• RTea
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  • Registered: 2008-12-06
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Topic: Tea-related wish list

Around this time every year, I start to get antsy about wanting to try some of the teas that people online rave about.  Not the mango black tea that Sally says "is to die for," I mean the good stuff that people in the know are talking about.

I haven't quite finished my list yet, but there are a few puerh from Hou De that I'd like to try, some of Imen's new Dancong (that should be coming in tomorrow), as well as a 1986 Dong Ding from J-Tea.  In addition, I'd to get back to Asia for the Happy Farmer's latest Alishan and Baozhong offerings. 

I'm curious about what's on everyone's wish list.  Is there something that you've always wanted to try, or a product at a teashop somewhere that's piqued your curiosity?  If money, access and supply weren't considerations, what would be something that you'd really want to get your hands on? 

It's fun to tea-dream once in a while.

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  • Oni
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Re: Tea-related wish list

I plan, I buy, I enjoy. Just get systematic when buying tea, just don`t run out of tea, and don`t open too many green tea packs. I currently plan to seek out the 10 most famous teas of china. Sofar I ordered Tai Ping Hou Kui from Hojo, he sent me pictures from the farm, the leaves look as good as it gets.

  • RTea
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Re: Tea-related wish list

Oni, good goal.  Which list for the 10 famous teas were you planning to buy off of?  Biluochun and Tieguanyin are my favorites.

I haven't tried Hojo teas before.  I like his website, there's a lot of good information on there.  Have you tried anything from him that you've found to be particularly special or tasty?

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  • Oni
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Re: Tea-related wish list

I must admit their Tai Ping Hou Kui was really beautiful, many leaves on a twig, and bud too, and the stem is light almost transparent green, one thing you don`t see at other TPHK, and I don`t have the necesery experience with oolong to say how Hojo`s taiwanese oolongs were, but I brewed their ali shan jing xuan, and after the first cup when I exhaled slowly I could feel the aroma of the tea coming back from my throat, I had this experience only with high quality Tie Guan Yin, and it was cramy textured, and the lots of leaves on a twig, handpicked leaves, his prices are relative to where you are, but such a quality Tai Ping Hou Kui is worth a 100$/100 gramm, if brewed strong it has great gan, the fakes never have gan, it is subtle but the aftertaste is longer, I eat the leaves and it was like salad, it had diffrent texture than the others I tried before.

  • Registered: 2009-02-15
  • Posts: 32

Re: Tea-related wish list

I'm trying to work my way though Hou De's oolongs especially the aged and the Wuyi.  Then I want to try all of nada's sheng thats older than 2000.  And I haven't even started ordering from The Tea Gallery, lots of good stuff there.  I have heard good things about Imens Dan Congs, so I also need to give those a try.  All in all there seems to be way to much tea, and not enough money or time.

Thats not even coming close to the teaware, I'm in the process of trying to find some Qing dynasty porcelain cups, and I need to get a yixing for aged Sheng.

6 Reply by RTea (edited by RTea 2009-07-10 04:25:09)

  • RTea
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Re: Tea-related wish list

I wrote to Akira Hojo and asked for a price list - be happy to pass it around to anyone that's interested.  Oni, you're right, his prices are quite fair, but his shipping might kill me!  I'm quite interested in some of his Japanese greens, as well as some of his aged oolongs.  His 30 year aged Dong Ding is priced at roughly $1/gram, which is quite cheap if it's good stuff. 

I ordered two things from Hou De off of my tea wishlist yesterday, a sample of the 1998 Menghai uncooked cake and a few ounces of his Hong Shui oolong.  I have been wanting to try Tea Gallery's Song Dynasty Royal Tree oolong, but the shipping added another $12 to the price, so I decided to wait a bit.  Also got a few teas from Red Circle that I'm curious about.  I don't think Imen's new Dancongs are online yet, but I bet they'll be really good values.

I saw on tea chat that some people are doing a box pass of teas.  I think that's a great idea.  Maybe someday, we can do a small version of that here too.  I've got some solid Dong Ding and Tieguanyin, some good high mountain teas from Floating Leaves, and some more samples coming my way from various places.  If I can make it to J-Tea sometime at the end of this month, I might be able to pick up some of his aged stuff that's pretty good too. 

@Adam - I got a porcelain Qing cup from Arts De Chine in Vancouver for $25 CDN.  I trust Daniel and his prices are tough to beat.  He's got a few different styles depending on what Qing period the piece is from.  You can see the Qing cup I got on the blog post here:
Cup Competition Post

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  • Registered: 2009-01-03
  • Posts: 49

Re: Tea-related wish list

I have a long wish list :D 
It's mainly out of curiosity that my wish list contains mostly tea varieties that I've never had, not more expensive products of my familiar varieties. I've just ordered from China some "white bud qi lan" （白芽奇兰）and Lao Jun Mei (老君眉） off my wish list.
There are dozens of green teas that I would like to try but oolong is always more convenient to get and to keep.

門前塵土三千丈，不到薰爐茗碗旁
  • RTea
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Re: Tea-related wish list

biloba wrote:

There are dozens of green teas that I would like to try but oolong is always more convenient to get and to keep.

Agreed! 

The teas you bought sound interesting, please share tasting notes if you have them!

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  • Registered: 2009-01-03
  • Posts: 49

Re: Tea-related wish list

I am not good at tasting notes. But let me try -
The white bud qi lan I had, dry tea leaves had more obvious "orchid fragrance" than TGY (they always call TGY fragrance "orchid" even though I've never got such fragrance from real orchid). When put in pre-heated gaiwan, before brewing, the fragrance is even stronger. In the first 3 infusions or so, there is very explicit fragrance. Compared with TGY, Qi Lan's tea water taste is some what "thicker". The tea last for about 7 infusions. It brought strong sweet aftertaste.

Overall I think it's definitely better than TGY in its price range. The critiques on Qi Lan mainly include, 1) it's taste is not as "clear" as TGY and is heavier (I am not sure if that's the "thicker" taste I experienced); 2) it's fragrance is very explicit (while most Chinese drinkers like more "implicit" fragrance". The seller warned me of the "thicker" taste when I bought the tea, but I found it ok probably because I like heavier taste. I guess the fragrance of this tea could be a bit overwhelming for green tea drinkers. But if one likes heavier-flavor tea (dan cong, black tea...), they may like this tea very much.

An interesting phenomenon is, in southern Fu Jian, when people make tea from different varieties, they often try their best to make their tea taste similar to TGY. Obviously TGY is the favorite variety. But it's an interesting question to ponder that, would tea drinkers love more varieties of tastes, or would they love less expensive products made from other varieties that have TGY taste?

門前塵土三千丈，不到薰爐茗碗旁