Your Everyday Green Tea?

[Thirsty Daruma]

It's nice to have a delicacy every now and again - a green tea that makes your wallet balk. But I drink about 72 oz. of tea in a day, and even with relatively inexpensive prices, drinking that much fancy tea a day can give my budget a headache.

I've bound an everyday style tea for most every other sub-type of tea except green. I've been trying straight gunpowder and pi lo chun as my everyday green tea, but I don't think I'm enthusiastic enough about these teas to make them my green staple.

What's your green tea for everyday drinking?

[Jack_teachat]

If you like sencha I can recommend Uji no Tysuyu gold label (if you can get hold of it) or O-Cha's daily sencha. I would say it's definitely harder to find a good cheaper Chinese green than Japanese green. Although, I am fairly inexperienced with Chinese greens so maybe someone else can point you in the right direction. good luck!

[Salsero]

Jing Teashop (the Chinese one, not the UK one) has a section they call Everyday Greens. They currently have two offerings at $4.00 and at $6.00 for 100 grams, which doesn't seem extremely cheap, but less than the premo stuff. A couple years ago I got one of their everyday greens and liked it, but I just don't drink enough tea to stock an everyday thing.

[omegapd]

I like Adagio's Kukicha when I want the vegetable type flavor and Adagio's Green Pekoe when I want the sweet Chinese flavor.

[Pentox]

I sample through so many teas nowdays that my normal is just working on finishing off what I've opened. If I had to stick to a single daily tea though I would go with SA's sencha or lupicia's chiran yutakamidori or nara tsukigase. I might go for o-cha's ym as well.

[silverneedles]

yunnan green from YSLLC
or
BLC bi luo chun (not from YS)

[Geekgirl]

yunnan green from YSLLC
or
BLC bi luo chun

Which grade of bi luo chun are you getting from ysllc? And is it "okay for a daily" or "YUMMY BEST EVER!!!"?

(in the market)

[silverneedles]

ah, didn't write that well - didn't get BLC from YS yet

now i have a BLC from PuerhShop, gonna start it soon

[Wesli]

Try these, they're all right around the $12/100g mark. It's the cheapest sencha goes while still being drinkable. I only drink about 4 tsp of green a day, so my "everyday" is in the $22/100g range.

Hibiki-an: I'm not too fond of Hibiki-an teas, but these prices are low enough so that what I think doesn't even matter.
Sencha Superior (200g/7.06oz) - $25
Sencha Fukamushi Superior (200g/7.06oz) - $24
Sencha Karigane (200g/7.06oz) - $21


Den's
Sencha Fuka-midori (2oz/56g) - $6.50
Green Kukicha (2oz/56g) - $6.00
Mecha (2oz/56g) - $6.00

Karigane/kukicha and sencha are very good for blending. So these two cheap teas can be put together in different ratios to give a significant variety.

[JRS22]

Wesli - can you compare the Hibiki-an Sencha Karigane and the Den's Green Kukicha?

The kukicha has been my everyday Japanese tea for months, and I've been curious about the difference between that and the Karigane.

Janice

[Proinsias]

My favourite was mao jian from Jing. I think it was around $4 and was really good, I would have had no idea I'd been ripped off if it was 3 or 4 times the price.

This is probably not much help to you as they no longer sell it.

Funalliance is good for cheap everyday tea, Kam has some mao jian at around $5 for 3.5oz at the moment. I've always found the teas good value for money, not quite connoisseur tea at not quite connoisseur prices.

[Salsero]

Maiko has low prices also, especially if you avoid the fast delivery they assume you want. Their RAM regular airmail is still very fast and makes the net cost a lot more attractive. I have had one Matcha and one shincha and they were both quality product. I second Proinsias' assessment of Funalliance, Kam's got nothing to turn your nose up at.

Someone said shizuokatea.com has an attractive value proposition but I have never tried anything of theirs.

[Wesli]

Wesli - can you compare the Hibiki-an Sencha Karigane and the Den's Green Kukicha?

The kukicha has been my everyday Japanese tea for months, and I've been curious about the difference between that and the Karigane.

Janice

I haven't had this years Hibiki Karigane, but last years was incredible. I would rank Hibiki-an's Karigane over all karigane and kukicha I've tried.

From what I've had, karigane is generally more potent in flavor, more tart and savory. Kukicha can be slightly more earthy/dry grass.

[JRS22]

I've just been to the Hibiki-An website and they also carry Gyokuru Karigane Superior at $27 for 200 grams which sounds even better than the Sencha Karigane. I could afford to drink that every morning. I'll have to order it when I midway through my next bag of Den's kukicha so I have some left for comparison tasting.

[gingkoseto]

I don't drink green tea every day, because I don't always have time in the morning and don't drink tea after 4pm.
But, the green tea I adore the most, so far, is Yellow Mountain Peak (huang shan mao feng). It's from high elevation area of Yellow Mountain region and the tea tree grow in cool to cold mist year around. The tea tastes like mountain clouds

I also like Dragon Well very much. But dragon well is popular and expensive. Usually with the same price, you can get Superior Grade Yellow Mountain Peak but only Grade 2 Dragon Well.

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