Chinese Teas

[edcat7]

There are so many different varieties of Chinese teas available:

A friend on this forum introduced me to Jasmine Pearl, the fragrance I could smell a long way off.

Recently an aunt introduced me to Iron Buddha but infused with rose buds; my current favourite.

Do others have recomendations?

[stacote]

My all time favorite is Lapsang Souchong. It's a black tea from the Fujian province with a wonderful smokey smell and flavor. As one tea shop owner said to me, "If you like single malt whisky and Cuban cigars then this is the tea for you!". I was sold at "Single Malt....".

[edcat7]

I think you drink Lapsang Souchong to keep you warm during the Canadian winters. I personally don't like the taste of it but used it for smoking duck. Now single malt whisky.....

[Blue]

I drink a lot of sugar-free this each day:



This is also quite good and contains red wine extract:


As you can see, 7-Eleven Taiwan has a pretty large selection of tea, including unsweetened tea:
www.7net.com.tw/7net/rui004.faces?catid=34368

[davidmdahl]

At times I have enjoyed Jasmin Pearl tea and Crysanthemum Flower tea. Lately though I have been drinking cups and cups of Market Spice Orange Cinnamon tea and Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice. Both are pretty intense and sugar-free, but not Chinese.

[stacote]

Jan 2, 2013 11:58:44 GMT edcat7 said:

I think you drink Lapsang Souchong to keep you warm during the Canadian winters. I personally don't like the taste of it but used it for smoking duck. Now single malt whisky.....

You may be very correct. As a young fellow my Boy Scout troup commissioned a full size tipi from one of the Native groups in the Rocky Mountains. We'd go camping in the winter with our tipi and of course we'd all come home well smoked as the fire was in the center of our abode...just like in the movies...I think that's where my love of Lapsang Souchong might come from...the Single Malt came later, we upstanding young men weren't allowed

Another Asian tea I like is "Tra Dia Loan" and of course there's that old standby "Gun Powder".

[edcat7]

Oh! how romantic to live a life out of a Jack London novel. I've not heard of Tra Dia loan tea before.

[ziman]

Recently, I have had the good fortune to encounter a succession of good pu-erh teas.

First came a 1995 vintage "raw" loose-leaf pu-erh, which had a delightfully complex flavour topped off with an aroma like camphor smoke.

Then came across a big lot of loose leaf pu-erh from 1996 which I got for half-price because the tea shop was holding a stock clearance. Very smooth, slightly earthy, nice to drink on cold days.

And then came two more pu-erh bings (compressed disc-shaped tea cakes) from 2007 and 2009, which tasted like the 1995 loose leaf I just mentioned, but more subtle.

What more to say, I'm blessed


Another good tea I have encountered, though not recently (this was about six months ago) is da yu ling (大禹岭), a Taiwanese oolong. If you ever come across any, try it. It really is something special. (genuine ones, I mean; this tea is apparently famous enough that fakes are common)

[edcat7]

The jury is still out whether Taiwan or the Fujian Provience, China, makes the best teas. Those disc shaped tea cakes really are an indication of it's quality. Try Crysanthemun with your pu-erh. Wonder if Allen can tell us more about da yu ling tea?

[davidmdahl]

The tea house in the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland where I sometimes play, is operated by The Tao of Tea. They have an amazing range of fine teas.

www.taooftea.com/index.php

I enjoy tea, but can't claim to be much of a connoisseur of the rare and expensive varieties. When I am playing in the tea house, or somewhere else in the Garden, they bring me whatever is in the pot, and it is usually wonderful. I do like their Jasmine Pearls and Chrysanthemum teas. Usually though, I don't even know what I am drinking.

[Blue]

[Blue]

There's always a gray area if the tea actually hails from a certain location. What if the tea is grown on the foothills of the mountain rather than on the mountain itself?

There's another place that grows tea, which is 坪林, but there has been accusations that the tea quality has been affected by the nearby 雪山隧道 (Snow Mountain Tunnel), which is a 13km 4-lane total freeway tunnel. The tunnel suffers from water leakage, which allegedly drains the water away from the soil of the tea growing region. It's also close to a place that dongsiau maintains a cottage or château . . . .

[Blue]

I like fruity teas such as roselle tea (洛神花茶) and pomegranate leaves tea. I'll roll my eyes if anybody here likes pearl milk tea (it yields horrible indigestion). I had TWG tea and scones at IFC mall in Hong Kong once with somebody nearly a year ago. The manager was a white person and I had the feeling that he wanted to kick us out before closing time:

This was the place:
www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=78323

In Taiwan, there's www.rosehouse.com.tw/
Unfortunately, their warm dishes seem to be microwaved.

And then there's Ten Ren tea stores everywhere in Taiwan where different ingredients and tea are mixed as if it was a cocktail.
www.tenren.com/
mytenren.com/
Ten Ren also operates restaurants throughout Taiwan serving health-conscious meals.