is great to see Tea interest. Thanx for sharing!

[tenuki]

Brandon, Victoria and Proinsias ftw.

[Chip]

Is Victoria a ghost?

[tenuki]

Is Victoria a ghost?

I don't understand this comment.

[tenuki]

Vic, Brandon and Proinsias, I have not forgotten you!

Here are some pics of New Century Tea that I finally downloaded from my phone. Sorry for the poor quality, next time I'll clean off pocket lint from the lens. hahah.












That isn't but half the shop, but should give you some idea....

[Victoria]

Ummmm .... wow

[tenuki]

Whew, finally got these packaged and packed! Forgot to put a guide in the box, so this will have to do:

oblong plain white box: Gong Ting Mao Cha Puerh - special grade of puerh with very small leaves and buds hand processed and fermented in cotton bags in small batches... You must go at least 10 brewings with this tea, it will still be surprising you well past that.

square white origami box with blue stripe: Wu Yi Shui Xian (sometimes spelled Shui Hsien). Mmmmnnn. long lasting, not charcoaly.

plain brown paper/mylar ziplock bag: Mystery chinese green tea. Just make sure you put aside the time and effort to savor this tea, not a daily drinker hope it survives shipping fresh... (brew like dragonwell, only more carefully)

small foil origami box: Formosa Gao Shan from the Fu Shou garden of the Li Shan region. One of the best Li Shan's I've had this year. Just look at those leaves!


I also included two of my ongoing roasting experiments for you to sample:

• Shan Shui teas Baozhong - I hated this tea when I got it, but it twas just stale. I'm liking my first phase roasting of it but it still isn't there. Gonna try another in a week or so then probably seal it in a jar for aging. The tea quality is there the vendor just let it go stale before shipping evidently.
• Adagio Oolong #18 - I got this tin 2 years ago, it went stale a year and a half ago, and I'm having fun bringing it back (it's almost there, better than new IMO, but needs one more go to become 'bam').

I also threw in some other random samples and a peice of food grade bamboo charcoal for you to try in your water when sampling these teas. Just pop it in there just before you boil, and take it out when you are done for reuse. Works great cooking rice too.

Thanks for playing.

[tenuki]

mailed today - will be there by tuesday for Victoria and Brandon, Proinsias in scotland may take a while, the post office guy just shook his head and said 'We'll get it there in 3 days, what they do with it after that is up to them."

[Victoria]

Thanks, I can't wait!

[tenuki]

Thanks, I can't wait!

One of the shop owners threw a organic TKG sample into my bag which reminded me of you, and that is actually what got me thinking of sending people samples from the trip.

[Proinsias]

Sounds good Tenuki.

I was expecting a sample or two. I was really not expecting a selection of teas, with some accompanying home made concoctions and some 'even freer' sample thrown in.

You are fast becoming my vendor of choice.

[Proinsias]

Just tried your mystery green tenuki. Damn that's fine tea. I might have to disregard your comments that it's not a daily drinker. I'm feeling today, tomorrow, the next day and then never again - let the good times roll.

Cheers for all the goodies tenuki.

[Thirsty Daruma]

This looks fantastic. I'll be moving to Seattle in the fall and I don't think these were on the Google Tea Map I made for the occasion. Good scoop tenuki.