TEA disorder

M

Mark Anisman

Mark Anisman
good day to all,
i enjoy Darjeeling teas, first flush more so than second flush. i purchase from Upton Tea Imports ( https://www.uptontea.com/ ).
to broaden my horizons :
other tea companies that you favor, and of course, why? does it really matter which company you use, assuming that they are of high quality like Upton?
Darjeeling teas that you are fond of?
thank you, Mark
 
i went down the tea rabbit hole many years ago. I buy from Upton exclusively. Properly brewed first flush Darjeelings make life worth living.
 
if I may hijack your thread on a tangent, a Yamato Sencha from Upton that cost me 60% more than the usual Sencha I get from them was 2-3 times better, easily. I was thinking of similar inflection points on wine qpr curves - you know, where we pay 50% more to get 3 times the wine, and then, at a very different price point, where we pay 3 times more to get a 10% better wine.
 
Over the years, I have bought a few teas from Song Tea & Ceramics in San Francisco and been very happy with results. They specialize in teas from China and prices are definitely on the high side, sometimes very high. Not sure they would match your optimum desired QPR, though.

Song Tea & Ceramics
 
thank you Andrew for the Song Tea referral. will save on a bookmark...
Pavel : Sencha Special Grade Yamato? Is it a bother to steep at 160 degrees? not that we can't all do with a little fussiness at times, but seems a chore? my convenience is that i drip the water straight into the Bodum from my coffee maker for steeping the Darjeeling ...
thank you Bill from sparing me a rabbit hole adventure!
 
Mark and Pavel,
For the past 20-odd years, we’ve purchased Sencha from Ippodo, a legendary Kyoto tea shop that for the past 5-6 years has had an NYC outlet, too. We brew it at 80 C (176 F) which is easily achieved with an electric tea kettle.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by Mark Anisman:
TEA disordergood day to all,
i enjoy Darjeeling teas, first flush more so than second flush. i purchase from Upton Tea Imports ( https://www.uptontea.com/ ).
to broaden my horizons :
other tea companies that you favor, and of course, why? does it really matter which company you use, assuming that they are of high quality like Upton?
Darjeeling teas that you are fond of?
thank you, Mark
Click to expand...

I used to enjoy Makaibari first flush Darjeeling quite a bit. Obviously water temp and brew time influence the final result significantly, as has been pointed out by others.

Terry Theise had a lot to say about Darjeeling last year. You can read that on his blog part 1 and part 2.

Having worked at a restaurant with a good tea program, I learned that a quick wash of the tea with hot water before brewing was important. At the beginning, people were a bit shocked that (a) they had to pay for tea (b) a good pot of tea was not cheap.
 
https://redblossomtea.com/ is my go to and mostly green teas.

I haven't been drinking as much tea the last few years, but maybe I should get back.

For green teas, they're all good but I always had some Pre-rain Dragonwell around.
For black teas, I enjoyed the Gold Thread Reserve and Formosa Red Assam.
For Oolong, the Fu Shou Shan was a favorite, but I never had any losers but I stuck to Formosa.
For white tea, the Xin Gong Yi was my standard, but I would grab a silver needle every now and then.

I never got into the Pu-erh or aged teas.

The best thing about the green, white, and Oolong teas is that they could be multiply infused throughout the day and so that's what I did without getting to caffeine overload.

h/t to Peter Liem for turning me on to these cats.
 
originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
if I may hijack your thread on a tangent, a Yamato Sencha from Upton that cost me 60% more than the usual Sencha I get from them was 2-3 times better, easily. I was thinking of similar inflection points on wine qpr curves - you know, where we pay 50% more to get 3 times the wine, and then, at a very different price point, where we pay 3 times more to get a 10% better wine.
Click to expand...

Sure, although it cost more than the usual Sencha, it is about $30 for ½ lb on their website, which in the high-quality tea world is very inexpensive.
 
Like everything, prices have gone up, but I feel Upton has increased their pricing since they got bought out several years ago. Packaging sizing has decreased too, so you might not catch those increases. Try Simpson & Vail, a family owned business in CT. Their selection isn't as extensive as Upton, but they have some interesting teas.
 
There isn't a tea in the house that does not get multiple infusions. The only difference is in the results :-)
A record was recently set by a Yunnan Golden Needle (also from Upton) that was still great on day 2 and decent on day 3, and technically it's not an Oolong. They sell it as a black, but if anything it reminds me more of what was once sold to me at Mariage Frères (you gotta drop by if you go to Lavinia, no?) as a red tea - a category that Upton does not list.
 
thanks to mark e and jay for the references to buying directly from Darjeeling. i have not done the calculations, but given the high cost of shipping from India, does it work out to be pretty even?
 
We pretty much solely drink from the Keemun from Good Coffee Company in Seattle, a pre-Starbucks stalwart (and I mean pre-Starbucks store one). I have no idea of the details, but it's delicious.
 
originally posted by mark e:
originally posted by Mark Anisman:
TEA disordergood day to all,
i enjoy Darjeeling teas, first flush more so than second flush. i purchase from Upton Tea Imports ( https://www.uptontea.com/ ).
to broaden my horizons :
other tea companies that you favor, and of course, why? does it really matter which company you use, assuming that they are of high quality like Upton?
Darjeeling teas that you are fond of?
thank you, Mark
Click to expand...

I used to enjoy Makaibari first flush Darjeeling quite a bit. Obviously water temp and brew time influence the final result significantly, as has been pointed out by others.

Terry Theise had a lot to say about Darjeeling last year. You can read that on his blog part 1 and part 2.

Having worked at a restaurant with a good tea program, I learned that a quick wash of the tea with hot water before brewing was important. At the beginning, people were a bit shocked that (a) they had to pay for tea (b) a good pot of tea was not cheap.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mark. That made for very interesting reading. I used to buy the Phuguri from TeaGschwendner and wondered why it suddenly became unavailable.

The person who originally recommended Thunderbolt to me a few years ago had gotten the recommendation from Terry so I'm not surprised to see him speaking so highly of them.
 
originally posted by Mark Anisman:
thanks to mark e and jay for the references to buying directly from Darjeeling. i have not done the calculations, but given the high cost of shipping from India, does it work out to be pretty even?
Click to expand...

Thunderbolt is having a 50% off sale this weekend with the discount code CHRISTMAS.
 
Postcard Teas in London is well worth a visit to taste and buy, and their international shipping rates are often quite reasonable.
 
originally posted by Jake Parrott:
Postcard Teas in London is well worth a visit to taste and buy, and their international shipping rates are often quite reasonable.
Click to expand...

It is important to point out to our readers that Jake is one of the few people I know who will drop by to pick up some tea in London between a morning appointment in DC and a late afternoon tasting in Boston. Or at least it seems that way.
 
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