Comments on: Only the best teas earn black belts

Only the best teas earn black belts

cubby — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 08:42:12 -0800

Kung Fu Tea! Welcome to the complex world of fine Chinese teas. Unlike the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Gongfu ceremonies are designed to extract as much flavor from the tea as possible. Using tiny clay teapots to brew several small batches of tea, the leaves are coaxed into releasing all of their flavor. While some these pots are highly prized and collectable pieces of art, the tea itself is the most important element. (more inside)

By: cubby

cubby — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 08:46:24 -0800

Pu-erh teas are particularly amazing. Like many kinds of wine, their flavor improves with age and they are often sold by vintage. It can be difficult to find sources of good Chinese tea (at least in the States), but I have found this site to be good. This one has a good selection of pu-erhs.

By: cubby

cubby — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 08:48:24 -0800

You can also use the Tea Map to find tea houses near you if you live in the States.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 08:51:51 -0800

Your Chinese style tea is good. But still. It is no match for my Japanese tea. (read with lips moving out of sync with words.)

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:02:28 -0800

Tea Map has a nice review of my favorite Chinese tea shop, Ching Ching Cha. It's a fancy, classy joint, but they didn't seem to mind when the MrsMoonPie and I came in in our bicycle gear.

By: gurple

gurple — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:08:38 -0800

I'll plug my favorite tea shop, Everything Tea, in Snohomish, WA. They're known for the care they take when shipping tea -- my sister-in-law had good luck ordering from them in Pittsburgh. For the tea ceremony itself, though, Floating Leaves in Seattle is fantastic, and the main guy there is very knowledgeable. They do both Japanese and Chinese ceremonies, I think.

By: catchmurray

catchmurray — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:16:06 -0800

I like to Pu-erh tea.

By: coffeespoons

coffeespoons — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:16:29 -0800

Excellent! My dad brought me one of these clay teapots from China a few months ago and directions on how to prepare the tea, which I promptly forgot. I'd been doing the 'rinse' phase for several minutes instead of seconds. I never even thought of looking it up. And now I have a way to find more tea instead of sending him off to China again. Thanks cubby.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:18:07 -0800

I prefer Indian and Sri Lankan, but there is lots of great Chinese tea. I visited Taiwan once for two weeks and was in tea heaven. Tea shops everywhere! The Taiwanese version (I don't know if the variation is region or what) of the tea ceremony that I saw there was to use two cups per drinker: a taller, thiner one and a shorter, wider one. The tea was poured from the pot to the tall cup and then the drinker poured it into the short cup and then drank it. I assume it was to cool the tea quickly as the water was always as hot as possible (as described in the linked article). Anyway, great post.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:21:22 -0800

The wikipedia article mentions the tall vs short cups: the tall ones are aroma cups.

By: j-dawg

j-dawg — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:29:30 -0800

I tend to poo poo chains, but Ten Ren is a great source for Chinese teas. (Their shops are more impressive than their web site.)

By: jiawen

jiawen — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:47:08 -0800

My favorite variety in Taiwan was Jinxuan tea. It's very light and smooth, with a nearly fruit-like taste. (But it's not fruit tea.) Some more funky teapots from history. The way I saw it done in Taiwan, the main link isn't nearly complicated enough. As it mentions in step 8, you're supposed to douse the pot and cups with hot water first. Also, it completely leaves out a major implement. You should also have narrow, tall cups for the tea; these are snifters, basically, only used for smelling the tea and not for drinking. The first boiling (第一泡) gets poured into the snifters, smelled and appreciated, then dumped out. And there are various other tools and things that I never really understood. A friend of mine took me to Pinglin, in the heart of north Taiwan's tea country, one night. The moon was full, we were at the top of a hill looking down over kelly green terraced tea fields, and there was a reservoir at the bottom of the hill. The moon was so bright, the shadows were all sharp and it was almost like daytime. It feels like a dream in retrospect, but she remembers it too, so it must've been real. Probably my strongest memory about tea in Taiwan. If this is Gongfu, it's only in the most general sense: a skill, a form of mastery. Nothing to do specifically with martial arts, that is.

By: jiawen

jiawen — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:48:10 -0800

Shoulda previewed.

By: dios

dios — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:10:32 -0800

Great post. Thanks! This is a feast of information about one of life's pleasures.

By: fnord

fnord — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:22:01 -0800

This is an awesome post, and has prompted me to find a tea house in my city.

By: Sprout the Vulgarian

Sprout the Vulgarian — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:28:41 -0800

I'd like to plug Necessiteas. I purchased some lovely yixing teapots from them as bridesmaid gifts, and they arrived in perfect condition in beautiful brocade boxes. The prices are surprisingly low on many of them.

By: milovoo

milovoo — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 11:58:21 -0800

I've had good luck with both Rishi-Tea and Adagio. (there were quite a few other recommendations when I asked a long time ago)

By: Earl the Polliwog

Earl the Polliwog — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 01:45:01 -0800

My personal experience with online tea ordering has led me to two places, which I consider the best; Upton Tea and SpecialTeas. Upton's selection is much wider, but SpecialTeas is the best for price, edging out Upton by a little. I've found Adagio's selection not quite as good as either of the two and more expensive. I can't wait to try some of the green puerhs... I'd seen some sites on it before but never an actual store with the stuff for sale. As a total tea geek, this excites me a great deal. Thanks, cubby! Also, looongtime reader, first time posting. Tea posts compel me.